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 staffed by students from two other groups.

A week after visiting the Himeyuri Peace Museum I returned to southern Okinawa to visit the caves officially used by the Okinawa Army Hospital and the 24^th Division medical staff during the Battle of Okinawa. If that was all they were I doubt any of them would be marked and remembered as they are. What they are remembered for is that these are places Okinawa’s daughters were forced to go to war and die.

Prior to the Battle of Okinawa the army began training teenage students from ten girls’ high schools as nurses to supplement their forces in the coming battle. They would be used throughout the battle, living in unsanitary tunnels and caves full of the dead and wounded, aiding doctors in anesthesia-less amputations, serving as messengers, caring for patients and fetching food and water. Like the soldiers they did this under fire for months before the battle ended and for some the war continued until after the empire surrendered.

The best known are the Himeyuri Corps which was comprised of students aged 15-19 from the Okinawa First Girls High School and Okinawa Women’s Normal School sister schools. This is likely because they were one of, if not the largest group of conscripted female students used in the battle. A little over 500 students total were pulled for nursing duties and the Himeyuri comprised 222 of this number (240 with teachers). The Shuri Girls High School sent the second highest number of students at 61, followed by 60 from Yaeyama Agricultural School and the numbers trickle down from there. The Himeyuri lost 136 conscripted students and teachers, but this still leaves 104 survivors to share their testimonies and keep their story alive. Then in the 1950s a popular movie was made about them and as the new interest in Hacksaw Ridge shows us, that can be the difference between being in the public conscious and a footnote in a bigger story.¹

As well as the Himeyuri, I visited places that Shiraume and Fuji Gakutotai student nurses also served. Other medical personnel were there too, but now it almost feels like the military is a foot note in their stories.

 

Yaese

My first stop was the Shiraume Gakuotai Cave, officially the 24^th Division First Field Hospital, a cave in what’s now Yaese Park.² The division set up this hospital in a natural cave in a protected little nook of Mt. Yaese at the start of the battle. This location would be far behind Japanese lines for some time, though still at risk for air attack like the rest of the island.

Among its staff were student nurses of the Shiraume Gakutotai (Shiraume Student Corps). These girls came from the Okinawa Second Girls’ High School. A total of 56 students joined, though 10 were sent home for various reasons and only 46 served. The name “Shiraume” is derived from their school crest.

They had 18 days of training before being activated and being sent to Yaese Mar. 24. They operated from Yaese for 73 days until the field hospital evacuated further south and they were disbanded on Jun. 4. (Mt. Yaese would be attacked Jun. 14.) Despite this, 16 volunteered to stay with the division and would continue supporting the medical staff when they moved to gama, natural limestone caves, down in Maesato, Itoman City.

This cave had a capacity of 70 patients and contained the operating theater and headquarters. Entry is currently prohibited.

 

Maesato (Itoman)

According to the placard outside of the cave, this was where many members of Shiraume Student Corps made their last stand. Machidou nu Tira, a cave used by locals for their annual harvest celebration was briefly commandeered along with another nearby cave for part of the 24^th Division medical staff for about two weeks in June. Among them were the 16 Shiraume who refused to disband.

Machidou nu Tira was assaulted by American troops Jun. 21. 10 of the 16 Shiraume died in the attack accounting for almost half their total deaths during the entire battle. According to Nakayama Kiku, a Shiraume survivor, six classmates took poison and four others died from flamethrowers and other U.S. weapons inside this cave. Remains were removed from the cave as late as 2015.

Beside the cave is the Shiraume Tower which enshrines the 22 Shiraume students who died in battle while serving the 24^th Division as well as students and staff who died elsewhere. I assume, the sign says it enshrines 149 people which is a bit over 22. While it doesn’t see the same volume of visitors as the Himeyuri memorial when I visited a young woman was laying flowers and paying her respects at the tower for quite a few minutes. I hung back so as not to disturb her until she finished.

Machidou nu Tira can be entered and unlike the fairly flat-bottomed cave at Yaese, it’s entirely on a downward slant until you hit the bottom where it levels out. Being down here with no cover or alternate exit feels like being on the wrong end of a shooting gallery.

