対馬丸撃沈７６年で慰霊祭　生存者「記念館維持を」―沖縄

　太平洋戦争中、沖縄から長崎に向かった学童疎開船「対馬丸」が米潜水艦に撃沈され、学童ら１５００人近くが犠牲となった事件から２２日で７６年を迎えた。那覇市の慰霊碑「小桜の塔」の前で慰霊祭が開かれ、参列者が犠牲者の冥福を祈った。
　新型コロナウイルス感染防止のため、参列者を絞って開かれた慰霊祭では、黙とうをささげた後、対馬丸記念会の高良政勝理事長（８０）が「変則的な慰霊祭になったが、犠牲者のご冥福を祈る」と生存者を代表して追悼の言葉を述べた。
　犠牲者らの資料を展示する対馬丸記念館は新型コロナの影響で一時休館後、来館者が極端に減少しているといい、高良氏は「日本唯一の子供の戦争記念館を維持していかねば」と決意を語った。（2020/08/22-11:45）

A memorial service was held Saturday to mark the 76th anniversary of the tragedy of the Tsushima Maru evacuation ship, in which nearly 1,500 people, including schoolchildren, were killed in a U.S. torpedo attack during World War II.
   Participants prayed for the victims at the "Kozakura no To" monument in Naha, the capital of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa. This year's service had a limited number of participants amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.
   After the participants observed a moment of silence, Masakatsu Takara, 80, a survivor of the attack and head of a group working to prevent the tragedy from being forgotten, said in a speech, "While the memorial service was held under irregular circumstances this year, we'd like to send our prayers to the victims."
   Noting that Tsushima-maru Memorial Museum in Naha had faced a plunge in the number of visitors after it reopened following a temporary closure due to the epidemic, Takara said, "We must keep open Japan's only war memorial museum focusing on children." The museum is now shut again because of the Okinawa prefectural government's state of emergency declaration over the coronavirus
   On the night of Aug. 22, 1944, the Tsushima Maru sank off Akuseki Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, due to the torpedo attack from a U.S. submarine, after leaving a port in Naha for Nagasaki, southwestern Japan, on the previous day.