Japanese man awarded by British government for honoring POWs, being generally awesome

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II recently made a Mie Prefecture man an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire, which we think means he’s some kind of knight now or something. That or “Hand of the Queen” if standard Game of Thrones rules apply.

What did the lucky man, Sir Isao Toji, do to deserve such a distinction? Well, for the past 20 years, Toji has held an annual memorial service for 16 British servicemen who died in Japan as prisoners of war during World War II.

During the war, the servicemen labored in an internment camp in Mie Prefecture, where they were sent to work copper mines; and since 1993, Toji has held a ceremony every year to honor those men, although the exact nature of the ceremony is unclear in Japanese news reports.

At 67 years old, Toji obviously didn’t serve during the war himself, but nevertheless displays remarkable humanity in looking beyond the two countries’ bitter past to honor men who technically died as enemies of Japan.

During the ceremony at the British Embassy in Tokyo, Toji said, “I’m incredibly honored. There were so many people [during the war] that were never able to return home, and I want to connect today’s young people to their memory.”

The world could do with a few more men like you, sir.

Source: NHK

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