 The skeletons of 26 Japanese soldiers who died during World War II have been washed from their graves in the low-lying Marshall Islands, prompting warnings by the nation that its future is under threat from rising sea levels. These last spring tides in February to April this year have caused not just inundation and flooding of communities but have also undermined regular land, so that even the dead are affected Tony De Brum, Marshall Island's Foreign Minister 
 
 The 29 atolls that make up the Marshall Islands are home to around 70,000 people. "These last spring tides in February to April this year have caused not just inundation and flooding of communities but have also undermined regular land, so that even the dead are affected," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the UN climate negotiations. "People, I'm sure are recognising that Lima is the last opportunity, to have something strong to move towards Paris to have an agreement." "We think they're Japanese soldiers, but there are no broken bones or any indication of being war casualties," he said. The Islands were occupied by the Japanese during World War Two, until they were driven out by US forces. The Marshall Islands and other low-lying Pacific nations have pushed for international action on climate change, saying they face an existential threat from rising sea levels. From 1993 to 2009, the rise was 0.47 inches (12 millimetres) a year, almost four times the global average.
– The Pacific Ocean is rising so quickly that it's washed up a little history—in the form of 26 dead soldiers from World War II, the BBC reports. At climate-change talks in Germany, Tony De Brum, foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, said spring tides did the damage: "There are coffins and dead people being washed away from graves, it's that serious." He said the dead were likely Japanese soldiers who occupied before US forces drove them out: "No broken bones, no indication of war, we think maybe suicide." Rising waters are also eroding roads, ruining fertile land, and washing up unexploded bombs and other military devices on the 29 atolls, the Guardian reports—which jibes with a UN report that the Pacific is rising faster than other sea levels (about half an inch annually compared to roughly a tenth of an inch). De Brum urged other ministers at the talks to "commit to commit" to carbon-emission curbs, though they still need to decide whether developed countries will bear the brunt of the changes. As for the Marshall Islands, they're facing a sea-level rise of 3 to 6 feet this century, and are only 6 feet above water as it stands, so the risk is real, the Telegraph reports. "The island is not only getting narrower—it is getting shorter," President Christopher Loeak said earlier this year. “That is our worry—the disappearing of the land." Experts point out that commercial development and poorly built sea walls play a major role in damaging the islands, but one says that doesn't diminish the risk of rising waters—which "will accelerate, and on the ground the response will not be pretty."