“Journey of a militaristic boy’s escape to the south, becoming a prisoner of war in a camp”
“Journey of a militaristic boy’s escape to the south, becoming a prisoner of war in a camp”
Yoshio Yamada, 86 years old
(Place of birth: Shuri, Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture)
During the war, I was a militaristic boy. “Japan will not be defeated, but will win without fail!” was the typical lesson we had in our school. In fact, I never had even the slightest idea that Japan would lose the war. When I became a fifth grader, we started training with bamboo spears. There was a straw figure at the school entrance and we had to stab the straw figure and shout “Yah!” before going into the school building. It was our morning routine in our school days.
When we progressed to the higher grades, we visited a training school for civil aircraft pilots. The trainees looked so cool. I was completely fascinated by them and told myself, “I want to be like them. I will be a pilot.” Then, when I was in the fifth grade, I asked my father, who was stationed in Taiwan back then, if I could join the training school for civil aircraft pilots in Taiwan. When he said, “No,” I was quite disappointed. As a militaristic boy, I was fascinated by the thought of being a soldier or flying an aircraft.
However, if I think about it now, I was lucky. Two students from my school passed the first exam in Okinawa and when they were on their way to take the secondary exam by the ship called, I believe, Tsushima Maru, the ship was attacked and sunk. They were killed and I thought that I narrowly avoided being killed.
During the first term, we could study in the school building, but when the second term started, we had an increasing number of service work such as digging trenches. After summer break, our school buildings, located at the site of current Shuri High School, were occupied by the Take Corps and we no longer had the place for the class work. We then were forced to do service work at many locations almost every day such as sorting the goods at Naha Port and the encampment for the antiaircraft guns at Uema, digging trenches for the Take Corps at the slope leading to the Hanta River in Shikina and labor services at OrokuAirport.
(Upon the U.S. Disembarkation)
It was Yomitan where they landed. I heard that the sea was almost covered in black by the surging vessels and warships like ants swarming on candy. I felt unsafe, but not critically unsafe as it was still far away.
(Evacuation to the south)
Since the younger brother of my foster parent was a staff member at Shuri Municipal Office, the office employees and my family, in a group of approximately 30 people, took refuge in the cave called Sakitari Cave in Ahagon. It was a natural cave with an abundant volume of spring water which ran like a river. We had no problem with our laundry and drinking water, but suffered from the humidity. The humidity in the cave was so high that it made me sick. It was where we started our lives as refugees.
Before very long, we started to feel that it was unsafe to stay in the cave any longer and decided to leave in small groups as we felt it would be dangerous moving in a big group. Together, we all headed to the village called Arakaki first. Previously, we always moved at night, but we moved during daytime at that time. On our way to Arakaki Village, I saw a couple of dead people killed by being crushed under their roof and naval gunfire. It made me feel so sick that I could not swallow any food.
After a while, when we were about to start moving in small groups, we were attacked by concentrated naval gunfire and most of our group was killed. I saw a middle-aged woman, who was moving together with us, smiling at me while leaning against a stone wall. I yelled, “Lady, let’s get out of here!” but she did not respond. I ran up to her and realized that she was dead. It was a sad and disturbing moment.
We were captured by American soldiers on June 22. When we got out of the shelter, the American soldiers were already waiting for us to come out at the entrance of the shelter. Although there were some shootings going on at seven or eight o’clock at night on June 22, we decided to get out of the shelter. The reason why we got out of the shelter at that time was due to the information that the American soldiers were leaving the battle line in the area and moving toward the central area, which made us think that not many American soldiers were around and, therefore, it was the best time to get out of the shelter and move to the north. However, the shootings were still going on around the shelter entrance and the people getting out of the shelter before us raised a white flag saying, “We surrender.” The American soldiers assembled us in one place saying, “Come here. Come here,” and then separated us into female and male groups.
When we were captured and became prisoners of war, I thought that we were in big trouble. It was because while people were saying, “The friendly forces will come and take back Okinawa,” we called the Japanese Army the friendly forces then, we already surrendered and became prisoners of war. We felt unpatriotic or even as if we were traitors.
Then we were taken to the camps at Zayasu and Iraha in Tomigusuku. I remember that I was relieved when we got to the camp because there were many other prisoners and we were not the only ones.
(Looking back at the war)
The militaristic education implemented back then was so immoral and many things were distorted by the education. I believe that a correct education which teaches lessons for children to be children and for people to stay away from war is an absolute necessity, not the education that distorts the things which should not be distorted.
What I want to tell children of today is that I feel there is way too much freedom that has been spread throughout society after the war and it is the freedom which has led people to individualism. It seems that people no longer care about bullies or even killing other people. I want to say, “Realize how painful it is by pinching yourself.” If we all follow this lesson, there would be no bullies or other bad things. Moral education, that is what we need.
