Picking up the pieces in Japan.

[drron]

Some good views as we tracked down the island of Okinawa.

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[drron]

More views of Okinawa.

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And here we are.

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We had checked in one of our carry ons as we had scissors and large aerosols.It came out quickly.

And a confession.My walking pole wouldn't fit in either of our carry ons so I carried it.The check in agent had notified the gate I needed pre boarding.So I used my pole and walked with a limp to be second on.On arriving at OKA it is true.Flight cures you of any mobility problems!
So off in the Toyota Rental shuttle to pick up our car.

 

[drron]

An easy time picking up our car.A fellow with great English,a 3 level upgrade and a GPS in English.So very little trouble negotiating our way to the Doubletree Schuri Castle where we were spending the first 2 nights.A review is here-
Doubletree Schuri castle,Okinawa.

Our bag which we had sent by the Takubin service was in our room on our arrival.A great system.It was dark and we didn't feel like going out and not particularly hungry so ate in their cafe.Mrsdrron had the pasta carbonara and I had the burger on a sqid bun with some spicy chicken wings for an extra 300 yen.Washed down with a Marlborough SB.

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[drron]

Our first full day in Okinawa.Mainly sunny but periods of heavy rain.Fortunately not at important times.No breakfast at the DT so we had our coffee and a muesli bar.First we thought we would go to the Castle-obviously a reconstruction because by June 1945 it no longer existed.But it was a Sunday and there were large crowds.All the nearby parking stations were full so we looked at our GPS for what to do next.
The easiest place to get to was the Japanese Naval Commanders HQ.However the route was mainly by very narrow streets but ended up being no problem.It was also free parking and although <20 places most were empty.

Now those who believe there was no justification for using the A bomb to end WW2 should come here.The figures for deaths in Hiroshima has been estimated to be 90-146,000 and 39-80,000 in Nagasaki.However the higher figures are the figures for dead and injured whilst the lower estimates is fatalities only.
In Okinawa the Peace Museum lists ~ 150,000 Okinawans who died in the 3 month battle,77000 Japanese troops and 14,000 Americans so more than the higher estimate from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.But there was more.Before and after photos from June 1945 and this century-

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No wonder there are lots of paper cranes here.

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And some more facts.

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[drron]

More information.

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Okinawan conscripts.

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Some photos of the time.

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And now the entrance to the tunnels.

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Mrsdrron decided to stay above ground.

 

[drron]

So down the 102 steps I go.

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How the Commander lived and where he and senior officers committed suicide.

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Many pictures showing life underground.The ordinary ranks slept in the tunnels.Second picture showing the construction of the tunnels.

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Medical facilities.

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Now a lot of the pictures had lights shining on them so impossible for the simple Sony to shoot them.But here is one I borrowed from the Stars and Stripes.

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The Petty Officer's room.
Actually the Stars and Stripes was a great way of keeping an eye on the typhoon heading towards Okinawa.There is another due Friday.

 

[drron]

The tunnels were often narrow, sometimes with low ceilings and sometimes with rocks sticking out into the space. An example of this to give the geologist something to think about.

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This is one of the Petty Officer's rooms.

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One of the exits for attacks.

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And outside one of the graves for the unidentified remains.

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[drron]

Whilst I was underground mrsdrron was taking pictures of flowers, planes, graves and strange old men appearing out of the ground.

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[tgh]

Good to see you enjoying some better weather

 

[drron]

As I said there were periods of heavy rain but we were lucky.Unbeknowns to us at this time was the approaching Typhoon Trami.

 

[drron]

Quite appropriately sitting on the top of the highest tree on this hill was a dove.An Oriental Turtle Dove to be precise.

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Great views.

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See the rain tgh.We dodged it.

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And quite a few memorials.

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The last the emblem of the Japanese navy then.

 

[drron]

Another building on top with photos and videos from the 40s.

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And best to end with more paper cranes.

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[drron]

We then headed to the city markets.A maze of narrow streets.We found a park and had a local poliseman to explain how to use the payment machine.Pretty crowded as a Sunday but a few shops and a lot of restaurants closed.Also a lot of cheap touristy stuff so we didn't stay long.

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Purple sweet potato mousse.Yummo!

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Now those are prawns.
But the Danes are doing a knockoff of Spam.

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[drron]

We now headed towards Peace Park.Our GPS sometimes played little tricks on us probably because there were new road works.Here we should have gone straight over the bridge in this picture But Delihah told us to turn right out to a little point.There were some nice looking seafood restaurants there but all busy and no parking.Also if you look in the other direction from the photo below you look straight down the runway of OKA.Obviously a good spot for plane spotting.

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But we headed for peace park.Again lots of free parking and a huge area of land.

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[drron]

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We then drove up to the museum.

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[drron]

So there aremarble blocks with everyone's name who is known to have died in the battle for Okinawa.

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[drron]

Each block is inscribed on both sides.The number of names is just unbelievable done this way.

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This name stood out.Obviously not related.The UK also involved.

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A sad and humbling experience near the end.obviously 4 generations of a Japanese family wit a woman probably in her 90s or even over 100 placing flowers and food beneath a name on one of the blocks.

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[bPeteb]

I also felt confident now about driving in Japan having been confronted with terrible weather and a GPS with no English.hopefully we return one day.

Glad you had no problems with the driving. We (I) also found it easy. The only thing I din't enjoy was endless tunnles on Hokkaido. We eventually sped like demons up on Hokkaido. Pretty much so that we didn't hold up lines of traffic. I'm thinking on Honshu and around the big cities police would be much more common, and vigilant.

 

[drron]

On the way back I stopped at the Himeyuri Cenotaph.A moving place where a lot of Japanese female high school students were forced to work and die.

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[drron]

The accounts really sound terrible and paint the Americans as guilty of murdering schoolgirls.

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But these accounts give a clue to the real killers.Why weren't the girls told how to surrender?Surely if they put their hands in the air or carried a white flag many would have survived.Unfortunately they were told to commit suicide.The grenades that some used were given to them by Japanese military men as a way of committing suicide.These are all well documented.The US had many Japanese speakers with the army-they were Hawaiins.
The Japanese Government still tries to censor textbooks and many Okinawans resent it.

Nobuaki Kinjo was 16 when he murdered his mother, six-year-old brother and four-year-old sister. Then he went looking for Americans to kill. "We went insane," he told a court recently. "We were told by the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army that we should commit suicide rather than be captured."

Japanese outraged by rewriting of Okinawa history

It is still going on.
Why Japan's Textbook Controversy Is Getting Worse

But let's end with some beauty.First the memorial is built beside one of the cave's entrance.

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