This Is Why We Should Remember the Battle of Okinawa
Two Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines advance on Wana Ridge on 18 May (Wikipedia)
The Battle of Okinawa was distinct from all other battles in the Pacific War in that it was fought in one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, with the majority of the resident civilian population still present. While Iwo-jima, the island that served as a stepping-stone to Okinawa for US forces, was also Japanese territory, its residents had been forcibly evacuated months before, so the only people on the island when the US forces landed in February were the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The fighting in the Battle of Saipan in the middle of the previous year saw many Japanese settlers (mostly Okinawans) caught in the crossfire, but the Mariana Islands were not inherently Japanese territory. The islands had been controlled by Germany until World War 1 and in were entrusted by the League of Nations to Japan as mandate territories. While the people living in urban centers on the main islands of Japan were of course victims of merciless incendiary bombing in the latter stages of the war, Okinawa was the only prefecture to experience combat
&#;The World is beginning to know Okinawa&#;: Ota Masahide Reflects on his Life from the Battle of Okinawa to the Struggle for Okinawa
&#;The World is beginning to know Okinawa&#;: Ota Masahide Reflects on his Life from the Battle of Okinawa to the Struggle for Okinawa
Ota Masehide and Satoko Norimatsu
Ota Masahide interviewed on July 20, at the Ota Peace Research Institute, Naha, Okinawa
Interview, translation, notes, and introduction by Satoko Norimatsu
The Japanese original text is available.
Introduction
“Ota-san is the ‘Conscience of Okinawa’,” the manager of a small museum in Shuri said, when I told her I was going to interview former Governor of Okinawa Ota Masahide after leaving the museum. The museum, run by the alumni association of Okinawa Prefectural First Junior High School (now Shuri High School), commemorates their students who perished in the Battle of Okinawa. At the time of the U.S. invasion of Okinawa in late March of , at least 1, junior high school boys across the island, mostly from age 14 to 18, were drafted by the Japanese Imperial Army as members of the “Tekketsu Kinnoutai (Blood and Iron Student Corps).” At least , mo
20万人以上が亡くなった沖縄戦の終結から72年が経った。 旧日本軍と民間人が最南端の摩文仁（まぶに）に追い詰められた年6月23日。牛島満（みつる）司令官の自決によって、沖縄での組織的な戦闘が終わったとされるが、それ以降も散発的な戦闘は続いた。 年6月12日に92歳で亡くなった 元沖縄県知事・大田昌秀さんも摩文仁で戦い続けた一人だった。師範学校生だった19歳のとき、学生部隊「鉄血勤皇隊」に動員され、摩文仁で戦った。終戦を知ったのは10月23日、実に4カ月後のことだった。日本がポツダム宣言を受諾し、無条件降伏してから2カ月が過ぎていた。 大田さんが遺したメッセージを動画とテキストで振り返ろう。以下は年7月、保坂展人・世田谷区長とハフポスト日本版が大田昌秀さんに沖縄でインタビューしたときのものだ。 ——大田先生自身は「戦争が終わった」と、いつごろ知ったんですか？ 私が戦場から出てきたのは10月23日なんですよ。そのときに宣撫工作員といって、沖縄守備軍の将校で「一人でも多くの命を救い出す」ということで壕を回って「もう戦争は終わってるから出てきなさい」と言って歩く人がいたわけです。 そういう人が私たちの壕に入ってきたものだから「こいつは敵の回し者だ」と、手榴弾で殺そうとした（一部の兵士がいた）。そうすると2人の陸軍の軍医が止めて、日本軍の元将校に対して「日本が負けたというはっきりした証拠を示せ」と言ったら、天皇の「終戦の詔勅」を明日持ってくるという。それでコピーを持ってきて、読んで聞かせたけど「こいつはスパイだ」とまた殺そうとした。 そこで2人の軍医が押さえて「天皇の詔勅が、特別な文体で出来ていて普通の人にはでっちあげできないから本物だ」ということで、10月23日に壕から出てきたわけです。 ——（6月下旬の激戦は）どのように過ごしていたんですか？ 摩文仁の岩と岩の間に身を潜めたり、海岸のところに寝たりしていました。 私は至近距離の弾で右足の裏がえぐりとられて歩けなくなり、腹ばいで動いていました。そうしたら、戦車がいっぱい押しかけてきて、住民と将兵が摩文仁の狭い海岸に追い詰められたわけです。（米軍の）戦車がすごい音を立ててきますから、泳げる人も泳げない人も海に飛びこんだんです。私も飛び込みました。 海の中で意識を失って、気がついたときには胸まで潮に浸かり、海岸で倒れていた。そういう形で、やっと生き延びたんです。 ——そこで亡くなった人も多いわけですね いっぱい亡くなりました。私たちは銃1丁と発の銃弾と手榴弾2個を持たされて、戦場に出されたわけです。そのときに「絶対、捕虜にはなるな」「捕虜になるんだったら、この手榴弾を1個は敵に投げつけ、もう1個で自決しろ」と言わ
NAHA -- As the people of Okinawa on June 23 honor those who lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa at the end of the Pacific War, those who fought in the anti-base struggle alongside the recently deceased former Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota are reconfirming their commitment to peace. In front of a single-family home in a residential neighborhood in Kyan, a district in the southernmost city of Itoman on Okinawa Island, stood Hatsuko Omine, a former junior high school teacher and a resident of the city of Urasoe. "This is where our family tried to die," the year-old woman said solemnly. The U.S. military landed on Okinawa Island in April The village of Kochinda -- now the town of Yaese -- in southern Okinawa, where Omine was born, was hit by air raids and naval bombardment. The large tomb in which Omine's family was hiding was taken over by soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army, and the seven-person family was forced to search for cover. U.S. forces burned down villages and forests. At one point, Omine saw a child crying for their dead mother while trying to nurse from her breast. Omi
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Okinawans remember ex-Gov. Ota's words on war, reconfirm commitment to peace
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