REFILING: Postwar60: Ex-Himeyuri students recall war, hope for peace

Asian Political News, Sept 12, 2005

ITOMAN, Japan, Sept. 9 Kyodo

(EDS: FIVE PHOTOS ATTACHED TO THIS STORY ARE AVAILABLE VIA E-MAIL. THE PHOTO ADVISORY IS TO FOLLOW)

Six decades after World War II ended, five female students recruited as nurses for Japanese soldiers during the intense battle on their island remember the horrors of war and hope to share their experiences to promote world peace.

Known as the ''Himeyuri'' Student Corps, which means ''Princess Lily,'' 222 students and 18 of their teachers from two local high schools were mobilized into service on March 23, 1945, just days before the U.S. military landed on Okinawa's outer Kerama Islands.

By the war's end more than half of them would tragically perish in what became the bloodiest battle in the Pacific and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives on all fronts.

Unlike their counterparts in mainland Japan, these young girls experienced Japan's only land battle where they worked side by side with nurses, doctors and other military personnel in caves near war zones to help nurse the sick and wounded.

In the process the teenagers, many who hoped to become teachers, witnessed the firsthand destruction of their island, as well as hopelessly watched as their patients, classmates, teachers and dreams were taken away.

''It is necessary for survivors to let their experiences be known and for other people to know the facts,'' Tomiko Uehara told Kyodo News in an interview at the Himeyuri Peace Museum where she believes their stories are best chronicled for Japanese and foreign visitors alike.

The girls first reported for duty at the Okinawa Army hospital in Haebaru, almost 5 kilometers southeast of Naha, in the middle of the night. As a complex network of caves the hospital was likened to an ''ant's nest.''

Like many others, Uehara was 17 when assigned to work in a cave where she gave patients water, food, changed their dirty bandages, removed maggots from their wounds and helped them relieve themselves.

She remembered how the injured cried out for the youngsters 24 hours a day but the girls were poorly trained with few medical supplies at their disposal.

Within her group there were one to two girls for every 50 patients and they were so busy they could only catch brief naps while standing up in the crowded and dark caves.

At 16, Kikuko Miyagi witnessed terrible injuries, but learned to care for limbless men, those who could not speak and those suffering from the last stages of tetanus and brain fever.

The 76-year-old recalled holding down patients during operations that were carried out with no anesthetics. She is still haunted by their screams and remembers how their arms or legs dropped with a thud from the makeshift surgery tables.

She and her classmates also buried the soldiers' bodies and disposed of their body parts by placing them in nearby bomb craters, often risking their own lives as they ran out of the caves during the frequent bombings.

''We cried at first when people died, but then we got used to it,'' Miyagi said. ''My body and heart changed. In wars people lose their humanity.''

Sachiko Ishikawa was 19 when assigned to a contagious diseases unit and recalled the daily difficulties of securing food.

Each day two girls carried an awkward barrel that was used to transport the rice. Although only 100 meters away, they had to navigate a steep cliff that was especially treacherous during the rainy season.

It was hard enough not to fall or spill the contents she said, but they also were afraid of being shot or bombed by American soldiers.

Each girl lived on one rice ball a day, but as the battle wore on their portions were greatly reduced as food had to be shared among more patients.

At 17, Yoshiko Shimabukuro worked in a cave with 15 other students, a teacher, several doctors and nurses to care for 700 men.

By mid-May the conditions had grown so bad some begged to be killed. Others were so hungry they talked about eating discarded limbs.

''Of course they were talking about amputated arms and legs,'' she wrote in a museum book. ''Horrible even to imagine. But that's war.''

By late May, as the American armies advanced the girls suffered even more when they retreated with soldiers to the southern part of Okinawa seeking refuge in the many natural caves.

Thousands who could not make the journey were left behind to die. Some were fed lethal doses of poisoned milk while others were given hand grenades to kill themselves, rather than be captured alive.

Soldiers and civilians alike were indoctrinated to believe that the enemies would rape and torture them so it was preferable to take their own lives.

''Before the war, they (the Japanese) taught us to hate the United States and United Kingdom and to regard them as devils,'' said Tsuru Motomura, then a 19-year-old messenger, who also buried classmates and tried to keep locks of their hair as mementos for their families.

The worst blow came June 18 when the students were suddenly disbanded. Many set out in small groups from the caves into the midst of the battle that was described as the ''Typhoon of Steel.''