I was a little nervous when I was at the bottom near the small shrine, not because of ghosts, but because it sounded like something was rooting around near the entrance. He’s my spirit animal, but I’ve a very healthy respect for Japan’s wild boar or inoshishi. (Inoshishi are my second greatest fear whenever I visit abandoned ruins or caves. The first is structural failure or cave in.) For a worrisome minute I felt trapped myself.

The easiest way to find the cave is look for the red-roofed building (Minamizenhiroshi Temple) to the right of the Shiraume Tower. The cave is on the left side of the building.

A few steps down the road and on the other side of it is the 32^nd Infantry Regiment Headquarters cave. Unfortunately this cave is off-limits. The Yamagata or 32^nd Infantry Memorial atop it is where they burned their regimental colors.

As for an idea of how tight a battle field this was, though he was killed by an artillery shell American Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner could have been picked off by a Japanese soldier with a steady hand and a Type 99 rifle standing right here. It’s only 600 meters from where he fell on Jun. 18, three days before Marines attacked the caves.

When planning my trip I initially left the Buckner Memorial off for time sake, but I was ahead of schedule and it was so close. The current memorial is shiny and new looking; it’s next to a memorial cross and a stone with a placard exclaiming that Buckner had died on this spot. Attached to Buckner’s memorial is a smaller one for the 383^rd Infantry Regiment’s Col. Edwin T. May who had been killed on the same spot 13 days earlier.

Normally when people pay their respects at a Japanese grave a small gift like a bottle or water or green tea is left behind, though out of respect for our fighting men American beer and whiskey are left at Buckner’s.

Itosu (Itoman)

Medical caves used by the 24th Division and Okinawa Army Hospital are almost as close to each other as the two caves in Maesato. Coming to the intersection between the main road and a narrow side road there is a sign pointing left to Ukkagama or Itosu Cave and the memorial for the Fuji Gakutotai student nurses who served the 24^th Division memorial. It’s worth noting the memorial is just for the girls, not the hospital they served or the other staff.

The Fuji Corps was composed of 25 fourth-year students came from the private Sekitoku Girls’ High School run by Daiten-ji Temple in Naha. They had only 10 days of nursing training before being called to duty.

The Fuji students were originally stationed at the 24^th Division Second Field Hospital bunker at the Tomigusuku Castle ruins (currently closed to the public) near Naha, but moved to Itosu’s Ukkagama and two other caves after the order to evacuate came on May 27. (To make this potentially confusing, the Okinawa Army Hospital established the Second Surgical Cave nearby. These are two different organizations.)

The caves were discovered around Jun. 17 and later attacked with tear gas, flamethrowers and grenades. Despite this, only two of the Fuji Corps student nurses died during the war. One more would die after.

Unlike the Himeyuri which were cut loose just before the last big push or the Shiraume who were released weeks earlier, the medical director here kept them in the cave until the battle was officially over and released them Jun. 26, telling them to go home and live their lives. Medical personnel assured them that the Americans wouldn’t attack civilians, which was the opposite of the guaranteed murder and rape they’d been indoctrinated to believe. The girls vacated the caves in small groups during the night of Jun. 27-28.³

There is a bare patch beside the monument that is usable as parking, it doesn’t look like crops are grown on it and it has been flattened. The cave itself is almost invisible from ground level, but beside the memorial is a small sign pointing to subterranean stairs that lead down to it. The cave is off-limits beyond the gate.

From here I walked the farm road back to the main road and crossed the street where just beyond the crest of the hill is the Second Surgical Cave used by the Okinawa Army Hospital and partially staffed with 56 Himeyuri students and two teachers.

This was the tiniest hole in the ground I would see all day. The entrance is barely a crawl space and peering in, it doesn’t look like it gets too much higher though this may just be the entrance. A concrete water tank (I think) inside now occupies the space.

It was discovered on the afternoon of Jun. 18 when American soldiers shot and killed two Japanese soldiers and wounded two students. A straddle attack was conducted against the cave, this is where a flamethrower or another form of incendiary is used against the entrance while a hole is drilled in over the cave and grenades are dropped in. While the American troops drilled away from overhead, those inside snuck out at night in small groups, leaving behind one immobile student.

