Japanese cemeteries and cenotaphs

Many Japanese cemeteries 'and cenotaphs' are located outside of Japan for Japanese people who have died in war or other historical events. This article lists graves, tombs and burial places.

History

The oldest known Japantown featuring a Japanese cemetery is in Ayutthaya, Thailand, which was established between the 14th and 18th centuries. The oldest known Japanese national recorded by name and buried outside Japan is the early explorer Yamada Nagamasa.
Wars, particularly World War II, have accounted for a majority of the Japanese burial sites located outside of Japan. There is a cemetery for the Imperial Japanese Navy in Malta, multiple sites for POWs in Siberia, and many Pacific War sites, which include Japanese cemeteries, cenotaphs, and remains in the Nanpō Islands, the Philippines, New Guinea, and other Pacific Islands. There have been multiple efforts by veteran organizations and the Japanese government to return remains to living relatives. The Japanese government's "Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare" conducted a public project to search and collect the remains of war dead to bring the remains back to Japan.
Monuments to victims of the United States' internment of citizens of Japanese ancestry are prevalent in the Western United States.

Asia

Afghanistan

Jalalabad outskirt, Gamberi park: Tetsu Nakamura Doctor Serve Nakamura Memorial Tower, built in Jan. 2020.

Bangladesh

Cemetery in Comilla District, Chittagong Division and other locations; Search and collect the remains project learned 43 tombs are Japanese, searching since 2014. Bangladesh government granted permission to Japan for the collection of remains of war dead in July 2024, then the first collection from tomb of Cemetery in Comilla District to be scheduled for 24 war dead remains in November 2024.

Bhutan

Paro: Burial place with the pagoda of botanist Keiji Nishioka

Cambodia

Phnom Penh: Cenotaph, Haruyuki Takada, a police officer who died in the line of duty while participating in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia in Phnom Penh.
Siem Reap Province: Tomb, Taizo Ichinose
Kampong Thom City, Kampong Thom Province: Atsu Elementary and Junior High School and monument A in a garden bearing the name Atsuhito Nakata. It was built by his father with donations from Japanese people and based on the wishes of the local people.

China

Hong Kong: Japanese cemetery area in Hong Kong Cemetery; 465 tombs of Japanese who died in Hong Kong from 1878 to 1945.
Fangzheng County, Heilongjiang: Sino-Japanese Friendship Forest, originally Fangzheng Japanese Cemetery.
Tengchong, Yunnan: Mountain pass of Japanese tombs, referred to as such by elder people in this area; interred those killed in action in the Battle of Mount Song and Battle of Lamèng･Tengchong at Lamèng, Longling County, Baoshan, Yunnan and Tengchong.

India

Imphal: Cenotaph for Japanese war casualties in the Battle of Imphal).
Worli, Mumbai: Mumbai Japanese cemetery; 3,000 Japanese lived in the Mumbai area to procure cotton in the early Shōwa period. Most of the remains and property of the deceased were brought back to Japan, and the remains of only 30 people remain in Mumbai as of 2008.

Indonesia

Jakarta - Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery: Honors ex-Japanese soldiers of the Pacific War who participated in the Indonesian National Revolution.
Tabanan Regency: Cemetery park that honors Japanese former soldiers of the Pacific War who participated in the Indonesian National Revolution, Taman Pujaan Bangsa Margarana).
Wakde - About 600 Japanese solder remain of Battle of Wakde, only a few number of remain returned to Japan as of August 2025.

Kazakhstan

Karaganda: Burial cenotaph in honor of POWs

Laos

Vientiane Province, Nam Ngum Dam: The grave site of several Japanese engineers surveying possible dam locations who died in December 1960 when their boat overturned. The burial site is in close proximity to the dam.

Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Ipoh Japanese cemetery
Johor Bahru Japanese cemetery
Kuala Lumpur Japanese cemetery. Cenotaph for the people who died on Japan Airlines Flight 715.
Kuala Terengganu Japanese cemetery
Malacca Japanese cemetery
Penang Japanese cemetery

East Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu Japanese cemetery
Kuching Japanese cemetery
Labuan, Borneo, Labuan Peace Park: Monument for war casualties in the Borneo war for the 12,000 men who died during the war in Borneo and the surrounding ocean area. Constructed by the Japanese government with the cooperation of government of Malaysia and the government of Sabah in September 1982.
Miri Japanese cemetery
Sandakan Japanese cemetery
Tawau Japanese cemetery

Mongolia

To resolve the lack of labor, the Mongolian government requested to transfer POWs in October and December 1945, and approximately 12,318 Japanese prisoners were forced to work, from which more than 1,600 have died. There are 16 Japanese cemeteries including those listed below.

Altanbulag Selenge Province Japanese cemetery
Sükhbaatar Japanese cemetery
Ulaanbaatar, Cenotaph of Japanese at Danbadalja and Cenotaph of Japanese, for approximately 1,700 POWs who died after the war ended. They were constructed by the Japanese government in October 2001.)Bojiruburan Japanese cemeteryNanaiha burial

Myanmar

Yangon Japanese cemetery: For Karayuki-san and Pacific War casualties. Monument of Peace, Burma, a peace memorial to the approximately 190,000 Japanese who died during war. It was constructed by the Japanese government in March 1981 before being moved and expanded in size by the Myanmar government in March 1998.)

Nepal

Mustang District: Toru Kondo contributed to the development of the Mustang District.

North Korea

Cemetery and burial place of Japanese who lived in the South Korea area before and after World War II. There are 71 cemeteries and burial places in North Korea.

Suburb of Pyongyang: Yongsan cemetery; 2,421 people evacuated to Pyongyang after the end of World War II, August 15, 1945, and died in the period of October 1945 to April 1946 due to cold temperatures and/or illness.
Hamhung: Cemetery and burial place.

Philippines

One of the bloodiest battlefields of the Pacific War; there are many cenotaphs.

Luzon: Approximately 270 cenotaphs in various locations.
Visayas: Approximately 110 cenotaphs in various locations; Japanese casualties of Battle of the Visayas.
Mindanao: Approximately 20 cenotaphs in various locations; Japanese casualties of Battle of Mindanao.
Leyte: Cenotaph in Tacloban, Ormoc and various locations. approximately 80,000 Japanese killed in action out of 520,000 casualties in the Battle of Leyte. ''Guanyin, Mary, mother of Jesus, is a peace commemoration statue between Asia, including the Philippines, and Japan in the Kanfuraw Hill where Tacloban City hall is located. There is Isao Yamazoe Shrine in Dulag Airfield.
Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Samar: Cenotaph in Dumpao Beach.

Russia (Asia region)

Primorsky Krai: 146 Japanese cemeteries and burial places.
Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai: Cenotaph of a deceased POW father and others.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Oblast: Japanese cemetery, located midway between downtown and the airport.
Smirnykh, Sakhalin Oblast: Cenotaph for Sakhalin-Kuril Islands war casualties
Former Maokacho, Kholmsk, Sakhalin Oblast: Cenotaph constructed at the location of a former Japanese cemetery, by affiliated Maokacho in August 1995.
Nagornaya street, Nakhodka: Japanese cemetery.
Listvyanka, Irkutsky District, Irkutsk Oblast, Khabarovsk: Cenotaph of the Japanese; approximately 60,000 remembered as POWs in Siberia. It was constructed by the Japanese government in July 1995.
Irkutsk Oblast: Cenotaph of approximately 40 buried.
Amur Oblast: Cenotaph of approximately 41 buried.

