“Try to imagine”–Okinawa Shogaku students teach Hiroshima high school students about the Battle of Okinawa, show them the footsteps of the Shiraume students

“Try to imagine”--Okinawa Shogaku students teach Hiroshima high school students about the Battle of Okinawa, show them the footsteps of the Shiraume students

Okinawa Shogaku Senior High School Regional Laboratory students (right) tell Hiroshima Jogakuin Senior High School students (left) about the paths walked by the Shiraume students, on March 16 at the Shiraume Memorial Tower in Maezato, Itoman


April 2, 2020 Ryukyu Shimpo

By Sanenori Kinjo

 

“Please try to imagine: girls just ten years old going to sleep only to be soon awoken and forced to work all day long under harsh conditions.”

On March 16, the Okinawa Shogaku Senior High School Regional Laboratory guided high school students visiting Okinawa for a school trip on a tour of the paths walked by the Shiraume students mobilized as nursing personnel during the Battle of Okinawa.

 

The Research Laboratory at the school has carried out fieldwork for 17 years, communicating and connecting with the former Shiraume students, listening to their stories from wartime, studying materials, and sharing what they learn as peace guides.

Fifteen members of the Regional Laboratory guided 23 students from the Hiroshima Jogakuin Senior High School in Hiroshima. The group visited the “surgery trench” and the Nunumachigama trench in Yaesedake in Yaese, as well as the Shiraume Memorial Tower in Itoman. The Laboratory students explained an overview of the Battle of Okinawa and the duties of the Shiraume students. The students from Hiroshima listened attentively with serious expressions on their faces.

 

At the Shiraume Memorial Tower, the group gave a one-minute silent prayer, and then entered the “lower cave” used as a hospital unit to experience what it was like in the cave.

During exchange of views between students from the two schools, the students from Hiroshima made comments such as, “I feel that there is a large gap between the opportunities for receiving peace education between high school students from Hiroshima, Okinawa, and Nagasaki and high school students from other areas. High school students all over Japan need equal opportunity to learn about peace.” Students from Okinawa Shogaku made comments such as, “There is much we do not know about the war experience in other prefectures as well. I hope to increase my knowledge through communication and exchange.”

 

On March 10, shortly before visiting Okinawa, the students at Hiroshima Jogakuin Senior High School heard from former Shiraume student Kiku Nakayama through an online session. Student Chisato Ichimura, age 17, said, “Since we went to the actual location after listening to Ms. Kiku’s talk, I was able to more deeply learn about the Battle of Okinawa.” Regarding the tour by the students from Okinawa Shogaku, she said, “They are of the same generation as us, but they have studied the Battle of Okinawa in detail and explained it to us in an accessible way. I hope that we, being born in Hiroshima, can also study more about the atomic bombing and convey our knowledge to many people.”

 

Karin Higa, age 17, of the Okinawa Shogaku Regional Laboratory said, “Explaining the Battle of Okinawa in my own words in practice served as an opportunity to think again about how to do so. I want to work to continue passing down the history of the Battle of Okinawa and the memories of the Shiraume students.”

 

 

(English translation by T&CT and Sandi Aritza)

 

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