Trekking through mud and rocks in Japan's humid Okinawan jungle, Takamatsu Gushiken reached a slope of ground where human remains have lain forgotten since World War II.

The 72-year-old said a brief prayer and lifted a makeshift protective covering, exposing half-buried bones believed to be those of a young Japanese soldier.

"These remains have the right to be returned to their families," said Gushiken, a businessman who has voluntarily searched for the war dead for more than four decades.

The sun-kissed island in southern Japan on Monday marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa.

The three-month carnage, often dubbed the "Typhoon of Steel", killed about 200,000 people, almost half of them local civilians.

Since then, Japan and the United States have become allies, and, according to official estimates, only 2,600 bodies are yet to be recovered.

But residents and long-time volunteers like Gushiken say many more are buried under buildings or farm fields, or hidden in jungles and caves.

Now rocks and soil from southern parts of Okinawa Island, where the bloodiest fighting took place, are being quarried in order to build the foundations for a new US air base.

The........

© International Business Times