Taiwan

Tainan: Houkakuji temple's Japanese columbarium. The former Japanese cemetery before was exhumed and displacement took place in 1997. The tomb of Akashi Motojiro was then moved to the cemetery in Sanzhi District, Taipei, other remains were moved to Houkakuji temple in Taichung.
Sanzhi District, Taipei: tomb of Akashi Motojiro
Taipei: Tomb of Mr. Rokushin
Taipei:, Japanese cremated remains morgue
Tainan: Tomb of Yoichi Hatta and his wife.
Kaohsiung: Japanese cemetery in
Hualien County: Japanese cemetery of Houden immigration village
Hualien County: Konohon company communal cemetery
Pingtung County Chouonji temple: At Bashi Channel, Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Kuretake, transport Tamatsu Maru and many other ships that were attacked by the United States Navy during Pacific War time. This area was called the Cemetery of Ships in Japan, where more than 100,000 were killed in action. Japanese veteran Hidetsugu Nakajima survived for 12 days and was saved in August 1944. He self-funded the construction of the Chouonji temple in 1981 to memorialize compatriots. In August 2015, 60 families of the deceased, Taiwanese, and Japanese attended the ceremony.

Tajikistan

Dushanbe, Tajikistan office of United Nations Development Programme: Cenotaph of Yutaka Akino, voluntary participant from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff, killed in duty of United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan.

Thailand

Ayutthaya Japanese cemetery
Kanchanaburi: Cenotaph of Kanchanaburi; Japanese soldiers worked to build Mueang Kanchanaburi District Burma Railway, including POWs of Allies of World War II and workers from Southeast Asia. It was built by Japanese army railway workers in 1944. Epitaph is written in Japanese, English, Malay, Tamil, Chinese and Vietnamese.
Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns - Japanese stage actress Tomoko Kawashita had been murdered in Sukhothai Historical Park in 2007. In 2024, family visited there and her father said somehow cenotaph had been altered.

Uzbekistan

There are 13 Japanese cemeteries in Uzbekistan.

Andijan
Angren
Bekabad
Bukhara
Chirchiq
Fergana
Kokand
Tashkent – Tashkent Japanese POWs in Tashkent Yakkasaray citizen cemetery.

Vietnam

Hội An: Hội An Japanese cemetery memorializing 30 years after the Sakoku and the Japanese started foreign trade by the red seal ships. As a result, Japanese residents of Vietnam could not return to Japan and died there.

Africa

Madagascar

Two cenotaphs of four Japanese Imperial Japanese Navy killed in Battle of Madagascar in Antsiranana, named Diego-Suarez prior to 1975. First cenotaph for two of four Japanese was constructed in 1976 by the Japanese embassy. Second cenotaph of four was constructed by voluntary efforts of war veterans in 1997.

Oceania

Australia

Broome, Western Australia: Burial of approximately 900 Japanese immigrants in the Meiji period from Taiji, Wakayama. The immigrants were in Broome to dive for pearls.
Cowra: Cemetery of Cowra breakout Japanese.
Darwin, Northern Territory: Cenotaph of I-121-class submarine.
Thursday Island, Queensland: Cemetery of Japanese immigrants from the Meiji period to the end of World War II. Primary occupation was diving for pearls.

[Guam]

South Pacific Memorial Park, cenotaph of South Pacific war dead and ossuary built in May 1970.

[Midway Atoll]

Territories of the United States - Tomb of Matagoro SAKURAI in Meiji era

New Zealand

Featherston: cenotaph of Featherston POW camp
Christchurch: cenotaph of those who died in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

Northern Mariana Islands

Banzai Cliff, North end of Saipan: Cenotaph for war casualties in the central Pacific Ocean for 43,000 Japanese killed in action and 12,000 citizens killed in the war regardless of nationality including Japanese migrants to the Saipan, Tinian, Guam islands until the end of the war in 1945. It was constructed by the Japanese government with the cooperation of the Northern Mariana Islands government in March 1974.

Papua New Guinea

Wewak: Cenotaph for war casualties in the New Guinea campaign, It commemorates 130,000 Japanese killed in action and 50,000 residents killed in the war. It was constructed by the Japanese government with the cooperation of Papua New Guinea in September 1980.
Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago: Cenotaph of Japanese killed in action in Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 200,000 killed in action at the Battle of Rabaul. It was constructed by the Japanese government and the Comrades Association in Arms'' in September 1980.

