Japan Press Weekly

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2023 June 21 - 27 [POLITICS]

Okinawa marks 78th anniversary of end of Battle of Okinawa

June 23 marked 78 years since the end of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa which took more than 200,000 lives. In Okinawa, June 23 is designated as “Okinawa Memorial Day” to commemorate those killed in the bloodiest land battle fought on Japanese soil in the very last stage of the Pacific War.

On Mabuni Hill in Itoman City, where the final battle took place, there are many memorial stones called “The Cornerstone of Peace” on which the names of all victims regardless of their nationality are engraved. With 365 people added this year, the number of inscribed names totals 242,046.

The Japanese Imperial Army in its strategy used the Okinawa Battle to buy some time to sufficiently prepare for a decisive battle on Japan’s mainland. Two months after the U.S. military landed in Okinawa, the units of the Japanese army retreated from the prefectural capital, Naha, to Mabuni in the southern part of Okinawa’s main island. This turned the area into a fierce battleground. It is said that one in every four Okinawans (more than 122,000) were killed or committed suicide in the Battle of Okinawa.

In areas where the Japanese troops were deployed, residents were exposed to violent attacks from the U.S. military. On top of this, they suffered horrific experiences caused by Japanese soldiers’ outrageous acts, such as killing civilians suspected of being “spies” and ousting residents from cave shelters. Learning from this history, Okinawans share a hard-learned lesson that military forces are not concerned about protecting civilian residents.

Alarmed by the Kishida administration’s military buildup and its move to use Okinawa yet again as a military fortress, survivors of the Battle of Okinawa are increasing their voices, “War should never be allowed to happen again!”