Okinawa sets the best example
(From The Japan Times June 24 issue)

沖縄戦後60年、戦没者慰霊の模範として

    Okinawan people commemorate the day as one for consoling the souls of people who died in the battle. An annual memorial service sponsored by the Okinawa Prefectural Government was held June 23 in the Peace Memorial Park in the Mabuni area.

    June 23 should be a day when all Japanese remember the cruel battle, which lasted from March 26, 1945, to early September. It should offer an opportunity to face the ugly effects of war and renew a resolution to make the utmost efforts to never again put Japan on the path of militarism.

    The Battle of Okinawa was characterized as a fierce "storm of steel." Following air raids and naval bombardment by the U.S. forces, fighting on land began. Estimates differ, but the number of deaths among local residents, around 100,000, was larger than the corresponding figure for Japanese soldiers.

    Interviews and research have shed light on the merciless behavior of Japanese armed forces that were supposed to defend the local population. There were residents who were executed, branded as spies. Others were forced to kill family members and themselves in the face of the U.S. onslaught. The Okinawan experience shows how a situation spirals into deepening tragedy once land fighting occurs amid or near local inhabitants.

    Heiwa no Ishiji (Cornerstone of Peace), a large granite memorial in the park, symbolizes the Okinawan people's heart. In 1995, the Okinawa Prefectural Government under then Gov. Masahide Ota inaugurated the memorial in the hope it would contribute to everlasting world peace.

    It is inscribed with the names of all those who died during the Battle of Okinawa, irrespective of their nationality or military status. This year the names of 720 people were added, pushing the total to 239,801. The number of foreign nationals whose names are inscribed on the memorial stands at 14,550, including 14,008 Americans. The others include Britons and Koreans.

    At a time when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine are causing conflicts with neighboring countries, the spirit and specific approach embodied in the Cornerstone of Peace provide an important example, for Japanese in general, on how to console the souls of people who died in Japan's modern war.

    Yasukuni Shrine, which served as a spiritual apparatus for war mobilization during Japan's war years in the 1930s and '40s, enshrines those who died in war for the emperor (as an institution) and the Japanese state since the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1868). It enshrines 2.46 million people, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other Class-A war criminals.

    As World War II recedes further from people's awareness, it is all the more meaningful to hand down the experience of the Battle of Okinawa, the only land battle of the war fought on the Japanese archipelago, to younger generations.

    In February, a high school attached to Aoyama Gakuin University used in its entrance exam an English passage in which the author said a visit to Abuchiragama (Abuchira Cave), a well-known war-related site in Okinawa, was boring. Although the high school apologized later, this is a sad indication that some people cannot correctly understand the Okinawan war experience. In the cave, 136 members of the Himeyuri Butai (Star Lily Corps), a unit of women student nurses, were either killed or killed themselves.

    There is a hopeful sign. A report by the Japan School Excursion Association shows that in fiscal 2003, Okinawa beat Kyoto, Nara and Hokkaido as the most popular school excursion destination for high-school students.

    The legacy of World War II lingers on. Three-quarters of the total land area devoted to U.S. military base in Japan is located in Okinawa. The prefecture played an important role for U.S. military operations in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War. Local residents suffer from U.S. military-related accidents and crimes. The government should work in all seriousness on the issue of reducing the burden of the Okinawan people and the U.S. military presence in Okinawa.

The Japan Times Weekly
July 2, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

      今年も例年のように同日、摩文仁の平和祈念公園で「沖縄戦全戦没者追悼式」が行われた。

      沖縄戦では、米軍の空爆、艦砲射撃に続いて地上戦が起きた。地元民間人の死者数は約10万人で、日本軍の戦死者よりも多かった。

      地元民の中には、スパイの疑いをかけられて日本軍に処刑された人たちや、米軍進攻に絶望して家族を殺害した後自殺した人たちもいた。沖縄戦は、住民を巻き込む戦闘の恐ろしさを示している。

      平和祈念公園にある「平和の礎」は、沖縄戦の全犠牲者の名を国籍、軍の階級に関係なく刻銘している。今年は720人の名が追加され、刻銘者は計23万9801人になった。このうち外国人は、1万4008人の米国人を含む1万4550人である。

      小泉首相の靖国神社参拝が近隣諸国と外交摩擦を起こしている今、平和の礎は戦没者慰霊施設の模範を示している。

      若い世代に沖縄戦を語り継ぐことは重要だ。青山学院高等部が2月に実施した入学試験の英語の問題で、糸数壕での元ひめゆり学徒（女子看護隊）の証言は「退屈だった」という意味の英文を出題し、問題になったのは悲しいことだ。沖縄戦では、ひめゆり部隊136人が犠牲になっている。

      一方、03年の高校生の修学旅行の目的地として、沖縄が京都、奈良、北海道を抜いて一位になったのは喜ばしいことだ。

      第二次世界大戦の影響は今も沖縄に残っている。沖縄は全国の米軍基地総面積の75％を占めている。ベトナム戦争、湾岸戦争、イラク戦争で沖縄の基地は米軍事作戦に重要な役割を果たした。しかし沖縄県民は、米軍が関係する事故、犯罪に悩まされている。政府は、沖縄の基地負担を軽減し、基地を縮小する取り組みを真剣に進めるべきだ。