Ueno: Victims of the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet were remembered at the accident site in a mountain in the eastern Japan prefecture of Gunma on Saturday, which marked the 38th anniversary of the tragedy.

Bereaved relatives and others climbed the Osutaka Ridge in the village of Ueno to offer prayers at grave markers with the names of the victims that were erected at places where their remains were found.

The accident, which occurred on Aug. 12, 1985, has been the world’s deadliest single aircraft accident, leaving 520 passengers and crew members dead. Only four people survived. In the incident, JAL Flight 123 crashed into the Osutaka Ridge after leaving Haneda airport in Tokyo for Osaka International Airport in western Japan.

Hitoshi Yoshimura, 49, who lost his father, Kazuo, then 43, in the accident, climbed the mountain with his 19-year-old daughter, Sayaka, for the first time in about 10 years, and told his father’s grave marker, “Watch over my family.”

“I’m glad that I could come,” Yoshimura, from the city of Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, said, after he had been unable to visit the site due to being busy moving from the eastern city of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sayaka, who climbed the mountain for the second time, said: “As I grew up, I learned how catastrophic the accident was. I want to see my grandfather.”

Haruo Nakamura, 80, from the city of Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, which borders Gunma, prayed for his elder sister’s husband, Hiroshi Sada, then 53. “Here I came, at last,” Nakamura said, offering canned beer to Sada’s grave marker.

Nakamura said climbing the mountain is hard for him as he is old now. But he added, “I hope I can come here again next year.”

The 87-year-old sister, Kazuko, was unable to come to the site for the first time, due to illness.

A total of 272 people from 76 families came to climb the Osutaka Ridge on the anniversary, up by 122 from last year.

In recent years, many bereaved relatives chose not to climb, mainly because of their age. Against this background, internet services are offered on the mountain this year, for three days through Sunday, to enable those climbing the mountain to share their experiences with relatives away from the place.

A memorial service was held at a garden built at the foot of the Osutaka Ridge in the evening.

Bereaved relatives joined the memorial service in person for the first time in four years. The event was held on a smaller scale in the last three years due to the pandemic.

Chiho Wakamoto, 58, from the city of Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, gently touched the name of his father, Shoji, on an altar set up for the ceremony and said, “I will be back here again.” Shoji was 50 years old when he died in the accident.

Participants lit candles placed on the altar and offered silent prayers at 6:56 p.m., the time when the accident happened 38 years ago.

JAL President Yuji Akasaka climbed the Osutaka Ridge and offered flowers at a monument for the victims around noon Saturday.

“The biggest issue is how we will pass on lessons from the accident” to future generations, he told reporters after attending the memorial ceremony at the garden.

“No matter how many years pass, I’d like to offer my deep apologies to the victims and their families,” Akasaka said.

Most of JAL’s current employees joined the firm after the accident.

The airline is working to help its employees learn about the accident through memorial climbing to the Osutaka Ridge, the utilization of the firm’s Safety Promotion Center, which exhibits debris from the crashed plane, and interactions with bereaved relatives and JAL employees at the time of the accident, according to Akasaka.

JIJI Press