Junior High School Badge Found in Natural Cave in Okinawa; Finder Hopes DNA Analysis Can Determine Family for Return
Yomiuri Shimbun photos
Tetsuji Hamada, far right, speaks about items that are believed to have been left by people who died in World War II in Okinawa Prefecture in Naha on April 24.
ITOMAN, Okinawa — Along with the remains of people who died in World War II, a badge from a junior high school was found recently in a gama, which in the Okinawa dialect means natural cave, in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture.
Efforts are underway to identify the remains using the badge, which is believed to have been that of Kainan junior high school, a private school that was forced to close nine years after its foundation because of the war.
The remains may include those of students who were mobilized mobilized as a student soldier and died during the fierce Battle of Okinawa, according to people involved in the efforts.
On April 24, journalist Tetsuji Hamada, 62, who is engaged in efforts to collect articles left by the war dead and return them to their relatives, showed the badge to relatives of war dead who were students at Kainan junior high school, in a meeting room in Naha.
'It may have been placed on the cap of a person who died in the war,' said Hamada, who then encouraged them to apply for the DNA analysis of the remains.
The 4-centimeter-long badge was found on Feb. 23 by a group led by Hamada and his wife Ritsuko, 60, in a crevice of a rock at the cave in Itoman where many soldiers and others died during the war. It was determined to be from the Kainan junior high school.
According to the Himeyuri Peace Museum in Itoman, the school was founded in 1936 as the only private junior high school in the prefecture in the former village of Maji (now part of Naha). During the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, 68 students from the school were mobilized into military units and 66 lost their lives. The school was closed the same year.
Having identified the addresses of the relatives of the students through the study of alumni magazines and other materials, the Hamadas have been calling on them to apply for DNA analysis.
According to the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry, about 1,800 applications have been filed for DNA analysis of the remains of war dead in Okinawa Prefecture since fiscal 2003 when the analysis started, but the remains of only seven people have been identified. Compared to the remains found in Siberia and other northern regions, those found in the prefecture are said to have often been deteriorated, making identification difficult.
Remains found during government-led collection efforts are stored by the government, but personal belongings are left at the site as long as they do not bear a name or any other identifying information.
'For the relatives of people whose remains have not been returned, the personal belongings of the war dead serve as precious mementos that connect them to their loved ones,' Hamada said. 'I want to return the items to the relatives as much as possible.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kyodo News
a day ago
- Kyodo News
4 Japan SDF members hurt in blast near U.S. Kadena Air Base
KYODO NEWS - 13 hours ago - 21:34 | All, Japan Four Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members were slightly injured in an explosion on Monday while handling an unexploded bomb at a depot near the U.S. military's Kadena Air Base in the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, local and Defense Ministry officials said. The ministry officials said the explosion occurred around 11:20 a.m. at a GSDF storage facility for unexploded bombs in Kadena Ammunition Storage Area near the base. The four members from the 101st explosive ordnance disposal unit, which defuses bombs left over from World War II, were removing rust and mud from an unexploded bomb in preparation for disposal. They suffered non-life-threatening injuries such as burns, in the first such incident experienced by the unit during their work. No evacuation order was issued for nearby residents. The U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps are in charge of the ammunition storage area, covering about 26 square kilometers as of March 2024. According to local authorities, the depot was set up by the prefecture in the storage area for the GSDF to engage in disposal of unexploded bombs. "It is crucial to take measures as many unexploded bombs are believed to be still buried in Okinawa. We will conduct disposal steadily," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a press conference. The Self-Defense Forces carried out 1,852 disposal operations for unexploded bombs, dealing with a total of about 35 tons nationwide in fiscal 2023, including 441 operations involving about 19.7 tons in Okinawa, equivalent to about 57 percent of the total. Okinawa remains home to the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan even after its 1972 reversion from U.S. control following Japan's defeat in World War II.
The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
A-bomb trees carrying on aging survivors' legacy as silent witnesses
HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) -- Looking at the leafy weeping willow standing on the banks of a serene river in Hiroshima, one would never guess it endured the blast of the U.S. atomic attack on the city almost 80 years ago in the closing days of World War II. At around 370 meters from the explosion on Aug. 6, 1945, the willow is recognized by the city government as the closest surviving tree to the hypocenter. Like many other trees, it was reduced to little more than a charred stump or bare roots at the time but demonstrated a remarkable will for life by regrowing. As atomic bomb survivors age and fewer are able to share their experiences, increasing attention has turned to these surviving trees as silent witnesses. For some, the trees may also offer a more approachable way to engage with Hiroshima's painful past. "When people talk about the atomic bombing, it often comes across as very harsh and raw -- it's a powerful and direct subject. Sometimes those stories are necessary, too. But when we use trees as a kind of buffer in the conversation, the message comes across more gently and softly," said Chikara Horiguchi, the 80-year-old master gardener of so-called atomic-bombed trees in Hiroshima. Horiguchi, a native of Miyazaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan, became Hiroshima Prefecture's first certified arborist in 1992. While he initially hoped to work with private gardens, he realized that overseeing greenery in the city is itself an act of advocating for peace. Currently, around 160 trees standing within 2 kilometers of ground zero are registered by the Hiroshima city government as remaining "survivors" of the blast, based on the testimonies of residents and on-site investigations. Demonstrating the impact of the weapons of mass destruction, a study conducted more than a decade ago found that the vast majority of single-trunk trees leant toward the hypocenter due to slower growth on the more exposed side. In some cases, the trees have served as a beacon of hope for people who