RUSSIA, JAPAN MARK 100 YEARS OF TSUSHIMA BATTLE

TOKYO, May 27 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Fesyun) - Russia and Japan have marked 100 years after the Battle of Tsushima.

On Friday morning a group of diplomats from the Russian embassy in Tokyo and the Japanese Foreign Ministry, delegates from the city hall of Tsushima and the Nagasaki prefecture went on the minesweeper Makishima of the Japanese Self Defense Forces to the estimated site of the battle.

It is the site where the Russian cruiser Vladimir Monomakh was sunk (the remaining members of its crew swam to the shore in the vicinity of Tono.

"Our countries remember their compatriots who did their duty to the last," said Russia's Ambassador Alexander Losyukov. He believes that Russia and Japan should not and would not fight because their relations had risen to an unprecedented level, which meets the interests of both states.

After firing a salute, the delegates lowered a wreath on the water as a sign of the countries' reconciliation.

After returning to the island, they unveiled a bas-relief on a hill that was renamed the Hill of Russian-Japanese Friendship. The bas-relief made by the Japanese shows Admiral Togo visiting squadron commander Rozhdestvensky in the naval hospital in Sashebo, after a picture that is famous in Japan.

Another monument opened 200m from the bas-relief has the words, In memory of Russians and Japanese who fell in the Battle of Tsushima, and lists of the perished Russian and Japanese seamen.

Everyone of those who attended the ceremony, including the governor of Nagasaki, laid a chrysanthemum at the monument.

The wreath-laying ceremony will be held every year on May 27; the island authorities pledged to ensure order and pay for the monuments' repairs.

After that, an Orthodox and a Shinto priests held services for the souls of the dead seamen.

On May 27, 1905, the heavily outnumbered and overpowered Second Pacific Squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhdestvensky fought a battle against the Japanese fleet in the Tsushima Strait.

The battle took place after a trying seven-month cruise from the Baltic Fleet, which in itself was a unique achievement.

The Squadron of 38 ships and auxiliary vessels fought for nearly two days, losing 13 ships and over 5,000 seamen.