Okinawa Battle Victims Remembered on 80th Anniv. of U.S. Landing

Zamami, Okinawa Pref., March 26 (Jiji Press)--A memorial ceremony was held in an Okinawa Prefecture village Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. military's landing on the Kerama Islands, which preceded fierce ground battles in the southwestern Japan prefecture during World War II. 

Bereaved families and others prayed for peace and the victims of the ground battles during the ceremony, hosted by the village of Zamami in the Kerama island chain about 40 kilometers west of the main island of Okinawa.

Over 200,000 people, including civilians, were killed in the ground battles on Okinawa islands. The U.S. military's landing on the morning of March 26, 1945, led to a mass suicide using grenades and other means, which left an estimated 290 Zamami residents dead.

The total number of military and civilian causalities in Zamami reached about 1,200, including those who died in air raids and naval gunfire.

"We learned the horror of war and the preciousness of peace through the last world war," Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said during the event. "It's our duty to correctly convey to the next generation the absurdity of war and the preciousness of peace." He is the first Okinawa governor who attended the annual memorial in Zamami.

"The village is rich in nature, and it has become a wonderful tourist spot," said Toshiko Takaesu, 93, a representative of local residents. "I pray that this peace will last forever."

Yoko Teruya, 87, who was an elementary school pupil at the time of the landing, said: "I was indescribably scared of incendiary bombs. I don't want to see any such scene ever again, and I don't want the younger generation to see it."

The U.S. forces moved on to land on the central part of the main island of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. Organized fighting between Japan and the United States ended on June 23 that year after the fierce ground battles. One in four residents of the prefecture is said to have died in the battles.
 
On Friday, another memorial ceremony will take place in the village of Tokashiki, also in the Kerama chain. In Tokashiki, more than 300 people died in a mass suicide.

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