After hounding the American occupation authorities, Sorge's Japanese lover, Hanako Ishii (1911 – 1 July 2000), located and recovered his skeleton on 16 November 1949. After identifying him by his distinctive dental work and a poorly-set broken leg, she took his body away and had him cremated at the Shimo-Ochiai Cremation Centre. Nearly a year later she had his ashes interred in Section 17, Area 1, Row 21, Plot 16 at Tama Cemetery in Fuchū, Tokyo. She had erected a black marble tombstone bearing the epitaph, which reads in Japanese: "Here lies a hero who sacrificed his life fighting against war and for world peace".