U.K. apologizes for racism in commemoration of WWI dead

The U.K. government apologized Thursday for not properly commemorating thousands of African and Asian troops who died fighting for the British Empire during and after World War I. The reason for the failure, according to a report by the organization that commemorates service members who died in the two World Wars, was "entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism."

While White, European casualties were commemorated with individual headstones, up to 404,000 Indian and African casualties who served the British Empire in World War I either had their names recorded in registers, were commemorated collectively or were not commemorated at all, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission found. The commission initially set out to examine the commemoration of soldiers from the British Empire during both World Wars, but restricted its inquiry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.