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SEVENTY YEARS AFTER the Battle of Okinawa, Yoshiko Shimabukuro still has terrifying nightmares of watching friends and Japanese soldiers die as they hid in caves to escape fierce American shelling.
One of 222 female students mobilised as a battlefield nursing unit for the Imperial Army in March 1945, she also suffers deep pangs of guilt for surviving the war while many of her classmates perished in the hell holes that served as military hospitals on the island’s southern tip.
“We only had basic training in how to put on bandages, but the wounded soldiers they brought in were beyond help,” Shimabukuro told AFP ahead of a ceremony today to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the battle.
They had legs ripped off, their intestines were falling out, faces missing. We simply had no idea what to do. I was 17. We all thought we would be back at school in a week.
Fewer than half of the girls known as the “himeyuri students” — an amalgam of the names of the two schools they came from — survived the 82-day battle, which wiped out a quarter of the subtropical island’s population.
Many died after being ordered by Japanese soldiers to leave their caves in a hail of bullets as the enemy closed in. Others plunged off cliffs or blew themselves up with grenades rather than surrender.
“We wanted to stay in the caves and die together, but the Japanese soldiers sent us away,” Shimabukuro said, fighting back tears. “People were quickly killed or badly injured. But we couldn’t take the injured with us, we had to leave them.
“I still have dreams where I see my dead friends and I wake up screaming. It breaks my heart that I lived and my friends died, without me knowing how, when or where.”
Ritual suicide
The battle claimed the lives of more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians and 80,000 Japanese troops, whose grim resistance only ended after Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, the senior officer on the island, committed ritual suicide on a cliff.
Almost every family in Okinawa suffered at least one casualty as the US bombardment — by land, sea and air — reduced the normally lush, green landscape to a scorched wasteland.
More than 12,000 American troops also perished during the worst bloodshed of the Pacific War, in what many feared at the time was a foretaste of the battle they would have to fight for the Japanese mainland.
That battle never came, thanks in part to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Okinawa was the only part of Japan in which fighting took place in World War II.
Shimabukuro lost her two elder siblings and was almost robbed of her sanity in the filthy underground hospitals, where soldiers had limbs amputated with little or no anaesthetic and begged doctors to kill them.
Some troops became deranged and grew violent as toxins infected wounds that were crawling with maggots, according to Shimabukuro.
“They were taken to the back of the cave and put in isolation,” she whispered. “We weren’t allowed to go back there. The constant screaming was dreadful.”
After the June 18 order to disband the himeyuri unit, Shimabukuro herself almost died from serious infection before being rescued by a US soldier.
“We were told any women captured would be raped and burned alive,” she said. “I would have killed myself if I’d had a grenade, but he gently nursed my wounds and took me to hospital.”
Zenichi Yoshimine, who was waiting to begin elementary school when war broke out, said Okinawans — long discriminated against by mainlanders — had been hoodwinked by Japanese propaganda.
“We were taught Japan was God’s country and couldn’t lose the war,” he said, overlooking the spot in Itoman dubbed “suicide cliff” by American troops.
We believed the Americans were devils, that they were savages and if they captured us they would cut our ears and noses off, gouge out our eyeballs and run over us in their tanks.
‘Mice in a trap’
Yoshimine told how tens of thousands fleeing the advancing US troops poured onto clifftops, sending hundreds toppling onto the rocks below as they were strafed by enemy fire.
“There was literally nowhere left to run,” he said. “We were caught like mice in a trap. Very soon there were so many bodies we were tripping over them.”
Resentment over the war still runs deep in Okinawa, a formerly independent kingdom annexed by Japan in the 19th century.
With thousands of American troops still stationed on the island — a legacy of a long US occupation — tensions run high, and the planned relocation of a controversial US air base, which some locals want moved off Okinawa instead, has triggered angry protests in recent months.
That has coincided with a push by the nationalist government to give the military greater scope for action — something opponents say runs counter to the hallowed pacifism enshrined in Japan’s constitution.
Shimabukuro fears that Okinawa, which returned to Japanese rule in 1972, could become a battle ground once again.
“I’ll never forgive Japan for what happened,” said the 87-year-old, now the director of a museum dedicated to the nursing corps.
“And now we have peace, Japan is trying to change the constitution and turn itself into a country that can wage war again,” she added. “And that would drag this poor island back into the firing line.”
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The Battle of Okinawa was one of the final reminders of just how brutal the Empire of Japan was to even its own citizens. There are well documented cases of civilians being knowingly directed into the firing lines, rampant starvation and even soldiers pressuring civilians to commit suicide. Not to mention the fact that the Japanese Army used highly populated areas as literal human shields in the hopes of softening the Allied bombardment of military targets.
