Scars That Remain in My Body
“Scars That Remain in My Body”
Toroku Oshiro (33大城藤六)
Date of birth: August 15, 1931
At the time: 14-year-old public school student
○ Death of Family Members
My father was killed by mortar fire on May 20 while he was carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher at a place called Untama-mori forest. After the end of the war, I went to where my father was buried – a hole made with naval bombardment - by his fellow soldiers and collected his remains.
My grandmother died in an air raid shelter where 27 to 28 of the members of my clan were staying. Half of them died in that air raid shelter. Two younger brothers survived and returned from there, and although we tried to find a hiding place, all the good hiding places were already taken by soldiers, so we built a little enclosure at the site of our house, using tree branches and earth as covering, and huddled together there. However, one of the brothers injured his elbow when he came out of the hiding place to drink water. He developed tetanus as a result of this wound and died aboard a ship after we became prisoners of war and were being relocated to Kunigami. We buried him in Ginoza, but (after the end of the war), I was unable to collect his remains because I could not find the place where we had buried him.
The youngest child who was about eight months old never got injured, but due to inhaling the smoke from a yellow phosphorus smoke bomb, the child reportedly died immediately after taking medicine we got in Hyakuna.
○ First Experience of Naval Bombardment
In the evening, we went to dig sweet potatoes when airplanes were no longer in sight, but bombs fell in our fields and we got covered by a lot of soil. After that, I do not remember how we evacuated, but I remember hiding by covering myself in sweet potato vines and rolling over in them. Explosive sounds deafened my ears, and I could not hear for about two days. That was my first experience of naval bombardment.
After that, my father died on May 20.
○ Injured by Shells
Around the beginning of June, we moved to hide in a tomb. Ten days later, shells fell there, completely blowing away stones that had been stacked, and people who were staying toward rear side where the structure was weak died, but our family survived because we were at the front side where the structure was more durable. However, my left hand got dislocated and I suffered burns on my feet.
One of the boys in my clan got injured in his stomach, and when we had him drink water, the water flowed out from another part of his body that was injured. The wound did not appear to be very deep, but his intestines were popping out, so we pressed a gauze against the intestines to hold them in place. However, when he moved even slightly, the intestines would pop out. We then left the tomb and fled separately.
After that, we entered another tomb that soldiers were using. They treated our wounds and gave us water to drink, but they told us to get out of there, so we had to leave even though it was in the middle of the day.
○ Becoming Prisoners of War
By June 19, American soldiers were closing in up to the back side of Maehira district. From around that time, they were announcing: “Come out. Civilians, come out with your clothes taken off.” For about five or six days, they were broadcasting such announcements every day, telling us to “come out in such and such hours.” The first to go out were four or five Korean military porters. The vice principal of our elementary school went out next, as he was injured and we also had no food. We also went out with our upper bodies bare and wearing only short pants. We were all gathered in a field toward the back of our village. There were some American soldiers, and about 20 to 30 villagers were rounded up there.
The people there were separated into Japanese soldiers and civilians like us, and the soldiers were taken away first. The Americans handed out canned food and water to us, but none of us dared to eat the food or drink the water. Then, a person who had returned to Okinawa from Hawaii intervened and told us: “It’s okay. You can drink this. No one will get killed from now on. We will never kill you. We are just going to take you to a refugee camp.” Even then, no one believed that. Then, an American soldier opened a can and ate the contents in front of our eyes. Finally, we each ate a piece of the canned food, drank plenty of water, and felt relief.
About 10 minutes later, many tanks arrived, and we became frightened that we would be told to sit down and the tanks would roll over us and kill us all. However, the tanks went toward the village.
After that, we were taken aboard a 2-ton truck toward the borderline between Takamine and Kochinda. From there, we were forced to walk all the way to the village of Chinen. Wounded people rode on trucks, while those who could walk were all forced to walk. Passing through sugar cane fields, we went from Tamagusuku to Sashiki, resting one or two nights in the middle of rice paddies.
