Okinawa Peace Memorial Foundation removes reference to “sacrifice for the nation” on website explanation of National War Cemetery

Okinawa Peace Memorial Foundation removes reference to “sacrifice for the nation” on website explanation of National War Cemetery

National War Cemetery of Okinawa


June 13, 2020 Ryukyu Shimpo

As of June 12, the Okinawa Peace Memorial Foundation has deleted from its website the wording “eternally houses the remains of war dead who sacrificed their lives for the nation in a time of national peril” as an explanation of the National War Cemetery of Okinawa. The statement now reads, “people whose lives were sacrificed in the tragic war.”

Last month, Governor Denny Tamaki announced that as the Okinawa Memorial Day ceremony to honor all those who died in the war in Okinawa would be held at a smaller scale in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the venue for the ceremony would be changed to the National War Cemetery of Okinawa. On June 12, it was announced that the ceremony will be held at its usual location after all. Between the original announcement and the switch back, Okinawa International University Professor Emeritus Masaie Ishihara and others problematized the fact that the cemetery’s website included the war-glorifying phrase “war dead who sacrificed their lives for the nation in a time of national peril,” asserting that holding the ceremony at the cemetery would not align with the sentiment of survivors and families of the dead.

Okinawa Peace Memorial Foundation Managing Director Kenji Uehara explained that the phrase “sacrificed their lives for the nation in a time of national peril” was added to the website when it was renewed in May of last year, with reference to newsletters published by associations for families of war dead in other prefectures. “Hearing the critique of Professor Ishihara and others, we believe that it is not appropriate to continue using this wording, and we changed the wording to what it was before the [website] renewal. We didn’t fully consider the implications of the ‘national peril’ phrasing. I’m very sorry,” Uehara said.

(English translation by T&CT and Sandi Aritza)

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