Russia, Japan discuss missing Soviet troops & Japan burial places

TOKYO, October 5 (Itar-Tass) - Bilateral consultations on
military-memorial cooperation, in progress in Tokyo on Tuesday, discuss
missing Soviet troops and burial places of Japanese POWs in Russia.
They are attended by representatives from the foreign ministries and
other departments. The Russian delegation includes officers of the Defence
Ministry, including chief of the department for immortalisation of the
memory of the fallen in defence of the Fatherland Alexander Kirillin.
Consultations are held in compliance with the Agreement on persons
that were in camps for POWs, concluded back in 1991. The present is the
fourth meeting.
Spokesman of the rear department of the Russian Armed Forces Vladimir
Drobyshevsky told Itar-Tass earlier that during the consultations, the
Russian side will raise the question on a search in the Japanese archives
of information on the fate of 600 Soviet servicemen, found missing in the
battles near Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin-Gol River.
Partners will be also requested to pinpoint whereabouts of single
burial places of Russian POWs who died in Japan after the 1904-1905 war.
The Russian side plans to discuss prospects for signing a document which
would supplement provisions of the operating intergovernmental Agreement,
taking into account experience of military-memorial cooperation with other
countries.
The Japanese side traditionally raises the question at such meetings
on further search for information on POWs who died in camps in the Soviet
Union after the Second World War. They request an access of Japanese
specialists to Russian archives to study appropriate materials, care for
Japanese burial places in Russia and installation of commemoration signs.