Okinawa Peace Memorial

Okinawa is home to numerous World War II monuments, most located on the southern tip of the island, where the fighting during the Battle of Okinawa was harshest. One such monument, the Cornerstone of Peace and Okinawa Prefectural Memorial Peace Museum, serves as an essential reminder of the importance of world peace and the evils of war.

The Cornerstone of Peace is the most recently built monument in the Okinawa Prefectural Memorial Peace Park on Mabuni Hill in Itoman City. While monuments and museums on the Japanese mainland often attempt to convey anti-war messaging by focusing on Japan's suffering or the noble sacrifices the Japanese made for the emperor during World War II, reflections on the underlying cause of the war or Japan's actions are absent. Though the Okinawan Prefectural Memorial Peace Museum focuses on the suffering caused by war and the need for lasting world peace, its exhibits do not shy away from identifying that acts of Japanese aggression resulted in the war, according to professor and scholar Matthew Allen. In contrast to the museum, the Cornerstone of Peace attempts to provide a location where all involved in the battle are remembered equally, without separating invader from invaded or aggressor from dominated. Visitors can mourn the deaths of the invading Allies, the Imperial Japanese Army, Koreans or Taiwanese conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army, and Okinawan civilian casualties, as noted by Nobuyoshi Takashima, a Japanese historian.

Ota Masahide, the Prefectural governor, conceived the idea of a memorial representing Okinawa's sincere desire for world peace. Ota wanted a monument that would embody the spirit of an Okinawan folk song which Takashima paraphrases as follows:

"In remembering the war dead, what need is there to distinguish friend from enemy? After all, every enemy soldier who came to Okinawa to fight was only following orders and doing his duty to his country, not out of any personal grudge against the people of Okinawa. As fellow human beings, let us mourn his untimely death, just as we mourn our own war dead, because life itself is a treasure."

Although many Okinawans balked at memorializing their loved ones next to those responsible for their deaths, be it Japanese or Allied soldiers; Ota attempted to persuade his constituents to forgive the militaries with the understanding that enmity and hatred were anathemas to peace. One generation's animosity should not pass on to future generations. Otherwise, Okinawa would not be a beacon of peace to the world.

In September 1993, Ota announced a design competition for the Cornerstone of Peace. With a design entitled Everlasting Waves of Peace, Nakaima Kenji and his group from the University of the Ryukus won the competition among 274 submissions. The monument comprises slabs of black South African granite arranged in concentric arcs resembling ocean waves or traditional folding screens. The walls face east, toward the Pacific Ocean and the rising sun. The main walkway divides the walls, leading to a central plaza and the Flame of Peace. Engraved into the walls are the names of all those killed in the Battle of Okinawa. The home prefecture lists Imperial Japanese soldiers. Allied forces are listed alphabetically, as are the Korean and Taiwanese soldiers conscripted into the Japanese Army. The monument includes the names of all Okinawans, listed separately from the military, killed in war-related contexts, starting with the Manchurian incident in 1931 through 7 September 1946, representing all of Okinawa's sacrifices during WWII as noted by Gerald Figal, Professor of History and Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. Sunlight and light from the Flame of Peace illuminate the names engraved on the walls as if blessing the souls of the dead, representing the desired unity in life and death between Okinawans, mainland Japanese, and Americans, according to Takayuki Kato, associate professor at Seiwa University.

At the time of the monument's unveiling, on 23 June 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the memorial included the names of 147,110 Okinawans, 72,907 Japanese from other prefectures, 14,005 Americans, 133 Koreans, and 28 Taiwanese. Government records verified the accuracy of all names, with surviving family members providing consent for the name to appear on the wall, as detailed by Figal. Despite then-Governor Ota's insistence on including all those killed in the battle, including high-ranking officers, not everyone accepted this decision for "equal representation." Some Okinawans felt the memorial did not recognize Imperial Japan's colonization of Okinawa, Korea, or Taiwan. Nor did it distinguish between those giving those following orders or potential enemy collaborators among Okinawans and innocent bystanders. Perhaps most important to some critics was the idea that the memorial attempted to reconcile Japan with the United States and Asia without reflecting upon the harm caused by Japan's wartime aggression and colonial domination, as related by Figal.

