Battle of Okinawa survivor passes down memories of war
Rieko Tamaki, 90, a resident of Naha, still remembers the final moments of her then 14-year-old brother's life during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
"He died in agony, crying out, 'Give me water.' I couldn't give him any. I still regret it to this day," Tamaki said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Tamaki, who was 10 years old when Okinawa became the site of a fierce ground battle with the U.S. during World War II, was telling her story to Hinata Kinjo, a 19-year-old university student in Tokyo, as part of a project to pass down the memories of the war to younger generations. Kinjo, who is originally from Tomigusuku, Okinawa Prefecture, accompanied Tamaki to war sites in the prefecture.
Last year, Tamaki and Kinjo visited a park on a small hill in the town of Yaese. From there, they could see the area where Tamaki's brother was fatally struck by U.S. artillery shells. Looking down at the area now surrounded by elementary and junior high schools, Tamaki began recounting her experiences.
In 1944, Tamaki was a fourth grader at a local elementary school in Naha. After the devastating air raid on the city on Oct. 10 that year, she and her family evacuated to the village of Ginowan, where they began living in a rented house.
In early 1945, her father received a draft notice and was sent to war as a military doctor. Around the end of March that year, the family decided to set out for the Shuri area in Naha, where they believed the field hospital the father may have been working at was located.
'If we must die, let's die together as a family. Let's go closer to father,' one of the family members said, according to Tamaki.
On May 22, as the situation deteriorated, the 32nd unit of the Japanese Imperial Army, which had set up its underground headquarters at Shuri Castle, decided to retreat to the southern part of the Okinawa main island. Civilians who had already fled to the south were caught up in the battle.
Tamaki's family also headed south under heavy shelling. However, every shelter they came across was already full, and they were repeatedly turned away. They eventually found refuge in a cave in the village of Kochinda, which is part of the present-day town of Yaese.
Tamaki's aunt risked her life to search for food and returned with small potatoes, each about the size of a finger. That was all the family had to eat for the entire day.
The cave was hot and humid, and the air was foul. One evening, seeking fresh air, the family stepped outside — only to be met with the explosion of an artillery shell.
"I couldn't drop to the ground as we had practiced. My body froze, and I just covered my face with my hands,' Tamaki told Kinjo.
Tamaki's brother was severely wounded, his chest soaked in blood. He was taken to a field hospital, where his left arm was amputated. His body was wrapped in bandages, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. He didn't survive.
Tamaki has shared her story over a thousand times in lectures, yet she said, "No matter how many times I talk about it, I never get used to it."
For Kinjo, it's hard to imagine the scene from 80 years ago at what is now a peaceful residential area. 'It seems so distant, such a tragedy having happened here,' Kinjo said.
After losing her brother near the cave in Kochinda, Tamaki and her family left the cave the next day and wandered the battlefield in southern Okinawa. What she saw on the ground was horrifying — blackened and bloated corpses scattered under the blazing sun, and wounded people pulling maggots from their rotting wounds.
Tamaki remembers thinking that she didn't want to die like that, suffering in agony. 'Every day, I was praying that if I had to die, I would at least die quickly, without pain."
Eventually, the family found a small hut in the village of Makabe, which is part of the present-day city of Itoman.
At one point in the hut, Tamaki was sitting on her grandfather's lap, huddled together with the remaining family members. As they waited for the heavy shelling that had intensified before dawn to subside, she heard her grandfather suddenly begin groaning in pain.
He had been hit by shrapnel that ripped through his body from his back to his left side, and blood was pouring out of him. Tamaki and the other children from the family were moved behind a stone wall outside the hut as the grandfather didn't want the children to see him. Then, she heard his "death screams."
Later, her aunt told her that the grandfather had taken his own life so he wouldn't be a burden to the family.
"Even though his own son was a doctor, he couldn't receive medical treatment and had to choose to kill himself,' Tamaki said of her grandfather. 'On the battlefield, human effort and resilience meant nothing — it was a merciless world.'
Believing that her grandfather's remains might be among those collected after the war, Tamaki visits the Mange no To monument in the Makabe area almost every year to pay her respects. The monument was set up to enshrine the remains of fallen soldiers, officials and civilians collected by the villagers of Makabe.
Kinjo, who visited the monument with Tamaki and prayed alongside her, said, "It must be so hard that she remembers the sound of her grandfather's last moments so vividly, even after 80 years."
Imagining the horror, Kinjo added, "A battlefield with no end in sight and a desperate wish for a death without pain. ... It must have been terrifying for her not knowing when it would be over."
Tamaki ultimately survived by wandering the battlefield alone until she surrendered to U.S. forces. Out of her family of 10, eight — including her brother, father, and grandparents — died. Only Tamaki and her aunt survived.
After listening to Tamaki's story, Kinjo said, 'Hearing it directly from her, I could vividly picture the horrors in my mind." But she also admitted, "At the same time, because I live in a peaceful time, it all feels unreal, and I feel guilty for that."
Tamaki gently reassured Kinjo, saying, "That's completely natural."
Tamaki said she didn't want to speak about or even recall her experiences for nearly 50 years after the war. But now, she continues to share her story, especially with children, to convey the cruelty of war and ensure that the younger generation will never suffer the way she did.
"What would you like our generation to do?" Kinjo asked Tamaki.
"It makes me happy that young people like you are trying to share these stories and make the world a better place,' Tamaki said.
'I want your generation to protect (the war-renouncing) Article 9 of the Constitution so that young people will not lose their lives because of the decisions made by the state," she said firmly, looking directly into Kinjo's eyes.
This section features topics and issues from Okinawa covered by The Okinawa Times, a major newspaper in the prefecture. The original article was published March 4.
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