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Published: November 28th 2009
Kim on the Ferry
This was the only time I have rushed to get on a boat in the past year...Ie Shima, Okinawa, Japan
Today I went bike riding on Ie Jima with my friend James. Despite some slight hick-ups along the way ("adventures", as I like to call them), we had such a great time!
We met up a little after 8 am, set up the bike rack on my car, and headed for Port Motobu. We made a brief detour on the way to the island so we could pull out some yen from an ATM. We were too excited about getting to Ie Shima that we didn't bother to do this on base before we left....haha. When we finally got up to Port Motobu there was no sign directing us to turn off of Rt 449 for the port. Because of that we spent about 30-40 minutes driving around looking for signs (asking for directions at the police station was our last resort...but we ended up not needing to do that). Once to finally located the Port the ferry was already waiting, fully loaded. We ran into the ticket office, bought round trip tickets, ran back to the car to offload our gear, and dashed towards the ferry. Literally 2 minutes after situating ourselves aboard the
ship, we pulled off the pier. Wow! Perfect timing!
The ride to Ie Jima took about 10 minutes and cost us around $20 each for a round trip ticket. We started the voyage topside because the weather was nice but as we neared Ie Jima it began to rain a little bit so we went inside.
It was around noon by the time we got to Ie Jima so James led the way to a really great local Japanese restaurant. There were no menus in English so we just asked for soba with pork rib. Soba is a staple for any Okinawan restaurant so I figured they would have it. It was probably the best soba I've had since being on Okinawa. Really yummy!
Our first destination was at Ernie Pyle's Memorial. Ernie Pyle was a war correspondent We snapped a few photos of the memorial and then James set up his camera on a timer so we could snap a shot with both of us together.
Here is some information on Ernie Pyle if you don't know who he is (taken from Wikipedia):
Ernest Taylor Pyle (August 3, 1900 - April 18, 1945) was an
American journalist who wrote as a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain from 1935 until his death in combat during World War II. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. His articles, about the out-of-the-way places he visited and the people who lived there, were a folksy style much like a personal letter to a friend. He enjoyed a following in some 300 newspapers
Early life and World War I Pyle was born on a tenant farm near Dana, Indiana. When he was almost 18 years old, he briefly joined the United States Navy Reserve. World War I ended soon after, so Pyle only served for three months.
After the war, Pyle attended Indiana University, traveled to the Orient with fraternity brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and edited the student newspaper—but he did not graduate. Instead, with a semester left to graduate, Pyle accepted a job at a paper in LaPorte, Indiana. He worked there three months before moving to Washington, D.C. A tabloid newspaper, The Washington Daily News, founded in 1921, had hired Pyle as a reporter. All of the editors were young, including Editor-in-Chief John M. Gleissner (one of Warren G. Harding's drinking buddies), Lee
G. Miller (author of An Ernie Pyle Album - Indiana to Ie Shima), Charles M. Egan, Willis "June" Thornton, and Paul McCrea.Pyle was named managing editor of the Washington Daily News, and served in that post for three years, all the while fretting that he was unable to do any writing.
While in Washington, he met Geraldine "Jerry" Siebolds, his "fearful and troubled wife", with whom he carried on a tempestuous relationship. They were married in 1925. Jerry suffered from intermittent bouts of mental illness and alcoholism. Pyle described her as "desperate within herself since the day she was born".
In 1926, Pyle tired of work at a desk in the news room, quit his job and headed out on the road to see America with his new wife in a Ford roadster. The Pyles traveled more than 9,000 miles before Ernie returned to his job with the Daily News. In 1928, he became the country's first aviation columnist, a role in which he continued for four years. Famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart summed it up: Any aviator who didn't know Pyle was a nobody. Pyle became managing editor of the Daily News in 1932.
The opportunity to return to writing
came in 1934 after he spent time on a leisurely trip to California to recuperate from a severe bout of flu. Upon his return, it was suggested that he write some columns about his trip to fill in for the vacationing syndicated columnist Heywood Broun. The series of eleven columns was a hit. G.B. ("Deac") Parker, editor in chief of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, said he had found in Pyle's vacation articles "a Mark Twain quality that knocked my eye out". In 1935, Pyle was relieved of his duties as managing editor and began writing a national column for the Scripps-Howard Alliance group. He wandered around the country and the Americas in his car, writing columns about the unusual places and people he met in his ramblings. Select columns were later compiled and published in Home Country. Nevertheless, Pyle suffered from fits of deep depression, never satisfied with the quality of his writing. The daily column continued until 1942, after America's entry into the war.
