MP's plea to bring back bodies of Royal Navy sailors killed by the Japanese

THE government is being called to repatriate hundreds of bodies of sailors killed in Asia during the Second World War.

The bodies of the men who died during the sinking of HMS Exeter and HMS Electra in 1942 are buried in mass shallow graves in East Java.

Labour MP Luke Pollard, who represents Plymouth, is urging the UK to bring back the bodies of the men, similar to the way the Dutch government is doing.

About 50 men died on Exeter during an engagement with the Japanese Navy, with 650 captured. Of these, 153 would die in Japanese PoW camps. About 120 men from Electra died.