Okinawa, about 1,500 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, marked the 60th anniversary Thursday of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the only land battle on Japanese islands involving civilians in World War II, Kyodo News reported.

Before attending the Memorial Day service by the Okinawa prefectural government from 11:50 a.m. (0250 GMT) in the city of Itoman, some 1,000 people held a 10-kilometer peace march through the heat and humidity, according to Kyodo.

In a statement released at midnight Wednesday, Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine renewed a resolve to establish a lasting world peace and called on residents of the prefecture to observe a one- minute silence at midday Thursday.

"I'm convinced 60 years after the war that it is our grave duty and something that fulfills the wishes of the victims' spirits to again take to our heart the cruelty of war and its numerous victims, hand down the lessons of it to the coming generations and try to establish a permanent peace in the world," Inamine said.

June 23 commemorates the end of organized resistance in the three-month battle on Okinawa Island, which began on April 1, 1945 and claimed the lives of nearly 240,000 people.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will attend the service later in the day. He has attended the Okinawa service every year since he took office in April 2001, except for 2003.

Source: Xinhua