World War II Following the entry of the U.S.the following into World War II, Pyle became a war correspondent, applying his intimate style to the war. Instead of the movements of armies or the
activities of generals, Pyle generally wrote from the perspective of the common soldier, an approach that won him not only further popularity but also the Pulitzer Prize. Among his most widely read and reprinted columns is "The Death of Captain Waskow." His wartime writings are preserved in four books: Ernie Pyle In England, Here Is Your War, Brave Men, and Last Chapter.
After his return for a vacation, he wrote to his college roommate, Paige Cavanaugh: "Geraldine was drunk the afternoon I got home. From there she went on down. Went completely screwball. One night she tried the gas. Had to have a doctor." The two were divorced on April 14, 1942, and remarried by proxy while Pyle was in Africa on March 10, 1943.In 1944, he wrote a column urging that soldiers in combat get "fight pay" just as airmen were paid "flight pay." Congress passed a law authorizing $10 a month extra pay for combat infantrymen. The legislation was called "The Ernie Pyle bill."
He reported from the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. His reporting was interrupted several times by leaves to return home to care for Jerry while they were still married and to recuperate
from the stresses of combat, including nearly being killed in the accidental bombing by the Army Air Forces at the onset of Operation Cobra near Saint-Lo in Normandy in July 1944. Pyle publicly apologized to his readers in a column on September 5, 1944, that he had "lost track of the point of the war," and that another two weeks of coverage would have seen him hospitalized with a war neurosis. He hoped that a rest in his home in New Mexico would restore his vigor to go "warhorsing around the Pacific".
When Pyle decided to cover events in the Pacific, he butted heads with the U.S. Navy over its policy forbidding the use of the actual names of sailors in his reports and won an unsatisfying partial victory in that the ban was lifted only for him. His first cruise was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Cabot, in which he saw an "easy life" in comparison to the infantry in Europe, resulting in several unflattering portraits of the Navy. Pyle was soon criticized by fellow correspondents, newspaper editorials, and G.I.s for giving apparent short shrift to the difficulties of the war in the Pacific. During the tiff he admitted
that his heart was with the infantrymen in Europe, but he would persevere to report on their efforts during the invasion of Okinawa. He was noted for having premonitions of his own death and predicted before landing that he would not be alive a year hence.
On April 18, 1945, Pyle died on Ie Shima, an island off Okinawa Honto, after being hit by Japanese machine-gun fire. He was riding in a jeep with Lieutenant Colonel Joseph B. Coolidge (commanding officer of the 305th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division) and three other men. The road, which paralleled the beach two or three hundred yards inland, had been cleared of mines, and hundreds of vehicles had driven over it. As the vehicle reached a road junction, an enemy machine gun located on a coral ridge about a third of a mile away began firing at them. The men stopped their vehicle and jumped into a ditch. Pyle and Coolidge raised their heads to look around for the others; when they spotted them, Pyle smiled and asked Coolidge "Are you all right?" Those were his last words. The machine gun began shooting again, and Pyle was struck in the left temple (however,
the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site in Dana, Indiana, contains a telegram from the Government to Pyle's father stating Pyle was killed by a sniper).The colonel called for a medic, but none were present. It made no difference—Pyle had been killed instantly.
He was buried with his helmet on, laid to rest in a long row of graves among other soldiers, with an infantry private on one side and a combat engineer on the other. At the ten-minute service, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army were all represented. Pyle was later reburied at the Army cemetery on Okinawa, then moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific located in Honolulu. When Okinawa was returned to Japanese control after the war, the Ernie Pyle monument was one of only three American memorials allowed to remain in place. Pyle was among the few American civilians killed during the war to be awarded the Purple Heart.
Honors, archives, and burial Pyle's legacy is preserved at Indiana University, where he began his journalism training. The School of Journalism is housed in "Ernie Pyle Hall," and scholarships, established soon after his death, are still given to students who have ability in journalism, the
promise of future success in the profession, and a military service record. A major initial contribution to the scholarships came from the proceeds of the world premiere of the film, The Story of G.I. Joe, which starred Burgess Meredith as Pyle.
