The Angle Village Hall was filled with Japanese paper lanterns, origami, music, dancing and laughter on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

David James, of the West Wales maritime Heritage Society, and local Japanese residents organised the event, ‘O-bon Festival’ at the Angle Village Hall on August 17 to keep alive the historical incident which happened over 100 years ago.

The Hirano-maru, a Japanese merchant ship was sunk by the German submarine in 1918 just before the end of the WWI 200 miles south of Ireland.

Ten Japanese bodies were washed ashore and given a burial in St Mary’s churchyard in Angle.

An inscribed wooden post as a memorial was erected, and looked after by the village people.

When Mr James noticed it had rotted away, he started a campaign to erect a new memorial. With the support from the Japanese Embassy and the shipping company, Nippon Yusen Kaisha, who owned the Hirano-maru, the new memorial was unveiled at the Churchyard on October 4 last year, 100 years later.

O-bon, in Japan, is the time when people go back to their ancestral home villages and towns for a family reunion, in the middle of August.

They go to the family graves and lay flowers and remember those buried there with respect and love.

At the same time they enjoy dancing in the village and town as well.

Mr James and Japanese residents took advantage of this Japanese customs and organised this ‘O-bon Festival’ in Angle to commemorate those sailors.

Followed by the reading of the Japanese poems, tanka, composed by a Japanese lady who attended the unveiling ceremony last year, the people who attended the event had a go with origami crane, tsuru.

The paper crane, which symbolises peace, comes from a story of a young girl in Hiroshima, Japan, who was affected by the atomic bomb . A crane they made on that day would be a strong reminder how precious peace is.

After the origami, Japanese folk dancing, bon-odori took place. Everybody, young and old, enjoyed dancing ‘Pokemon Dance’ in a circle. The Hall was resonated by music, stamps and laughters.

At the end of the event Mr. James reminded people to remember the ten sailors buried in the grave, and also all the British and Allied servicemen, not forgetting the civilians, who died in war.

The organisers are hoping this event will continue, and grow into a friendship between Wales and Japan at a local level.