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French navy returns to Okinawa to commemorate 2 sailors

NAHA, Japan - A member of the French navy on Dec. 4 pays respects to the tombs of two French sailors who died of illness in 1846 while their ship made a port call in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, then part of the Ryukyu Kingdom. A ceremony was held the same day to honor symbolically a promise the navy made at the time to return to the kingdom to collect the sailors' remains. The event took place at the ''Oranda tombs,'' in Nago's Untembaru area, and was attended by the captain and crew of the French destroyer Vendemiaire and French Ambassador Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, as well as Nago Mayor Tateo Kishimoto and other local representatives.