Note: Last week, I participated in the 3rd Asia Inter-Religious Conference on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution. For two days before the conference, most of the 220 participants also experienced an exposure tour highlighting Okinawa's past, present and future. This is the second of three posts.
In the U.S., we learn that Okinawa was where the Japanese military fought long and hard, contesting every inch of ground. We know it was a bloody battle that lasted months and one in which both sides suffered tremendous casualties. What I just learned during my visit to Okinawa was the toll in Okinawan civilian lives, which was greater than the losses of the Japanese military force. The civilians who died included infants, small children, older children, adults in the prime of life, and the aged.
There is, for example, a museum and memorial to female high school students pressed into service as a nursing corps for the Japanese military. The girls worked in kerosene-lit caves that were used as field hospitals during the prolonged fighting. They sometimes had to physically restrain wounded soldiers because there were not enough anesthesia medications for all the wounded who needed surgery. In the end, almost all of these young women died, many of them choosing suicide because they were sure the invading Americans would rape and torture them.
Many civilians were killed by “forced mass suicides” ordered by Japanese military officers. In the case of ethnic minorities, thousands were executed because the Japanese military feared they would become informers and spies for the American forces. The island is dotted with memorial stones to the over 100,000 civilians who died there in 1945. In museums, memorials and firsthand testimony by survivors of the battle of Okinawa, I learned over and over of atrocities, cruelty, and extreme suffering. Photos, grave sites, memorials, relics of the fighting, even areas where unexploded shells are still lodged and bullet-pocked walls preserved to show the ferocity of the fighting, are everywhere.
Most astoundingly, even the survivors I encountered showed only compassion and forgiveness toward the combatants on both sides. One elderly gentleman told how, as a 14 year old boy, he was given two grenades, one to kill U.S. soldiers and one for himself. Both were duds. Not knowing what to do, he and his older brother watched a neighbor kill his family with a rock. The two boys returned to their family and did the same, then walked toward the battle to die themselves. On the way, they encountered a Japanese soldier who told them to flee and save themselves. At that moment, said the Okinawan, he realized what he had done and how he had been duped into committing murder. As he matured, he came to understand that God forgave him. He feels that he has survived to teach forgiveness by telling his story.
My goodness, what a goldmine of inspiring information. I am so glad to have found this blog. Thank you Mr. Mele for your ongoing contribution to saving the world.
Posted by: John Dahl | February 05, 2013 at 12:07 AM