When coming upon the cave clearing look to the right. There’s a small stone marker that reads “nuchitoutakara” in Hiragana. It’s a quote from the last Ryukyu King Sho Tai and means “life is precious.”

Nothing explicitly bars entry into this cave, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to try and get inside. I would say this is common sense but… people.

 

Ihara

Back where this began a week ago, Ihara and the Himeyuri Peace Museum. I parked at the museum and before continuing to the First Surgical Cave stopped by the cenotaph (Third Surgical Cave) to lay flowers and bought a bottle of water from a souvenir shop.

The First Surgical Cave was staffed with 32 students and four teachers who had evacuated from the Itokazu (Abuchiragama) Clinic Cave and the Financial Section. The entrance was hit by multiple bombs on Jun. 17, killing or injuring many members of the medical staff including three Himeyuri student nurses. The following day they received the deactivation order and the remaining Himeyuri left except for nine students too critically injured or sick to move. They continued to live in the cave for weeks, dying off of disease and starvation and living among the corpses of their friends. Eventually American troops came at the end of June and tried to coax the living out of the cave (soldiers and civilians also were inside), when a young boy began to cry a Japanese soldier strangled him. With no response the Americans attacked the cave with a flamethrower.

Eventually soldiers began committing suicide with hand grenades inside the cave, the surviving girls begged for them to let them have one so they could do the same but the soldiers ignored them.

There is a copse of dense trees alongside a dirt road otherwise surrounded by little fields, within this conspicuous copse is the cave.

I left the souvenir shop water bottle as a gift at the stone altar and descended the natural steps to the entrance area. It’s partially roped off to guide visitors down the correct path but with an entry to get to another lower altar or place for leaving gifts. Standing in the cave mouth’s forested depression, hidden away from the modern world above is a little unreal feeling as this one little patch has been left as it was.

The First Surgical Cave is just down the street from the museum. When exiting the museum turn right and walk until you see a cement post on the left side of the road by a dirt road (second left). Go down this dirt road until you see the trees on the left.

Yamashiro Okinawa Army Hospital Headquarters

Locally known as Sakiabu, this cave was where Okinawa Army Hospital director Gen. Hiroike Bunkichi made his headquarters after the evacuation from Haebaru. 12 Himeyuri students and a teacher were among the staff. The hospital had lost almost all of its supplies and equipment during the evacuation so an important task for the student nurses here was running messages to the hospital’s other aid stations.

The cave was hit by a naval shell on Jun. 14 which killed or injured 10 inside the cave. Among the dead were Hiroike and a Himeyuri messenger. Headless, the hospital was disestablished on Jun. 18 resulting in the subsequent deactivation of the Himeyuri and their deadliest days on the battlefield.

There is an Okinawa Army Hospital Memorial with pews like an open-air church beside the cave. It’s above ground placard has the history and a detailed map of the entire cave and an explanation of what each part was used for. Heading down to the cave entrance I followed a guide line which splits, one way is chained and the guide continues left down natural steps into the cave. It looks like the cave floor is split between an upper and lower level and the upper is off limits in the darkened space.

The name is often rendered as ‘Yamashiro’ but here is “Yamagusuku” because the two words share a kanji meaning “castle” which in the Okinawan dialect the word is “gusuku.” It seems Yamashiro is the common name.

 

After all the caves, my trip ended on limestone cliffs under a blue sky overlooking the sea at Arasaki Beach which is where this series will end in the next and final article.

Visiting all of these went much faster than I’d anticipated. I arrived at Yaese a little before 8:30 a.m. and made it to the Himeyuri Sanka no Ato Memorial around noon. Except for the 20 minutes between Yaese and Maesato, all the stops were 10 minutes or less from each other. It really gives a perspective to the size of the battlefield and how difficult fighting in this area was.

I recommend wearing boots and long pants for this trip, especially because of the Arasaki cliffs. For that I’d even recommend bringing gloves so as not to cut up your hands. If I’d thought ahead I’d have also brought a few extra water bottles to leave at the memorials.