In 1947, his last home in Albuquerque, New Mexico was made into the first branch library of the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System, named in honor of its famous occupant. Today, the Ernie Pyle Library houses a small collection of adult and children's books, as well as Pyle memorabilia and archives. The bulk of his archives, however, are at the Lilly Library at Indiana University; the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site at Dana, Indiana; and the Wisconsin State Historical Society. The Ernie Pyle State Historic Site in Dana, Indiana includes Pyle's boyhood home, fully restored. The site also features a World War II-era Quonset hut containing many of Pyle's army artifacts (including his Purple Heart), plus items donated by the people of the community where Pyle grew up. Pyle is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
A stone monument was erected on Ie Shima at the site where Pyle
was killed. The monument has the form of a truncated pyramid echoing the truncated-triangle shape of the "Statue of Liberty" Division's insignia on the upper facade, with engraved text below: "At this spot the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945."
Next we went to the Ie Jima Lighthouse. Unfortunately, there was a gate blocking us from going up close to it but the bike ride out was pretty easy-going. On the way to the lighthouse we biked along a road that was surrounded by farms. Because we were on an island and the area we were biking through was very rural, there was hardly any traffic. We saw more cows than cars in fact.
After taking a few photos and fixing my bike seat (it was too low), we headed north on the island. This required us to go up a small hill. James had a racing bike so he pedaled up the hill without a problem. I on the other hand had to put some effort into it. By the time we reached flatter ground my legs were a bit tired. Luckily, we came upon the abandoned airfield that was built and
used during WWII. Of course we had to take some photos. I tried to imagine what it must have looked like during the war...hangar bays, barracks, planes flying in and out,etc. Today it is completely surrounded by farms so it was somewhat difficult to imagine the area built up to support a bunch of aircraft.
Here is some information about Ie Shima Airfield (from Wikipedia):
Ie Shima Airfield (伊江島補助飛行場, Iejima Hojo Hikōjō) is a gunnery and training facility, managed by the United States Marine Corps and a former World War II airfield complex on Ie Shima, an island located off the northwest coast of Okinawa Island in the East China Sea. The airfield was inactivated after 1946 and largely returned to Japanese control in 1972.
History
Invasion and construction
The airfields on Ie Shima was built by the Japanese prior to the American invasion and subsequent Battle of Okinawa in April 1943. It was seized by elements of the United States Army 77th Infantry Division after intermittent bombardment of the island by the United States Navy Fifth Fleet from 25 March through 16 April when the invasion of the island commenced. The island was not declared
secure until 24 April.
Prior to the invasion, the Japanese commander on Okinawa, believing that Ie Shima could not be held for more than a few days, ordered that the airfields on the island be destroyed by the end of March 1945. Thorough demolitions followed. The runways were ditched and blasted and the entire central area sown with mines, as defense against possible airborne attack. The airfields were also mined by unused aerial bombs and mines made from drums of gasoline.
History Invasion and construction Base development proceeded rapidly once the mopping up was completed. Although initially delayed by the large number of mines, soldiers from the 805th Engineer Aviation Battalion, 1892nd Engineer Aviation Battalion, and several other engineering units quickly repaired the enemy airfields and began the construction of new runways, along with a series of interlinking taxiways, revetments, maintenance facilities along with a containment facility for personnel. The coral foundation of the island and the rubble of the town of Ie facilitated the work. There was ample room for dispersal area, and the sloping ground on the sides and ends of the central plateau provided space for housing base personnel. Japanese civilians were evacuated to Tokashiki
in the Kerama Islands. Engineers discovered a large limestone basin on the north coast which produced 100,000 gallons of fresh water. Under these conditions work proceeded rapidly and by 10 May one fighter group was based on the island. By the middle of the month three runways were ready for operational use along with taxiways. In additon, radar and air warning facilities installed, although much construction work remained.
Operational units assigned By 14 June three fighter groups and one night fighter squadron were operating from the airfield. As expected, Ie Shima proved to be an ideal base for the support of operations on Okinawa and for preparing later attacks on the Japanese homeland.
