The Himeyuri Peace Museum in Itoman reopened after a renovation on Apr. 12, 2021. The renovation gave the exhibits a facelift and tweaked their presentation in order to better reach a modern, younger audience growing more distant from the war.…
Beauty and Tragedy at Arasaki Beach
This is the fifth and final entry in a series on the Himeyuri Student Corps and related war sites on Okinawa. My trip through southern Okinawa to visit the Himeyuri-related caves and tunnels ended not in a dark hole in…
Okinawa’s Hospital Caves: Where the Island’s Daughters Went to War
Though it can be read as a standalone article, this is the fourth in a series on the Himeyuri Student Corps and follows their story from Haebaru and Itokazu to the southern caves in Itoman and also looks at caves…
Abuchiragama: Natural Cave Turned Wartime Hospital
Though it can be read as a standalone article, this is the third in a series on the Himeyuri Student Corps covering one of the caves used to support the Haebaru Okinawa Army Hospital. On the surface the only tell-tale…
Haebaru’s Hellish Hospital Tunnels: Haebaru Okinawa Army Hospital Tunnel No. 20
Though it can be read as a standalone article, this is the second in a series on the Himeyuri Student Corps where we follow their story to the place they first went to war, the Haebaru Okinawa Army Hospital. A…
Himeyuri Corps: Female High School Student Nurses during the Battle of Okinawa
During World War II Japan expected everyone to do their part in securing the nation’s unquestionable ultimate victory and this included teenagers. On the mainland high school students were drafted en masse to work in munitions factories turning out weapons…