A man prays front of a new monument commemorating wartime malaria victims on Hateruma Island, Japan, on June 15, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
ITOMAN, Okinawa – One memorial to the cost of World War II memorial was recently updated, and another created, both in Okinawa prefecture, ahead of the 79th anniversary of the culminating battle of the war.
Another 181 names, including those of 24 Okinawans and 157 from elsewhere in Japan, were added Wednesday to the Cornerstone of Peace at Okinawa Peace Memorial Park in time for a ceremony Sunday, a spokesperson for Okinawa prefecture Peace and Subnational Diplomacy Promotion Division told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.
Sunday marked the 79th anniversary of the end of fighting. The final action occurred in the Itoman area where the memorial park is today. A memorial event takes place each year at the site.
The Cornerstone of Peace was built in 1995 on the battle’s 50th anniversary. The monument holds the names of nearly 250,000 who died during the fighting: 14,010 Americans and 227,636 Japanese.
The newly added names, all Japanese, include sailors of the Imperial Navy who perished on the Yamato, for a time during World War II the largest battleship afloat, the spokesman said.
Some official spokespeople in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
The Battle of Okinawa began April 1, 1945, and lasted 82 days. More than 14,000 Americans, about 110,000 Japanese troops and at least 140,000 Okinawan civilians were killed during or after the fighting.
On Hateruma island, the southernmost inhabited island in Japan, a monument went up March 31 in memory of the island’s wartime malaria victims. Hateruma, a part of Okinawa prefecture, is 132 miles east of Taiwan.
In the Yaeyama islands, where the U.S. troops did not land, many people were killed by bombardment and malaria, according to Yaeyama Peace Memorial Museum’s website.
Japanese soldiers forced the residents of Hateruma to evacuate to nearby Iriomote island in April 1945 as the Battle of Okinawa began. Of the evacuees, 1,587 contracted malaria and 477 died of the disease, according to a Yaeyama Peace Memorial Museum spokeswoman.
Nearly 200 names were added this year to the Cornerstone of Peace at Okinawa Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa, Japan, on June 19, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
“There is a monument in Iriomote island, but we didn’t have one here in Hateruma,” Isao Uchihara, 75, director of the group that erected the monument, told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.
The 13-foot-tall monument stands on a hill with a view of Iriomote, according to Uchihara.
“We wanted to teach the preciousness of peace with this monument,” Uchihara said.
About 250 people, including local students and relatives of the victims, attended a dedication ceremony June 16 at the memorial.
“June is the month of peace in Okinawa, the survivors teach about the war and the importance of peace in many schools,” Uchihara said. “Many of them are getting older and it’s getting difficult to teach about the victims of malaria, so we wanted to teach it through this monument.”
