Veterans Affairs Canada
www.vac-acc.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Search
Sitemap
RSS FeedsKorea 1998 Pilgrimage
Yokohama Commonwealth War Cemetery
The Yokohama British Commonwealth War Cemetery, located at Hodogaya near Yokohama, near the port of Tokyo, is the only British Commonwealth Cemetery in Japan. Within the cemetery will be found the Yokohama Memorial and the Yokohama Cremation Memorial.
Yokohama British Commonwealth War Cemetery
The Yokohama Memorial commemorates 20 members of the Undivided Indian Army and the Royal Indian Air Force. The cemetery was constructed by the Australian War Graves Group. It is comprised of four main parts: The United Kingdom section, the Australian section, the Canadian and New Zealand section and the Indian Forces 1939-1945 section.
A Cross of Sacrifice stands in each of the first three sections. In one of the four sections of the cemetery beneath a Cross of Sacrifice, 137 Canadian dead lie with their New Zealand comrades.
Instead of a cross, a specially designed monument in the form of a pylon with four faces dominates the plots in the fourth section. This is inscribed on two faces "Indian Forces 1939-1945", with "India" on one side face and "Pakistan" on the other. In a niche on the north wall of this section are commemorated men who died while serving with the occupation forces in Japan, for whom no burial or cremation information exists. Their names are included in the Yokohama Memorial register.
The Yokohama Cremation memorial is a beautifully designed shrine. An urn contains the
ashes of 335 soldiers, sailors and airmen of the British Commonwealth, the United States
of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands who died as prisoners of war in Japan. Their
names (save for 51 who were not identified) are inscribed on the walls of the shrine, and
the names of the British Commonwealth dead are given in the Yokohama Cremation Memorial
register.