* Headquarters, 43d Bombardment Group, Fifth Air Force
B-24 Liberator, 26 Jul-10 Nov 1945
63d Bombardment Squadron, 25 Jul-10 Dec 1945
64th Bombardment Squadron, 26 Jul-10 Dec 1945
65th Bombardment Squadron, 24 Jul-10 Dec 1945
* Headquarters, 90th Bombardment Group, Fifth Air Force
B-24 Liberator, 10 Aug-Dec 1945
319th Bombardment Squadron, 12 Aug-23 Nov 1945
320th Bombardment Squadron, 10 Aug-23 Nov 1945
321st Bombardment Squadron, 15 Aug-23 Nov 1945
400th Bombardment Squadron, 11 Aug-23
Nov 1945
* Headquarters, 345th Bombardment Group, Fifth Air Force
B-25 Mitchell, 25 Jul-10 Dec 1945
498th Bombardment Squadron, 20 Jul-1 Dec 1945
499th Bombardment Squadron, 20 Jul-1 Dec 1945
500th Bombardment Squadron, 20 Jul-1 Dec 1945
501st Bombardment Squadron, 20 Jul-1 Dec 1945
* Headquarters, 71st Reconnaissance Group, Fifth Air Force
Various Aircraft, Aug-26 Oct 1945
17th Reconnaissance Squadron, 29 Jul-26 Oct 1945
82d Reconnaissance Squadron, 28 Jul-7 Oct 1945
110th Reconnaissance Squadron, 28 Jul-6 Oct 1945
* 28th Reconnaissance Squadron (Detachment) Seventh Air Force
Various Aircraft, 23 Apr-8 May 1945;14 May-21 Jun 1945
* Headquarters, 3d Air Commando Group, Fifth Air Force
P-51 Mustang, 9 Aug-27 Oct 1945
3d Fighter (Commando) Squadron, 9 Aug-27 Oct 1945
Squadron operated from Atsugi Airfield, Japan, 20 Sep-7 Oct 1945
4th Fighter (Commando) Squadron, 9 Aug-27 Oct 1945
Squadron operated from Atsugi Airfield, Japan, 20 Sep-7 Oct 1945
318th Troop Carrier Squadron, 25 Aug-7 Sep 1945, C-47 Skytrain
Squadron operated from Atsugi Airfield, Japan, 20 Sep-7 Oct 1945
* 67th Troop Carrier Squadron (433d Troop
Carrier Group), Fifth Air Force
C-46 Commando, 9-25 Sep 1945
* 68th Troop Carrier Squadron (433d Troop Carrier Group), Fifth Air Force
C-46 Commando, 10-30 Sep 1945
* 70th Troop Carrier Squadron (433d Troop Carrier Group), Fifth Air Force
C-46 Commando, 15-30 Sep 1945
* Headquarters, 8th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force
P-38 Lightning, 6 Aug-22 Nov 1945
35th Fighter Squadron, 9 Aug-21 Nov 1945
36th Fighter Squadron, 6 Aug-21 Nov 1945
80th Fighter Squadron, 5 Aug-25 Nov 1945
* Headquarters, 49th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force
P-38 Lightning, 16 Aug-15 Sep 1945
7th Fighter Squadron, 17 Aug-15 Sep 1945
8th Fighter Squadron, 17 Aug-15 Sep 1945
9th Fighter Squadron, 16 Aug-15 Sep 1945
* Headquarters, 58th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force
P-47 Thunderbolt, 10 Jul-26 Oct 1945
69th Fighter Squadron, 8 Jul-26 Oct 1945
310th Fighter Squadron, 9 Jul-26 Oct 1945
311th Fighter Squadron, 8 Jul-26 Oct 1945
* Headquarters, 318th Fighter Group, Twentieth/Eighth Air Force
P-38 Lightning, 30 Apr-Nov 1945
19th Fighter Squadron, 30 Apr-Nov 1945
73d Fighter Squadron, 30 Apr-Nov 1945
333d Fighter Squadron, 30 Apr-Nov 1945
* Headquarters, 348th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force
P-51 Mustang, 9 Jul-Oct 1945
340th Fighter Squadron, 9 Jul-9 Sep 1945
341st Fighter Squadron, 12 Jul-9 Sep 1945
460th Fighter Squadron, 25 Jul-24 NOv 1945
* Headquarters, 413th Fighter Group, Twentieth/Eighth Air Force
P-47 Thunderbolt, 19 May-10 Nov 1945
1st Fighter Squadron, 19 May-17 Nov 1945
21st Fighter Squadron, 10 May-21 Nov 1945
34th Fighter Squadron, 19 May-17 Nov 1945
* Headquarters, 475th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force
P-38 Lightning, 8 Aug-23 Sep 1945
431st Fighter Squadron, 8 Aug-8 Oct 1945
432d Fighter Squadron, 8 Aug-28 Sep 1945
433d Fighter Squadron, 8 Aug-28 Sep 1945
* Headquarters, 507th Fighter Group, Twentieth/Eighth Air Force
P-47 Thunderbolt, 29 Jul 1945-29 Jan 1946
463d Fighter Squadron, 24 Jun 1945-29 Jan 1946
464th Fighter Squadron, 24 Jun 1945-29 Jan 1946
465th Fighter Squadron, 24 Jun 1945-29 Jan 1946
* 421st Night Fighter Squadron (315th Composite Wing), 24 Jul-25 Nov 1945, P-61 Black Widow
* 547th
Night Fighter Squadron (V Fighter Command), 13 Aug-7 Oct 1945, P-61 Black Widow
* 549th Night Fighter Squadron (Seventh Air Force), 8 Jun-1 Dec 1945, P-61 Black Widow
* Headquarters, 301st Fighter Wing, 31 Jul-29 Nov 1945
* 160th Liaison Squadron (308th Bombardment Wing), 15 Aug-22 Sep 1945, L-5, UC-64
Japanese Surrender Delegation On August 19, 1945, two B-25Js of the 345th Bombardment Group and 80th Fighter Squadron P-38 Lightings escorted two Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers. The Japanese aircraft carried a delegation from Tokyo en route to Manila to meet General MacArthur's staff to work out details of the surrender.
