Volunteer searching for WWII dead in Japanese caves unearths remains of hundreds of people

Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa’s jungle. He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pieces of bone emerge. These are from the skulls, he says, of an infant and possibly an adult.
He carefully places them in a ceramic rice bowl and takes a moment to imagine people dying 80 years ago as they hid in this cave during one of the fiercest battles of World War II. His hope is that the dead can be reunited with their families.
The remains of some 1,400 people found on Okinawa sit in storage for possible identification with DNA testing. So far just six have been identified and returned to their families. Volunteer bone hunters and families looking for their loved ones say the government should do more to help.
Gushiken says the bones are silent witnesses to Okinawa’s wartime tragedy, carrying a warning to the present generation as Japan ups its defense spending in the face of tensions with China over territorial disputes and Beijing’s claim to the nearby self-governing island Taiwan.