[Marshall Islands]

Majuro: Cenotaph for war casualties in the Pacific Ocean. It was constructed by the Japanese government with the cooperation of the government of Republic of the Marshall Islands in March 1984.
Wotje island, Wotje Atoll: Stele of Sekisei troop death in duty Sekiseitai jyunbotusha no hi of more than 1,000 prisoner from Yokohama prison, in 1939, constructed Wotje Airport and North Field (Tinian) (formerly ''Hagoi aerodrome''

[New Caledonia]

Thio: Burial of 230 Japanese immigrants that came for nickel mining since 1892.
Burial of the crew of Japanese submarine I-17 killed in action

[Palau]

Peleliu: Cenotaph for war casualties in the West Pacific during the war, built in March 1985.

[Saipan]

Banzai Cliff: Cenotaph for war casualties in the Central Pacific, built in March 1974.

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Guadalcanal: Solomon Peace Commemorative Park, Cenotaph for war casualties in the Solomon Islands built in 1998.

North America

Canada

Cumberland, British Columbia: Cumberland Japanese cemetery. Headstones date back to 1901.

Dominican Republic

Dajabón Province: Cemetery of Japanese settlement in the Dominican Republic.

United States

Bronx, New York City: Woodlawn Cemetery. Tomb of Hideyo Noguchi, Jōkichi Takamine, and Ryoichiro Arai, and others.
Brooklyn, New York City: Cypress Hills National Cemetery. Tomb of Shido Yamada, representative of former Sony, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, in New York, and others.
Colma, California: Japanese Cemetery. Contains three Kanrin Maru crew members who died during the first Japanese Embassy to the United States, and others.
Honolulu, Hawaii, Kakaako Waterfront Park: cenotaph of victims of the Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision.
Makiki, Honolulu, Hawaii: Makiki Japanese cemetery built in the early 1900s by Japanese immigrants and the first cemetery of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Manzanar, Owens Valley, Inyo County, California: Tomb and cenotaph is near to the visitor center. The cenotaph was built on 15 cent donations from each family in the camp in August 1943. It also holds the remains of six unidentified people.
Queens, New York City: Mount Olivet Cemetery. Tomb of Toyohiko Takami, who founded the Japanese American Welfare Society with Jōkichi Takamine in 1914.
Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, Placerville, California: Grave of Okei Ito, the first known Japanese woman to be buried on American soil. Died 1871.
Willow Grove Cemetery, New Brunswick, New Brunswick, New Jersey - Taro Kusakabe, Kijiro Hasegawa, Kosuke Matsukata, Jinzaburo Obata, Otojiro Irie, Shinjiro Kawasaki, Tatsuzo Sakatani and Died young eldest daughter of Saburo Takagi and his wife.

South America

Bolivia

Santa Cruz Department: Japanese cemetery in the Santa Cruz de la Sierra public cemetery.

Brazil

São Paulo Álvares Machado Japanese cemetery.
Marajó, Pará: Japanese cemetery.
Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo: Monument to the deceased pioneers of Japanese Immigration

Peru

Cañete Province, Lima Region: Casa Blanca Japanese cemetery.

Europe

Malta

Tomb of casualties of the 2nd Special Squadron in Kalkara Naval Cemetery. Under Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Winston Churchill called for squadron reinforcements of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Russia (Europe region)

Moscow: Donskoy Japanese cemetery in Donskoy Monastery. Tomb of Yasunao Yoshioka, Harbin Consul Funao Miyagawa who died as a POW in Moscow in 1950, and others.

United Kingdom

Wales: Cenotaph of the Hirano Maru that was shipwrecked by U-boat on December 5, 1918. The wooden cenotaph was renewed with stone cenotaph on its 100th anniversary on October 4, 2018.