Tag - battle-of-okinawa

 
 

BATTLE OF OKINAWA

Yoshiko Goya speaks of her wartime experience during an interview in Nishihara, Okinawa Prefecture, on May 23.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 23, 2025
Battle of Okinawa 1945: Memories of fire, flight and loss
As an 8-year-old, Yoshiko Goya fled her birthplace with six other family members and relatives. In the end, only three survived.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a ceremony in the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN / History
Jun 23, 2025
Okinawa marks 80th anniversary of end of ferocious ground battle
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke of the horrific ground war involving Okinawan residents, noting that 200,000 lives were lost, or about one in four Okinawans.
Former boy soldier Yoshimitsu Zukeyama speaks of his wartime experience during an interview in May in Ogimi, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2025
Battle of Okinawa turned child into a 'ghost soldier' still haunted by memories
Emotionally and physically depleted, the boy began to unravel after the war ended, with locals calling him a “ghost soldier.”
Takeshi Yamaguchi, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa Prefecture, speaks during an online interview on June 3.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2025
Okinawa remains at mercy of armed forces, says expert
The prefecture hosts many U.S. military bases, following its occupation by U.S. armed forces after Japan's defeat in the Battle of Okinawa in the closing days of World War II.
A U.S. military plane takes off at the Kadena U.S. Air Force Base in Okinawa Prefecture in August 2023.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2025
Okinawa marks 80 years since 'Typhoon of Steel,' with U.S. presence still a burden
On June 23, Japan’s southernmost prefecture commemorates the end of the Battle of Okinawa, among the bloodiest ground battles of World War II.
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, meet with survivors of the war as they visit the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum in Itoman on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2025
Imperial family mourns WWII victims in two-day visit to Okinawa
The visit was Princess Aiko's first to Okinawa, which reflected the imperial couple's wish that memories of the war be passed onto the next generation.
The entrance to a cave on Okinawa’s main island where a former Japanese soldier confessed to having killed a mother and child during World War II
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 2, 2025
How the scars of war in Okinawa are being healed by a psychologist
A clinical psychologist has formed grief care groups for survivors of war across Okinawa to help try to heal their emotional scars.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki speaks during an event held on Ie Island in Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday to read aloud the names of people killed in fierce battles in the prefecture during World War II.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2025
Event to read aloud names of victims of Okinawa battles begins
"I sincerely hope that Okinawa's wish for peace will spread" through the event, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said in an opening speech.
The beach on Aka Island, Okinawa Prefecture, where U.S. forces first landed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 26, 2025
How a remote island escaped mass suicide in Battle of Okinawa
Residents had been told that, if captured, women would be assaulted and men mutilated by U.S. soldiers.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako arrive to greet guests at a spring garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Garden in Tokyo on April 22.
JAPAN
May 7, 2025
Emperor's family to visit Okinawa in June
During the trip, they will pray for the more than 200,000 people who lost their lives eight decades ago in the Battle of Okinawa.
A child welfare center in Naha in May 1966
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 14, 2025
In Okinawa, war trauma carried by orphans still lingers
“War orphans were pushed to the margins of society after the war," says one academic.
Residents of Zamami, Okinawa Prefecture, attend a memorial ceremony on Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. military's landing on the Kerama Islands during World War II.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025
Victims of Okinawa battle remembered on 80th anniversary of U.S. landing
Over 200,000 people, including civilians, were killed in ground battles on islands in Okinawa.
Rieko Tamaki (left) tells her story about the Battle of Okinawa to university student Hinata Kinjo at a park in Yaese, Okinawa Prefecture, near the area where Tamaki’s brother was killed during the conflict.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Mar 24, 2025
Battle of Okinawa survivor passes down memories of war
The 90-year-old woman still remembers the final moments of her then-14-year-old brother's life during the 1945 battle.
A man visits the Cornerstone of Peace, a monument in the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, with his family, including his great-grandchildren, on Sunday, the 79th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2024
Okinawa marks 79 years since end of fierce ground battle
During a memorial service, participants observed a moment of silence in honor of the more than 200,000 war dead and renewed a pledge for peace.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2023
Victims mourned 78 years after end of Battle of Okinawa
Participants in a ceremony hosted by the prefectural government observed a minute of silence for the over 200,000 victims and renewed a pledge to pursue peace.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2023
New device to speed up disposal of dud shells from Battle of Okinawa
The explosion-proof container is expected to reduce the evacuation area in a residential district during bomb disposal work to one third of the present size.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2023
Tsuru Motomura, survivor of WWII student nursing corps, dies at 97
As a leader of the survivors of the Himeyuri corps, Motomura helped establish the Himeyuri Peace Museum in the Okinawa city of Itoman.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 16, 2022
Keeping history alive, Okinawa group tells of wartime student nurses
In the pitch darkness of Nunumachi Gama, 16- and 17-year-old girls were forced to work as student nurses during the Battle of Okinawa, 77 years ago.
JAPAN / History / EXPLAINER
Jun 23, 2020
The Battle of Okinawa: Fierce fighting at the end of World War II
By the end of the battle, around 100,000 Japanese soldiers had died, either killed in combat or by suicide.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jun 6, 2020
Japan Times 1995: Police storm jet, rescue hostages in Hokkaido
Riot police storm a hijacked All Nippon Airways jumbo jet in dramatic predawn rescue, rescuing 364 captives to end a nearly 16-hour standoff.

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