A former member of an Imperial Japanese Army nursing unit that was made up of female students spoke to school pupils recently about her fears that Japan could again become involved in armed conflict.
"If this country starts moving away from peace, I want you to stop (this)," Kiku Nakayama said to some 180 high school students who visited Naha, the capital of Okinawa, from Osaka during a school trip.
Nakayama joined the Shiraume Kango Gakutotai student corps at Okinawa Prefectural Daini Girls High School in March 1945 at age 16. The unit was assigned to a field hospital created in a bunker in the hill of Yaesedake in the southern part of Okinawa Island.