Yoshio Yamada, 86 years old
(Place of birth: Shuri, Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture)
During the war, I was a militaristic boy. “Japan will not be defeated, but will win without fail!” was the typical lesson we had in our school. In fact, I never had even the slightest idea that Japan would lose the war. When I became a fifth grader, we started training with bamboo spears. There was a straw figure at the school entrance and we had to stab the straw figure and shout “Yah!” before going into the school building. It was our morning routine in our school days.
When we progressed to the higher grades, we visited a training school for civil aircraft pilots. The trainees looked so cool. I was completely fascinated by them and told myself, “I want to be like them. I will be a pilot.” Then, when I was in the fifth grade, I asked my father, who was stationed in Taiwan back then, if I could join the training school for civil aircraft pilots in Taiwan. When he said, “No,” I was quite disappointed. As a militaristic boy, I was fascinated by the thought of being a soldier or flying an aircraft.
However, if I think about it now, I was lucky. Two students from my school passed the first exam in Okinawa and when they were on their way to take the secondary exam by the ship called, I believe, Tsushima Maru, the ship was attacked and sunk. They were killed and I thought that I narrowly avoided being killed.
During the first term, we could study in the school building, but when the second term started, we had an increasing number of service work such as digging trenches. After summer break, our school buildings, located at the site of current Shuri High School, were occupied by the Take Corps and we no longer had the place for the class work. We then were forced to do service work at many locations almost every day such as sorting the goods at Naha Port and the encampment for the antiaircraft guns at Uema, digging trenches for the Take Corps at the slope leading to the Hanta River in Shikina and labor services at OrokuAirport.
(Upon the U.S. Disembarkation)
It was Yomitan where they landed. I heard that the sea was almost covered in black by the surging vessels and warships like ants swarming on candy. I felt unsafe, but not critically unsafe as it was still far away.
(Evacuation to the south)
Since the younger brother of my foster parent was a staff member at Shuri Municipal Office, the office employees and my family, in a group of approximately 30 people, took refuge in the cave called Sakitari Cave in Ahagon. It was a natural cave with an abundant volume of spring water which ran like a river. We had no problem with our laundry and drinking water, but suffered from the humidity. The humidity in the cave was so high that it made me sick. It was where we started our lives as refugees.
Before very long, we started to feel that it was unsafe to stay in the cave any longer and decided to leave in small groups as we felt it would be dangerous moving in a big group. Together, we all headed to the village called Arakaki first. Previously, we always moved at night, but we moved during daytime at that time. On our way to Arakaki Village, I saw a couple of dead people killed by being crushed under their roof and naval gunfire. It made me feel so sick that I could not swallow any food.
After a while, when we were about to start moving in small groups, we were attacked by concentrated naval gunfire and most of our group was killed. I saw a middle-aged woman, who was moving together with us, smiling at me while leaning against a stone wall. I yelled, “Lady, let’s get out of here!” but she did not respond. I ran up to her and realized that she was dead. It was a sad and disturbing moment.
We were captured by American soldiers on June 22. When we got out of the shelter, the American soldiers were already waiting for us to come out at the entrance of the shelter. Although there were some shootings going on at seven or eight o’clock at night on June 22, we decided to get out of the shelter. The reason why we got out of the shelter at that time was due to the information that the American soldiers were leaving the battle line in the area and moving toward the central area, which made us think that not many American soldiers were around and, therefore, it was the best time to get out of the shelter and move to the north. However, the shootings were still going on around the shelter entrance and the people getting out of the shelter before us raised a white flag saying, “We surrender.” The American soldiers assembled us in one place saying, “Come here. Come here,” and then separated us into female and male groups.
When we were captured and became prisoners of war, I thought that we were in big trouble. It was because while people were saying, “The friendly forces will come and take back Okinawa,” we called the Japanese Army the friendly forces then, we already surrendered and became prisoners of war. We felt unpatriotic or even as if we were traitors.
Then we were taken to the camps at Zayasu and Iraha in Tomigusuku. I remember that I was relieved when we got to the camp because there were many other prisoners and we were not the only ones.
(Looking back at the war)
The militaristic education implemented back then was so immoral and many things were distorted by the education. I believe that a correct education which teaches lessons for children to be children and for people to stay away from war is an absolute necessity, not the education that distorts the things which should not be distorted.
What I want to tell children of today is that I feel there is way too much freedom that has been spread throughout society after the war and it is the freedom which has led people to individualism. It seems that people no longer care about bullies or even killing other people. I want to say, “Realize how painful it is by pinching yourself.” If we all follow this lesson, there would be no bullies or other bad things. Moral education, that is what we need.
