Okinawa, Japan

            Wednesday, 27 Mar 2019 – Our ship docked in Naha, Okinawa, Japan at 7:00 AM, where we had booked a 4-hour excursion, “Battle of Okinawa.”  In order to meet our tour group in the Insignia Lounge at 8:30 AM, we sat our alarms for 6:30 AM, to give us plenty of time for breakfast and to pack up for the excursion.

We had seen the tour buses from our cabin window.  They were parked only a short distance from the gangway; however, to get to them, we were routed through the cruise terminal, first up the stairs and through security with our passports and cruise cards, and then back downstairs again.  Jesse remarked that the excursion should be rated as strenuous because of the walk to get to the buses!  Our bus pulled out from the pier at 8:47 AM.  As we traveled towards the southeast corner of Okinawa, passing by several residential and commercial areas, our tour guide, Egee, described the sights as we rode through the city.

Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu (Nansei) Islands of Japan.  The island is approximately 70 miles long and an average 7 miles wide, and has an area of 466.02 square miles.  It is roughly 400 miles south of the rest of Japan and 300 miles north of Taiwan.  The island is home to 1.423 million residents, while the city itself is home to about 320,000.

Okinawa has been a critical strategic location for the United States Armed Forces since the end of World War II.  The island hosts around 26,000 US military personnel, about half of the total complement of the United States Forces Japan.  US bases in Okinawa played critical roles in the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan, and Iraq War.  The presence of the US military in Okinawa has caused political controversy both on the island and elsewhere in Japan.  Okinawa's population is among the longest living peoples in the world.  Residents have less cancer, heart disease and dementia than Americans, while Okinawan women live longer than anywhere else on Earth.

At Exit, Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters

Our first stop was the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters, located where Rear Admiral Ota and his men desperately fought to the end on June 13, 1945.  We walked down the 101 steps into the narrow tunnels of the headquarters to see the commanding officer's room, staff room, generator rooms and more, giving us insight into the experiences the soldiers and officers had inside the headquarters.  It was interesting and, at times, creepy.  There was a shrine in Rear Admiral Ota’s room.  Exiting the tunnels was much easier, by walking up a sloped ramp to the surface.

After rejoining our coach, we passed through lush green fields and beautiful countryside en route to the Peace Memorial Park.  Upon arrival, Egee first took us to the Cornerstone of Peace, a semi-circular avenue of stones engraved with the names of all the dead from the Battle of Okinawa, organized by nationality.  A total of 241,525 names are engraved, including 149,502 Okinawans, mostly civilians, and 14,009 US military.

Cornerstone of Peace

Next, Egee then took us to the museum, where she purchased our tour tickets.  The museum is huge, and we didn’t have the time (or energy) to stop to read the captions for all of the displays.  Some of the photos were definitely too horrible to show in the US; that is, photos of dead bodies, etc.  At one point, we sat for a little while and watched a film showing the actual allied landing and portions of the battle.  The film showed many of the locals leaping off a cliff to their death to avoid being captured by the Allied Forces.  After we finished our tour of the museum, we went back outside to the Cornerstone of Peace.  We considered looking for the US section, but that would have involved a lot of walking and probably also more time than we had available.

The reason Japanese forces held out at Okinawa was that they expected the Americans to invade Japan from there, and they wanted to give Japan as long as possible to prepare for the invasion.  Therefore, they had no intention of surrendering.  Most of the Okinawa population died in one of the following ways: they starved as a result of the Japanese military hoarding food supplies; they were forced to wear Japanese uniforms and fight; they committed suicide; or they died in the crossfire.  The battle of Okinawa is considered the fifth bloodiest battle of World War II involving American troops.

We returned to the ship in time for lunch.  Doug and Kathy had been on the excursion with us, and we met them for lunch.  We had interesting discussions about DNA genealogy.  Kathy is adopted and actually found siblings through her DNA research.  After lunch, Sally napped, and so we never made it to the ship’s pool.  However, we did dance before dinner.