Eiki Ishikawa was terrified of the heavy U.S. artillery fire whenever he went out to dig for potatoes during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

Then in ninth grade, Ishikawa was one of the male students aged 14 to 19 who were mobilized by the Imperial Japanese Army as members of the Tekketsu Kinnotai (Iron and Blood Imperial Corps) after U.S. forces landed on Okinawa Island on April 1, 1945. He was assigned to a kitchen detail.

On the night of April 12, the detail had its first casualties. Two students were killed by a shell that hit the unit's two-story wooden dormitory in Naha. Looking at their bodies, Ishikawa thought: "We will all be like them sooner or later."