experienced the tragedy. Chinese parasol trees, now taking root in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, became symbolic of survival following the testimony of Suzuko Numata, who lost her left leg in the wake of the blast and her fiance in the war. Numata, who died in 2011 at the age of 87, had devoted herself to telling visitors of how the tree had given her the will to continue living after seeing it bud again following the bombing. At that time, it was located in the courtyard of the Hiroshima post and telecommunications bureau where she worked. The "aogiri" tree, as the species is named in Japanese, was transplanted to the memorial park in 1973 from its original location 1.3 km away from the hypocenter, and became the catalyst for distributing seeds and saplings throughout the city and abroad. Efforts to spread the trees' message of peace beyond Japan have continued for over a decade under a global volunteer initiative called Green Legacy Hiroshima, which is backed by entities including a U.N. training arm in support of sustainable development goals. "I think no other living thing can convey some of the spirit of the hibaku-jumoku," said Nassrine Azimi, a co-founder of the initiative who formerly served as the first director of the Hiroshima office of U.N. Institute for Training and Research, referring to the Japanese word meaning "atomic-bombed trees." "You send a seed, you put it in a package, off it goes, and then six months later we get photos from the world," she said during a recent interview in Hiroshima. Green Legacy Hiroshima has delivered seeds of such trees to around 140 locations in over 40 countries while working with partners around the world, including an anti-nuclear weapons group in Oregon launched by Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Hideko Tamura-Snider. The 91-year-old recalled the challenges when trying to get the seed-planting project started in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon, where she lives, noting during an online interview that "nobody was interested" at first. Thanks to her perseverance, however, there are now over 55 second-generation atomic-bombed trees planted in Oregon -- reportedly the densest population outside Japan. Tamura-Snider was just 11 years old on the day of the atomic bombing, which took the life of her mother. She moved to the United States after high school where she earned various degrees and served as a clinical social worker. Drawn into advocating peace and nuclear non-proliferation, she founded One Sunny Day Initiatives in 2007 as part of efforts to serve as a bridge between Japanese and Americans, who fought a bitter war after Japan's surprise assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941, resulting in the world's first nuclear attack. "Americans carry wounds from Pearl Harbor, and Japanese carry wounds from everything, from the war...I wanted the Americans and the Japanese to get to know each other in such a way, not as a visitor from a foreign country, but a human being," said Tamura-Snider, who has also spoken at universities and events in the United States about her wartime experience. Collaborating with Green Legacy Hiroshima since 2017 to plant seeds of peace, she said her love for trees goes back to childhood, when her grandfather, who headed a multinational corporation, had a "huge, huge garden that was like a paradise in spring." To mark the 80th anniversary of the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki this year, Green Legacy Hiroshima spearheaded a planting of two saplings from Hiroshima at the U.N. headquarters in New York in May, with plans to also conduct a similar planting at the former Japanese internment camp in Manzanar in California in September. "Until recently, most of Hiroshima's efforts have been verbal or human-centered, and I think it's very nice to bring a new dimension," said Azimi. Drawing renewed attention to the surviving greenery, the Hiroshima city government has launched a new project this year to use pruned branches of atomic-bombed trees to make products that convey peace, accepting proposals from interested individuals and organizations. Beyond caring for atomic-bombed trees in Hiroshima and educating visitors to the city through tours, Horiguchi has traveled across the world, including the U.N. office at Geneva, to advocate for peace through their enduring legacy. "Every country has its own unique relationship between trees and people, but I get the sense that there's always some emotional closeness. I believe that connection is universal," said Horiguchi. "I hope people can feel, through trees, that peace is important, and that nuclear weapons are wrong." (By Donican Lam)
Asahi Shimbun
2 days ago
- Asahi Shimbun
4 in Okinawa unexploded bomb disposal unit hurt in explosion
A perimeter fence around the Kadena Ammunition Storage Area in Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture, on June 9 (Kazufumi Kaneko) Four Self-Defense Force members were slightly injured in an explosion on June 9 while handling unexploded bombs at a storage facility on Okinawa's main island. The injuries were the first for members of the 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company of the Ground SDF's 15th Brigade, which deals with at least one request per day for removing unexploded ordnance left from World War II. The explosion occurred around 11:15 a.m. at a temporary depot for unexploded bombs inside the U.S. military's Kadena Ammunition Storage Area, which straddles Yomitan village, Okinawa city, Kadena town and other municipalities, a Defense Ministry official said. The four suffered minor injuries, including burns on their fingers, which were not considered life-threatening. At the time of the explosion, the unit members were scraping rust off unexploded bombs and engaged in other work at the depot, which is managed by the Okinawa prefectural government. The Kadena Ammunition Storage Area, which spans about 2,600 hectares, includes an SDF training area and munitions depot, as well as facilities used by the prefectural government, an electric power company and other parties. The 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, based in the prefectural capital of Naha, defuses unexploded bombs at the sites when necessary and brings them to the depot. Okinawa, Japan's southwestern island prefecture, was the site of a fierce ground battle against the United States in the closing months of the Pacific War. It is estimated that more than 1,800 tons of unexploded bombs still remain buried at the end of 2023. Okinawa accounted for about 52 percent of all unexploded bombs that were disposed of around the country in fiscal 2023. Unexploded ordnance detonations have continued to plague Okinawans. While Okinawa was under U.S. administration through 1971, 704 people were killed by explosions and other accidents. Four people, including a small child, were killed and 34 others were injured when an unexploded bomb detonated during sewerage work in Naha in 1973. Two elementary school pupils suffered burns from an explosion in the southern part of Okinawa's main island in 1975. In 2009, a construction worker was seriously injured in an accident in Itoman in the prefecture.