Japan's other WWII memorials, such as the Peace Museum and Park in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots, nor Shokeikan Museum for Wounded Soldiers, focus on victimization and make no mention of Japan's role in its downfall. Thus, Japan's "peace monuments" are not considered counter monuments. James Young, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, defines counter monuments as memorial spaces conceived to challenge the premise of the monument. The Cornerstone of Peace does not attempt to offer reparation to those killed in battle or redeem or rationalize the event, nor is it an absence or a void that requires the viewer to embody the memory of the event.

Kato argues that the Cornerstone of Peace represents a postmodern approach to collective memory which may be a more appropriate interpretation of this particular monument. Postmodern commemoration allows for the expression of multiple viewpoints of collective memory. The arrangement of names on the granite stelae invites different interpretations of the monument. Though purported to have equal representation for all killed during the battle, visitors may remember those killed in various manners. Okinawan citizens are all listed on the north side of the monument, allowing visitors to go directly to those sites without passing the names of Japanese or Allied aggressors. Conversely, all foreigners are listed on the south side. American or British visitors may remember their loved ones' triumphant sacrifice against the Imperial Army without reflecting on the number of civilian lives lost. Visitors from mainland Japan face a dilemma as they must walk past the names of their old enemies from the Allied forces and those they pressed into service from Korea and Taiwan. As a postmodern memorial, the careful arrangement of the names of the deceased attempts to strike a compromise among all involved in the battle without creating one dominant narrative of aggressor versus victimized but instead focuses on the overwhelming loss of life.

Despite Okinawa viewing itself as a separate part of Japan that was colonized and oppressed by the same imperial government that subjugated Asia, neither Korea nor Taiwan accepted the idea of including their citizens' names on the Cornerstone of Peace. Most of these men did not serve voluntarily; the Japanese Army forced them into service. Once absorbed by the Japanese, they received Japanese names with their names lost to history. This made locating surviving family members much more challenging, as researchers had to identify soldiers' birth names before attempting to contact families. Many families had never revealed that the Japanese Army had conscripted their loved ones. Post-war Koreans and Taiwanese viewed having a family member serve in the Imperial Japanese Army as tantamount to being a traitor, even though the individuals had no choice but to go into service. If soldiers' families were identified, they often declined permission to engrave their names on the memorial. In the rare case that a family granted authorization, the question of which name to use arose, as discussed by Takashima. Should the soldier's birth name be engraved, or should his Japanese name memorialize him? If the family chose the Japanese name, were they genuinely remembering their loved one? If they chose his birth name, the possibility existed that others would recognize the family name, which would tarnish the reputation of surviving family members. This reluctance to have these names on the wall is particularly true for Korean families. Japan pressed approximately 10,000 Koreans into service on Okinawa; over 400 became casualties. Of those, about 75% had surviving family members identified. Yet, just over 200 families approved of having their loved ones' names inscribed on the memorial, as documented by Giovanni Lamberti.

The Cornerstone of Peace represents an Okinawan view of the Pacific War and is one of several destinations for the relatively new idea of "peace tourism" on the island. As opposed to traditional battlefield tourism, peace tourism is an attempt by both private and public organizations on Okinawa to provide visitors with a complete history of the Battle of Okinawa. Figal describes how "peace guides," volunteers dedicated to preserving the history of World War II Okinawa, lead tours previously led by "war experience storytellers," survivors of the battle who now make up less than 5% of Okinawa's population. Numerous tours now exist based on specific interests, including battlefields, military bases, and civilian shelters. Besides the Peace Park and Cornerstone of Peace, stops can include Itokazu Cave, Kakazu Bluff (Ridge), and the Himeyuri Student Nurses Monument. Regardless of the tour, all stops focus on the specific Okinawan experience during the war and what one may find in a textbook from the mainland while providing a unique perspective from the only part of Japan to experience armed conflict directly.

(Edited by Brad Poss and Laura Bailey)

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