It was a truly horrific experience for the innocent civilians caught up in the battle.
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace… JL.
War & killing is our worst trait.
Imagine No possessions. I wonder if you can? Even Lennon couldn’t do that! If your going to quote someone, at least try not to quote a hypocrite!
And he was a hypocrite because?
‘No one ever quotes me’
-Ringo Starr
(America is a lot like Britain,except they have buttons) I wonder why?
Interesting comment middle class cork, sadly we live in a world of hypocrisy.
Actually, war has existed long before the concept of the Nation State ever existed. The foundation of what we know today as the concept of a state has its origins in the 1500′s, however the precursors to most modern developed states didn’t begin their formation until the 1600′s.
Before then power and loyalty was very much concentrated in the personality or heritage of a monarch or emperor rather than the sovereignty of the territory which that autocrat controlled. If one thing has been consistent throughout history, it is that humans generally require very little motivation or logical reason to go to war with one another.
@ Ben Gunn Because he wanted people to live a certain simple existence, an existence he himself wasn’t prepared to live. Thats what made him a hypocrite.
Jason is on fire with the history lessons today.
@Middle Class Cork, Time to grow up and join the real world. JL was a singer, song writer and musician; not a philosopher.
As long as those lessons show America in a better light than it’s foe du jour Joanna!
*you’re
That’s a song about communism, not a personal self help guide. Way to miss the point MCC!
A song about a romantic view of communism. From a person who amassed a huge personal fortune, a true capitalist. You prove my point regarding Lennon’s Hypocrisy!!
Lennon is always seen through rose tinted glasses. he was quite a dispicable character. chapmans main reason for his murder was his hypocrisy. Lennon was a perfect example of someone who lived by “do as I say, not as I do.” all you have to do is go straight to his songs. The man who sang “imagine no possessions” lived a millionaire’s life in a posh New York hotel. The man who sang “imagine no religion” was obsessed with every spiritual and New Age fad that came his way, including Hindu meditation, the I-Ching, and astrology of all kinds. The man who sang “all you need is love” was a bitter, violent, and angry man who abused his family and friends.
Hey Jason you seem to know lots about military history and the politics of it, what’s your field? I enjoy reading your comments on this particular subject.
Joanna its Jason’s interpretation of history which is totally at odds with what actually happened
A monarch was only ever as powerful as the support enjoyed from the various sub-kings and territories. That demographic in itself could and often did represent the essence of statehood or nationhood. The earliest city-states developed in Mesopotamia some 5000 years ago.
I never thought Lennon was trying to teach a way of life here I think the key word is imagine as in the opposite to reality any way if you take away all this in his song you will find people will argue over their toenails fact
A timely reminder of that awful battle where so many US Soldiers and Marines lost their lives. Outstanding men.
The article got it absolutely right by describing it as a foretaste of the kind of fighting to be expected on the Jap mainland. Estimates of expected US casualties ranged into the hundreds of thousands, some even higher.
It’s unfortunate that you see things so one-sided. There were no winners.
Well Vincent, clearly all those who died were losers, whether there were from either combatant side or Okinawan civilian. My grandpa’s brother was drafted for the army, had just done his training and was on his way to the Pacific theatre just as this battle ended. His division was earmarked for the invasion of Japan. So yeah I am one sided.
But this was WW2 and the battle had to be fought to bring the war right up to the Jap mainland and force them to confront defeat. That is the reality, there had to be a winner, and thank god it was the US.
This story pales in significance to the tens of millions of Chinese and South Pacific Asians massacured during WW2 by the Japs. The Japanese government still don’t take responsibility for these atrocities. Imagine if Germany celebrated the Nazi army dead every year while pretending the Holocaust didn’t happen?
Fin that is a very good point. The book ‘The Rape of Nanking’ is a shocking account of what rule under Imperialist Japan meant.
Japan still fails to acknowledge all the wrongs they committed during WWll and before. Their leading politicians still pay homage to a burial site that includes the graves of war criminals.
that’s slightly untrue … They do acknowledge the crimes they committed. they even changed their constitution to stop them from ever going to war again. however they are in denial about nanking and are attempting to rewrite history
-The Japanese were a particularly brutal occupying force killing and torturing with extraordinary cruelty.
-The Americans by contrast were a benevolent and civilising influence overall whom modern day Japanese owe a lot to.
- if the chinese or Russians had occupied Japan it would have been a different story.
