How a remote island escaped mass suicide in Battle of Okinawa

Japan Times

26-05-2025

It was a desperate plea from a boy that prevented a mass suicide on a remote island in Okinawa Prefecture when U.S. forces landed 80 years ago.
On March 26, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa began with the U.S. landing on Aka Island, one of the small islands in the Kerama Islands chain.
That day, 10-year-old Jinsei Nakamura was among nearly 400 islanders who fled to a valley so shadowed it stayed dim even during the day. Fearing that the valley offered little protection, about 15 members of Nakamura's family and relatives headed into the mountains that night in search of a safer place.
But on an island with a circumference of just 12 kilometers, there were few places to hide. Cold rain fell as the group wandered through the night. When dawn broke, through the trees, they saw a vast fleet of U.S. battleships stretching across the sea. Then the shelling began — from the sea and the sky.
Nakamura's group was physically and mentally exhausted, and adults began discussing what to do next. 'Let's die together with grenades,' one of the relatives said.
Overhearing the conversation, Nakamura snapped and shouted, 'I'm not going to die, never!'
Nakamura remembers thinking they had been fleeing through the mountains to survive, and he couldn't think of any good reason to die. More than anything, he was scared.
Upon hearing the child's desperate resistance, the adults came to their senses. They realized that they had only two grenades that had been distributed by the Japanese military. 'These are not enough to kill all of us,' one of the adults said.
Soon after, however, someone then suggested they should all jump off the cliffs in the southern part of the island. "You throw your own child," one of the relatives was telling Nakamura's mother as they began to walk toward the cliffs.
As they made their way to a nearby stream to fetch water one last time before death, they unexpectedly ran into other islanders they had believed were killed in the shelling. That encounter showed there were still survivors — and Nakamura's family made it through as well.
Jinsei Nakamura talks about his experience of war as a boy on Aka Island 80 years ago, during an interview in Naha in March. |
Nishinippon Shimbun
Over two days starting March 26, U.S. forces landed on the Kerama Islands — beginning with Aka Island — to establish a supply base ahead of their assault on Okinawa's main island. As American troops advanced, around 700 residents across four islands — Tokashiki, Zamami, Geruma and Yakabi — were driven to mass suicide.
Residents had been told that if captured, women would be assaulted and men mutilated by U.S. soldiers.
Masaie Ishihara, professor emeritus of peace studies at Okinawa International University, said that the residents were caught between fear of the U.S. forces that they believed were 'brutal' and the Japanese military that prohibited them from surrendering. 'The islanders were driven to a hopeless situation with nowhere to escape,' he said.
On Aka Island, however, mass suicides did not occur because there were no Japanese soldiers or local leaders who forced residents to kill themselves. The U.S. military withdrew from the island on March 30, four days after landing.
As a result, people on Aka Island have held less resentment toward the former Japanese military compared to residents on other islands, and Aka islanders have continued to accept memorial visits from former soldiers and their bereaved families after the war.
Even today, a trace of the exchanges between a bereaved family and the islanders can be found at Aka Elementary and Junior High School.
In one corner of the school library, about 1,300 children's books are crammed onto the shelves. The collection is called the "Hoashi Library," established with books sent by the bereaved family of Takao Hoashi from Fukuoka Prefecture, who died in the war after departing from Aka Island on an attack boat.
Over half a century, the family has donated more than 5,000 books, including world literature and picture books.
Yoshitaka Kakinohana recalls exchanges with the bereaved family of Takao Hoashi as he visits Aka Elementary and Junior High School's library, which has a collection of books donated by the family. |
Nishinippon Shimbun
Yoshitaka Kakinohana, 80, a former junior high school teacher on Aka Island who helped who once helped maintain the book collection, fondly looked around the library. "When I come here, I feel the strong wishes of the bereaved family," he said.
Hoashi was born in 1922. After studying at Nippon Sport Science University, he worked as a physical education teacher in Fukuoka Prefecture.
Around the autumn of 1944, Hoashi was stationed on Aka Island as a second lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Army's maritime raiding unit. On his days off, he visited the then-national school on the island and played sports with the children.
In late March 1945, Hoashi departed in a suicide attack boat loaded with bombs, which was known as a "Marure." He never returned.
The Hoashi Library began when Hoashi's mother, Haya, who lived in the city of Fukuoka, started sending books in around 1970. A relief displayed on the wall above the book collection shows Haya holding her son's military cap and introduces her as the "Mother of Books."
No one knows for sure why she began donating books, but it may be connected to Hoashi's background as a teacher, says Kakinohana, who now lives in Tomigusuku, Okinawa Prefecture. After Haya died in 1975, Hoashi's siblings continued her wishes — but due to aging, they made a final donation in 2018 along with a sum of money.
Kakinohana, who was born one month before the Battle of Okinawa began, has no memories of Hoashi. However, since Kakinohana was a child, his mother often told him that Hoashi was his 'godfather." While stationed on Aka Island, Hoashi frequently visited the Kakinohana family and named the newborn by taking the kanji character "Taka' from his own name.
After the war, Kakinohana's older brothers kept in touch with Hoashi's family and acted as a bridge for the book donations. Kakinohana himself became involved after he turned 30.
In 1975, while traveling with his wife in Kyushu, Kakinohana came up with the idea of visiting the Hoashi family. To the surprise of the family, Haya had died the day before Kakinohana visited. "Mother's spirit must have called you here," one of Hoashi's siblings said.
During Haya's wake, the family shared a story of how she would wake up in the middle of the night even with the sound of a door creaking at their house, saying, "Takao has come home."
Since that trip, Kakinohana developed a family-like relationship with Hoashi's siblings beyond the book donations. "I walked the same path with Hoashi as a teacher, so they treated me like their younger brother," Kakinohana said. Even his eldest daughter, who was working in the city of Fukuoka, stayed for a while at the house of Hoashi's sister.
While working and after retirement, Kakinohana devoted himself to peace education for children in the community, driven by the feelings of Hoashi and his bereaved family.
"Hoashi's dream of being a teacher was cut short in his 20s, and his mother waited for her son's return forever,' Kakinohana said. 'We must never allow such a tragedy between parent and child again.'
Aka Elementary and Junior High School continues to purchase about ¥50,000 worth of books annually with the donated funds. On the Hoashi Library's explanatory board, Kakinohana's handwriting is engraved with the words: "War must never be repeated."
This section features topics and issues from the Kyushu region covered by the Nishinippon Shimbun, the largest daily newspaper in Kyushu. The original article was published March 25.