I’ve written this article partially in the hopes the other three English-speaking people interested in the topic can take my notes and observations, and make the trip themselves without trouble. Gathering information for this article hasn’t been the easiest, I’ve had to rely on facts gleaned from magazine and online articles focused on survivor interviews and hope the writer did their homework on the background. The Himeyuri Peace Museum Guidebook has been indispensable because of the amount of information and survivor stories it packs to both help make the trip possible and for appreciating what happened. Reading it as I traveled was a great help and going through the stories at the places that they happened add a lot of perspective to the trip. Also, you may cry. It’s natural.

I hope others are able to make this trip and if you do, because it bears repeating, if it clearly says stay out, then stay out. A few times there was no sign but erring on the side of caution and out of respect for the people who died there I stayed out anyway. If I had entered anywhere I wasn’t suppose to go it would have been unintentionally.

For consistency in my article I’ve used the word “cave” which in Google Maps and some placards translate the kanji (壕) into cave, trench, moat, bunker and reach. In Okinawan all these places are gama. What’s gama? A natural limestone cave. The Himeyuri Peace Museum Guidebook also consistently uses cave in naming the surgical caves and I’m certain they didn’t just use Google Translate when making the book. Though in the address section I’ll list the Google Maps search name along with what I’ve been calling things for ease of use.

 

ADDRESSES (Use Google Maps)

Yaese
Shiraume Gakutotai Hospital Cave 第24師団第一野戦病院壕
26.132272, 127.720621

Maesato
Shiraume Memorial Tower白梅之塔
26.116465, 127.686261

Machidou nu Tira (Lower Cave) / Minamizenhiroshi Temple
26.116321, 127.686782

Yamagata Memorial (Upper Cave)
Yamagawa Memorial Tower 山形の塔 (The Typo is in Google Maps)

Park here:
26.115962, 127.686461

Memorial Monument of Lieutenant General Buckner バクナー中将慰霊碑
26.114664, 127.680404

Itosu
24^th Division Second Field Hospital (Ukkagama)
Itosu Trench 糸洲の壕（ウッカーガマ）
26.105006, 127.677385

Okinawa Army Hospital Second Surgical Cave
Itosu Second Surgical Trench糸洲第二外科壕跡
26.104247, 127.675542

Ihara
Ihara First Surgical Cave
Ihara First Surgery Trench伊原第一外科壕
26.094631, 127.688633

Park around the Himeyuri Museum

Yamagusuku Okinawa Army Hospital Headquarters
Yamagusuku Army Hospital Headquarters Bunker 陸軍病院山城本部壕
26.089128, 127.686295

Himeyuri Arasaki Beach Memorial (ひめゆり学徒隊散華の跡)
The bus stop nearest the trail is at: 26.077608, 127.681300

 

REFERENCES

Himeyuri Corps

Himeyuri Peace Museum Guidebook

Japan at War: an Oral History by Haruko Taya Cook & Theodore F. Cook

Descent into Hell: Civilian Memories of the Battle of Okinawa

Shiraume Corps
Okinawa Nurse Recalls World War II’s Darkest Hour
https://japan.stripes.com/community-news/okinawa-nurse-recalls-wwiis-darkest-hour-1547824628

Fuji Corps
Another Trip to Okinawa: 7 Fuji Students and Itosu Cave
https://www.smartmagazine.jp/okinawa/article/sight/23815/

Fuji Gakutotai Documentary Website
http://fujigakutotai.com/about

All other information gleaned from on-site placards.

 

¹ Names like Himeyuri, Shiraume and Fuji Gakutotai were given post-war and not official war-time designations.

² The 24^th Division Second Field Hospital Cave, staffed by Fuji Gakutotai students is in the Tomigusuku Castle ruins but as they are private property visitation is currently impossible.

³ Descent into Hell also recounts these events, but the survivor was in nearby Todoroki Cave where she explained that cave is where Koike released them from service and tearfully wished them well. He may have repeated this at both caves or they are connected.