World Travel

Do to high winds and even higher waves..all Whale watching tours have been cancelled for the entire week..🐳...and while it was our main reason for the visit here....we explored the island and it history and visited the Himeyuri Peace Museum....

" Okinawa, the southernmost of Japan’s main islands, became a decisive battleground in the final stages of World War II. The Battle of Okinawa, fought from April to June 1945, was one of the bloodiest conflicts in the Pacific. American forces sought to capture the island as a launching point for a potential invasion of mainland Japan, while Japanese troops defended it fiercely, prepared to fight to the last man.
During the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, teenage schoolgirls—most famously the Himeyuri student corps from the First Girls’ High School of Okinawa and the Okinawa Women’s Normal School—were conscripted by the Japanese army as auxiliary nurses.
These 222 girls (aged 14-17) and 18 teachers trained briefly in nursing before being sent into frontline hospital caves near Shuri and Haebaru, where they endured hellish conditions: amputations without anesthesia, carrying stretchers under shelling, cleaning maggot-infested wounds, and living amid dysentery, starvation, and the dead.[latimes +2]
As U.S. forces closed in, many units were abruptly abandoned by doctors; the girls fled into other caves or the battlefield, where soldiers often blocked their escape, fearing they’d be captured and “dishonored.” Over 136 Himeyuri died from combat, disease, starvation, or suicide—some coerced by troops or choosing grenades to avoid rape, a fate they’d been propagandized to dread.
Other groups like the Shiraume, Fuji Gakutotai, and students from Yaeyama (near Ishigaki) faced similar horrors in southern Okinawa caves, supporting the 24th Division with nursing and messaging until the war’s end.
Their story is preserved at the Himeyuri Peace Museum in Itoman, with survivor testimonies highlighting the tragedy of child soldiers in caves.
The battle devastated the island. Over 200,000 people died—among them soldiers from both sides and tens of thousands of Okinawan civilians caught in the crossfire. Many locals were forced into hiding, and entire villages were destroyed. Beyond the immense human suffering, the battle also marked a turning point: the United States’ victory at Okinawa paved the way for Japan’s eventual surrender after the atomic bombings later that summer."Read more