Himeyuri Cenotaph; a namesake lily (yuri) blooms in the foreground.
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. I visited yesterday to see the changes for myself and was not disappointed.
The museum tells the story of the Himeyuri Gakutotai (Himeyuri Student Corps). These 240 high school girls and teachers from the sister schools of the First Okinawa Girls’ High School and the Okinawa Women’s Normal School in Asato (Naha) were among the 500 girls that served as assistant nurses to the Imperial Japanese Army during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. The conditions they endured for months was hellish; the hospital caves they worked and lived in were unsanitary, amputations were performed without anesthesia, they performed menial chores under enemy fire, handled the diseased and dead, all while surviving on starvation rations and often sick themselves. Just before the battle ended and the Japanese forces were surrounded, they were summarily discharged and forced onto the open battlefield where many died in the crossfire, fleeing or committing suicide to prevent capture. 136 of the Himeyuri who joined the battle were killed.
Shortly after the war a small memorial had been placed beside the place with the greatest number of wartime Himeyuri casualties, the former third surgical cave. It gave families a place to morn daughters lost in the caves, hills and coast of southern Okinawa. In 1989 the survivors built a small museum with a powerful, personal story to tell and if you’ve never been then I recommend seeing it as much as I do the Peace Park. If you’ve been before it’s worth adding to the itinerary next time you’re down in Itoman again.
Thankfully the renovation did not tone this story down or axe a lot of information, but they did streamline out some of the background information and minor details to focus more on people. There are a lot more photos of the students’ pre-battle lives and I think that adds a lot to help remind visitors these were people like them and not just a story that happened long ago. Overall, the new look, replacing blue walls with white backgrounds and watercolor illustrations, is a lot easier to read and the illustrations add to the text in a personable way.
The biggest and best improvement for foreigners is the addition of English subtitles to both sets of survivor videos. As survivors no longer regularly talk at the museum, this is what we have in their stead. One is 16 minutes of 1-2 minute interviews about life during the battle by the artifact exhibit; the other is an hour of similar interviews in the theater room. This one was the most moving and pulls no punches. Each segment begins with a photo of a group of girls, then focuses in on a survivor. The now elderly woman talks about particular incidents or ordeals, sitting at the location where it happened and as she speak the names of classmates or lost friends, their school photos appears on screen adding a face to her story. These are pretty graphic but need to be told to better understand what the battle was like for these teenagers.
Another change is continuing the story post-war after the Requiem Room. After capture, some Himeyuri continued to serve as assistant nurses in US POW infirmaries and were reunited with their families in about six months. After the war the US military started schools to teach teachers, like the Okinawa Women’s’ Normal School did, and it said that Himeyuri were among the first students.
For first time visitors I also recommend taking the time to read the survivor testimonies in the Requiem Room, which if you want to check out later, they are also in the Himeyuri Peace Museum Guidebook which can be purchased in the gift shop. It’s been an invaluable research tool in writing about them.
The admission price has also been raised from 310 to 450 yen for individuals. The museum is still almost entirely bilingual. No photography allowed inside the museum.
ADDRESS
Himeyuri Peace Museum
671-1 Ihara, Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture 901-0344
98-997-2100
http://www.himeyuri.or.jp/EN/info.html