Relatives commemorated Thursday the 36th anniversary of the Japan Airlines jet crash that claimed the lives of 520 crew and passengers in the world's deadliest single-aircraft accident.
Members of bereaved families, many of them elderly, climbed the steep mountain trail to the Boeing 747's crash site on Osutaka Ridge in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo where they paid their respects and laid flowers at a monument.
Participants were restricted mostly to kin for the second year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is physically demanding. Though every year I think this will be the last time, I want to come as long as I can walk," said Kimiko Yoshida, 87, who lost her 24-year-old daughter Yumiko.
A total of 143 relatives participated in the annual event Thursday, according to Japan Airlines Co., down significantly from over 270 until two years ago.
They laid flowers around the monument erected at the crash site and a bell tolled as the relatives and others prayed for transport safety.
Hiroki Kobayashi, 36, who lost his uncle Hiroyuki Kato, who was 21, brought his 3-year-old son to the site. "If we and the younger generation don't climb (the mountain), the accident will be forgotten," he said.
"I want to tell my son how I felt when I heard about the accident from my grandfather in the hope that my son will climb the mountain by himself in the future," Kobayashi added.
The trail was damaged by a typhoon in 2019 and is currently closed to general climbers as restoration work progresses. Local authorities temporarily suspended the work to allow access to the crash site for bereaved families.
A memorial ceremony was held in the village of Ueno at the foot of the mountain ridge in the evening, with participants observing a moment of silence at 6:56 p.m., the time of the crash.
Only a limited number of people including JAL and municipality officials attended the ceremony, while relatives watched a livestream of the ceremony on the village website.
On Aug. 12, 1985, a packed JAL Flight 123 en route from Tokyo to Osaka, crashed about 40 minutes after takeoff.
The crash claimed the lives of all but four of the 524 crew and passengers on board, many of whom were on their way home to see their families during Japan's Bon summer holiday season.
In 1987, a Japanese government investigation commission concluded that the accident was caused by improper repairs conducted by Boeing Co. on the plane's rear pressure bulkhead, whose rupture blew off the craft's vertical stabilizer and destroyed its hydraulic systems.