The Betty bombers were painted white with green crosses on the wings, fuselage and vertical tail surface and use the call signs Bataan I and Bataan II. After the delegation landed at Ie Shima, they boarded a C-54 Skymaster and were flown to Manila. After the meeting, they returned to Ie Shima. One of the two Bettys crashed on its way back to Japan out of fuel, due to an incorrect conversion of liters to gallons when the bombers were refueled. The crew were helped by local fisherman, and returned to Tokyo by
train.
Postwar use With the end of the war, many of the units assigned to Ie Shima were reassigned or inactivated. By the end of 1946, the facility was closed and placed in reserve status. Most of the island was returned to Japanese control in 1972.
Current use The three runways that were in use when World War II ended still exist. The United States military maintains the western runway as a small unimproved 5000 foot coral runway. It also has a simulated LHA deck, and a drop zone for parachute training, being part of a military training facility operated by the United States Marine Corps. There is a detachment of usually less than 20 Marines which operates the range.
The eastern runway is now Iejima Airport and is used by a small civilian air carrier, and the central one is now abandoned and is used as a thoroughfare for residents to get from the north to the south side of the island.
Mt Gusuku is the largest formation on Ie Shima so we biked to it's base and then hiked up to the top. My legs were tired at this point so when we reached the
top my legs were burning! The view was excellent...we could see the entire island! It was really neat to see all the different plots of farmland on the island. The ocean around the island looked great too...I totally need to come back and do some diving or snorkeling! We snapped a few photos and then headed back down to our bikes. On the way up to the top of Mt Gusuku and then on the way down, James and I smelled something that was very pleasant. It could have been the plants surrounding us on the walk up or it might have been smoke coming for a burn pit below. I thought it smelled like sweet potatoes but James didn't really think it smelled like anything in particular. We both agreed that whatever it was, it smelt good!
Info on Mt Gusuku from Wikipedia:
Mount Gusuku (城山, Gusuku-yama) is a mountain located in the village of Ie, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. The traditional Japanese reading for the mountain is "Shiro-yama;" however, in Okinawan, it is pronounced "Gusuku-yama." The meaning of 城 in both languages is "castle." Locally, the mountain is sometimes referred to as Tatchū (タッチュー). The mountain is 172.2 m (565.0 ft) in height.
Our last destination was Niya-Thiya Cave. This was the location where thousands of Okinawans sought shelter during WWII from the aerial bombardments of the American forces. Although the cave was rather large, it would have been extremely cramped with a thousand people in there. Once again, I tried to imagine what the cave must have looked like in the past with a bunch of people seeking settler in there but it was hard to imagine. The area is so quiet and peaceful nowadays so it was hard to imagine what it must have been like during WWII.
We made it back to Ie Port with about 30 minutes to spare. Yes, we could have tried to visit some more sites on the island but we didn't want to miss the ferry. It was the last one going back to Okinawa for the day. We would have been stranded for the night if we had missed it...not cool.
The trip to Ie Shima was excellent. The weather was perfect, the scenery/sites were great, and the people were extremely friendly. I definitely want to make another trip back here if possible so I can finish exploring the rest of the island.
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Richard Murphy
non-member comment
Leper Colony
I served in the Army on Okinawa from 1958 to 1960, was dicharged and spent 8 years working for the Army as a civilian. In the the early 1960's a Catholic chaplin and I visted a leper colony on Ie Shima. I saw no mention of a leper colony in this article. Does it still exsist? I saw the Ernie Pyle Memorial. Also when I was in Bloomington, IN, at IU I saw many works of Ernie Pyle. Thanks You!!