Okinawa in WWII

Today we visited 3 significant spots from WWII, specifically The Battle of Okinawa (March 1945) which took about 200,000 lives: Peace Memorial Park, Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters and Hacksaw Ridge (a movie was made about this). I personally love WWII history, so I was enthralled and very moved to learn about the largest-scale campaign in Asia-Pacific during WWII. More than 100,000 civilians were killed during this battle – many by weapons, starvation and illness, suicide and others that fell victim to the retreating Japanese troops. The pictures and accounts were heart-wrenching. It was after the war ended that the US military ran this island, and it wasn’t until 1972 that it was returned to the Japanese. It helped us understand why there are so many US bases on the island today.

View of the Pacific Ocean from Peace Memorial Park.

After WWII Japan became a defense only military much more focused on peace.

Aunt Jana - a wonderful tour guide and driver.

In the distance are marble walls listing all the people who died in The Battle of Okinawa.

These are paper cranes!

For lunch, we enjoyed delicious fried rice sitting on floor cushions.

These tunnels were hand dug by Japanese civilians and soldiers for protection and military planning. The commanding officer of the Japanese Navy and his men committed suicide in this underground headquarters on June 13, 1945.

Vending machines are EVERYWHERE!

Heading up to Hacksaw Ridge.

View from the top.

These small stone memorials at Hacksaw Ridge are how the Japanese bury and remember the deceased. There is a holiday each year when they return to these family memorials to spend time with their ancestors.

A family memorial with onions, flowers and paper cranes. 

We ended the day attending The East Asian jazz festival, which my nephew was selected to be a part of. These are talented highschoolers from Department of Defense schools across East Asia (Korea, Guam, mainland Japan, etc.) that audition and are selected to collaborate for a week each year for a jazz concert. These kids were very talented!