- it is ironic and tragic they had to use nuclear weapons. A very difficult choice. The calculated a million Us dead otherwise and even then the suicidal Japanese may not have surrendered.
- war is mad.
If you feel anything resembling pity for the Japanese soldiers or civilians for even 1 second.
Google ‘Rape of Nanking’.
The Japanese leadership told their people that Americans were evil and would destroy them, then Uncle Sam proved it in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Empire of Japan was responsible for much more death, destruction and horrific crimes against humanity in the Pacific during the war than the US has been responsible for in it’s entire existence. They conducted what amounts to ethnic cleansing in almost every area they occupied in the Pacific Theatre, conducted disgusting experiments on live human beings and showed an abhorrent level of cruelty to anyone who wasn’t lucky enough to be an Imperial Japanese Officer.
The Japanese also had their own nuclear development programme and intended to use nuclear weapons on the US and her allies in the Pacific. One of the main reasons why Japan surrendered after the nuclear bombings was that, due to their extensive research into nuclear weaponry, they believed a nuclear weapon was so difficult to manufacture that only one or two could ever be used. The willingness of the US to use two nuclear weapons in such a short timespan convinced Japanese scientists that the US had figured out a way to mass-produce the weapon and they believed a mass nuclear assault was on the way. The reality was the US only had one more which would have been available for deployment within a month of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks.
The Japanese atrocities in China were even worse.
Actually agree Jason, debate is good for the soul.
@ Jason : Many arguments for and against.
“Atomic Weapons Were Not Needed”
On October 5, 1945, Admiral Nimitz stated “The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into the war.” It was learned also that on or about July 20, 1945, General Eisenhower had urged Truman, in a personal visit, not to use the atomic bomb. Eisenhower’s assessment was “It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing . . . to use the atomic bomb, to kill and terrorize civilians, without even attempting [negotiations], was a double crime.” Eisenhower also stated that it wasn’t necessary for Truman to “succumb” to [the tiny handful of people putting pressure on the president to drop atom bombs on Japan. Continue reading :
http://www.filmsforaction.org/news/the_real_reason_america_used_nuclear_weapons_against_japan_it_was_not_to_end_the_war_or_save_lives/
This was followed by two of the worst terrorist atrocities the world has ever seen namely the dropping of atomic bombs on two Japanese cities causing mass civilian slaughter ….inexcusable.
Tell that to the millions of Chinese who died at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Jason several members of the Japanese military leadership were executed for their war crimes did anyone ever even go to trial in the U.S. for their atrocity
Look up accounts of the fire bombings that took place in Japan and Europe. That’s what lay ahead for Japan for months had the war not ended quickly.
And what would the cost to the US military have been had they to invade the Japaneese home islands Bill?
The use of two atomic weapons did result in many deaths but brought an end to a war that would have resulted in far more deaths than occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Bill, we need to look at the American bombings of Germany and Japan from the context of the technology available to the belligerents at the time. While today we have the luxury of long-range strike aircraft capable of carrying precision munitions, at the time the most precise airborne strike methods (that of smaller attack aircraft with unguided rockets or smaller unguided bombs) simply lacked the range and independent operating capabilities to strike at industrial and military targets in Germany and Japan.
While Allied aircraft operating in the UK could launch more contained strikes on French infrastructure while limiting collateral, only large bomber aircraft with carpet-bombing techniques could reach the industrial heartlands of Japan and Germany.
Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were critical military targets for the pending invasion of Japan. The headquarters of the 2nd General Army, the one tasked with defending the target area of the initial invasion, along with critical infrastructure to support this army was located in Hiroshima at the time of it’s destruction. Nagasaki was a massive industrial centre for the Japanese Air Force and Navy, with major companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (heavily involved in military ship and aircraft production) located there.
There was really only two methods available to the Allies to effectively neutralise these massive threats, either carpet bomb the cities which would have resulted in mass civilian casualties or drop nuclear weapons. One would risk an entire fleet of expensive bombers while the other bore little/no risk to the attacker. What would you pick as a military commander who needs to ensure that an invasion passes with minimal casualties to the attacking force?
LESS Japanese died than would have if the atomic bombs were not used.
he lived in the Dakota building next to central park. had millions
Anyone interested in this should google “unit 731″. It’s not easy reading. Also the reasons why no-one ever really went to trial for the atrocities committed is particularly interesting
I don’t think it’s hypocrisy to ask the listener to imagine. It would be different if he was telling you that you had to live a certain way. It’s up to the listener to imagine each scenario and come to their own conclusion. As is the song writers porogitive, he inserted his own conclusions on his imaginings. Nothing wrong with that.
That’s to middle class cork btw.
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