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Russian expedition to set out for Kuril island to find Japanese burial places

A tour for reporters will be also organized to make a documentary film about battles of the Soviet army in the Far East in 1945

Traces of war on Shumshu Island ITAR-TASS/Sergei Tsvetkov

Traces of war on Shumshu Island

© ITAR-TASS/Sergei Tsvetkov

ULAN UDE, September 2. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry will send an expedition in September to Shumshu Island (the Kuriles) to find WWII-time Japanese military burial places, Deputy Minister Dmitry Bulgakov told reporters on Tuesday.

The expedition, which is organized with participation of a department for memorials to fatherland defenders, the Russian Search Movement, the Russian Geographical Society and the Culture Ministry, will search for remains of soldiers, care for burial places and gather WWII-time military equipment that will be restored and handed over to museums, the general said.

The main part of the 80,000-strong Japanese army in the Kuriles was based on Shumshu. An infantry division, a tank regiment, an air defense regiment and two airbases were located underground. The garrison had 60 tanks, 27 artillery and 310 machine gun emplacements and about 200 other gun points.

Expedition members, about 50 people, will set out for Shumshu on board a ship of the Pacific Fleet from Kamchatka, where they will arrive by plane from Moscow.

A tour for reporters will be also organized to make a documentary film about battles of the Soviet army in the Far East in 1945.

The expedition will last from September 6 to September 25.

There are no residential sites on the island at present. The settlement of Baikovo was deserted after it was hit by tsunami in 1952.

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