Okinawa Peace Memorial Museum

The Okinawa Peace Memorial Museum is located on the southern tip of the island.
In 1945 the bloodiest battle in the Pacific began. It started with 90 consecutive days of bombing a “typhoon of steel” that disfigured mountains; leveled cities, destroyed the cultural and changed the topography forever. The Japanese military had sent large forces to fight a battle of attrition to gain time to fortify the Japanese mainland. Civilians were conscripted and the propaganda machine continued to tell of barbaric treatment if one was captured by the Americans. One particularly tragic consequence is fathers killing their daughters to spare them the brutal rapes they were suffer at the hands of the American soldiers. Imagine how devastating it would be when they found out the reality of the treatment of POWs. Casualties are estimated to be 200,000 of which 100,000 were civilians.
Having suffered directly from the brutality of war, Okinawans developed an attitude to life that respects personal dignity above all else. They reject any act related to war and cherish culture. The Peace Memorial is a testimony to the “Okiniwan Heart”.
There are a number of memorials in the park as well as the Peace Museum. Hundreds of black granite slabs are set in a giant semi circle. Each slab is inscribed with hundreds of names, the names of the casualties of the Battle of Okinawa. There is a section for civilians; one for American soldiers, Koreans, Japanese, Australian and Indian the list goes on. If you type in a name on the computer located in a kiosk, the location of the name of that person will appear.
The museum provides a graphic display of the horror of war by a series of movies and photographs. Children incinerated by flame throwers, schoolgirls gang-raped by soldiers, the landscape barren, without a tree or a structure of any kind standing, just rubble and weapons and bodies and body parts.
The dedication of the park reads,
“Whenever we reflect upon the realities of the Battle of Okinawa, we think nothing is more brutal, more degrading than war.
In the face of these horrifying experiences, no one could approve of, much less glorify war.
To be sure, it is human beings that would start a war, but what is more important is, is it not we, human beings, who could endeavor to prevent it?
Since the battle ended, we have detested all kinds of war, determined to build an island of peace.
This is our unwavering principle that we have come to cherish in return for a price too high to pay

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