Junior High School Badge Found in Natural Cave in Okinawa; Finder Hopes DNA Analysis Can Determine Family for Return
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.'
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