Okinawa remembers victims of Battle of Okinawa

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Okinawa remembers victims of Battle of Okinawa

June 23 marked the 64th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa that took the lives of many people. Memorial services were held in many places in Okinawa. The Okinawa Prefectural Government held one at the Mabuni Hill Memorial Park in Itoman City, where the final battle took place.

On June 22, about 400 people, including members of bereaved families, assembled at the Okinawa Peace Memorial Hall on Mabuni Hill to share in a minute of silence.

One out of four Okinawans were killed in the Battle of Okinawa.

In September 2007, more than 110,000 Okinawans took part in a rally opposing and calling for revocation of the education ministry's order to delete from high school history textbooks an account that the former Imperial Army had forced Okinawans to commit mass suicides during the Battle of Okinawa.

Okinawans have experienced bitter hardships not only in the Battle of Okinawa but with the U.S. occupation after the war. Very few U.S. military base sites have been returned to Okinawa.

The Japanese government is pushing ahead with a plan to construct a new U.S. military base on the coastline in the Henoko District of Nago City.

The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly has adopted a resolution and a statement opposing the construction of the new U.S. base, and this represents the demand of the majority of Okinawan's.

123 names were newly carved on the "Cornerstone of Peace", which was established in the Mabuni Hill Memorial Park in commemoration of those who died during the Battle of Okinawa regardless of nationality.

The number of names added was the lowest number since 1996 when the monument was established. The total number of names carved on the monument has reached 240,856.

- Akahata, June 23, 2009