Former Dutch prisoner-of-war Dolf Winkler was imprisoned during WW2 in camp 6 in Mizumaki, Japan. He worked as a forced labourer in the Nittaan-Takamatsu coalmine. In July 1985, Winkler returned to Japan and met Mr. Minoru Tamura, a camp guard who had treated the prisoners-of-war with humanity. With the help of Mr. Hiroshi Kurokawa in Japan, Dolf Winkler erected the Cross Monument in memory of the Dutch prisoners-of-war who perished during the war.
On a small hill in the Hodogaya area in Japan there is a huge cemetery stretching across more than 80,000 square metres. The 2,045 Commonwealth soldiers who perished in Japanese camps during the Second World War lie buried in this green graveyard. The gravestones are of identical design, without any distinction of rank. Instead, the War Cemetery is arranged based on nationality, each of which is honoured with plants connected to its homeland.