○ Collecting Remains
We went to collect remains. We found those of one person from the Nashiro community, three people from the village, and a mainland Japanese. When we dug up the remains, they each had certain characteristics. The Japanese was wearing military boots, and defense corps members were wearing tabi (Japanese socks). Their teeth also had characteristics. The person from Nashiro did not have any teeth. A person from the Maeda community was wealthy, so there were gold fillings. We buried the solider back in the ground, and other than that, we took everything home.
Toroku Oshiro (33大城藤六)
Date of birth: August 15, 1931
At the time: 14-year-old public school student
○ Death of Family Members
My father was killed by mortar fire on May 20 while he was carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher at a place called Untama-mori forest. After the end of the war, I went to where my father was buried – a hole made with naval bombardment - by his fellow soldiers and collected his remains.
My grandmother died in an air raid shelter where 27 to 28 of the members of my clan were staying. Half of them died in that air raid shelter. Two younger brothers survived and returned from there, and although we tried to find a hiding place, all the good hiding places were already taken by soldiers, so we built a little enclosure at the site of our house, using tree branches and earth as covering, and huddled together there. However, one of the brothers injured his elbow when he came out of the hiding place to drink water. He developed tetanus as a result of this wound and died aboard a ship after we became prisoners of war and were being relocated to Kunigami. We buried him in Ginoza, but (after the end of the war), I was unable to collect his remains because I could not find the place where we had buried him.
The youngest child who was about eight months old never got injured, but due to inhaling the smoke from a yellow phosphorus smoke bomb, the child reportedly died immediately after taking medicine we got in Hyakuna.
○ First Experience of Naval Bombardment
In the evening, we went to dig sweet potatoes when airplanes were no longer in sight, but bombs fell in our fields and we got covered by a lot of soil. After that, I do not remember how we evacuated, but I remember hiding by covering myself in sweet potato vines and rolling over in them. Explosive sounds deafened my ears, and I could not hear for about two days. That was my first experience of naval bombardment.
After that, my father died on May 20.
○ Injured by Shells
Around the beginning of June, we moved to hide in a tomb. Ten days later, shells fell there, completely blowing away stones that had been stacked, and people who were staying toward rear side where the structure was weak died, but our family survived because we were at the front side where the structure was more durable. However, my left hand got dislocated and I suffered burns on my feet.
One of the boys in my clan got injured in his stomach, and when we had him drink water, the water flowed out from another part of his body that was injured. The wound did not appear to be very deep, but his intestines were popping out, so we pressed a gauze against the intestines to hold them in place. However, when he moved even slightly, the intestines would pop out. We then left the tomb and fled separately.
After that, we entered another tomb that soldiers were using. They treated our wounds and gave us water to drink, but they told us to get out of there, so we had to leave even though it was in the middle of the day.
○ Becoming Prisoners of War
By June 19, American soldiers were closing in up to the back side of Maehira district. From around that time, they were announcing: “Come out. Civilians, come out with your clothes taken off.” For about five or six days, they were broadcasting such announcements every day, telling us to “come out in such and such hours.” The first to go out were four or five Korean military porters. The vice principal of our elementary school went out next, as he was injured and we also had no food. We also went out with our upper bodies bare and wearing only short pants. We were all gathered in a field toward the back of our village. There were some American soldiers, and about 20 to 30 villagers were rounded up there.
The people there were separated into Japanese soldiers and civilians like us, and the soldiers were taken away first. The Americans handed out canned food and water to us, but none of us dared to eat the food or drink the water. Then, a person who had returned to Okinawa from Hawaii intervened and told us: “It’s okay. You can drink this. No one will get killed from now on. We will never kill you. We are just going to take you to a refugee camp.” Even then, no one believed that. Then, an American soldier opened a can and ate the contents in front of our eyes. Finally, we each ate a piece of the canned food, drank plenty of water, and felt relief.
About 10 minutes later, many tanks arrived, and we became frightened that we would be told to sit down and the tanks would roll over us and kill us all. However, the tanks went toward the village.
After that, we were taken aboard a 2-ton truck toward the borderline between Takamine and Kochinda. From there, we were forced to walk all the way to the village of Chinen. Wounded people rode on trucks, while those who could walk were all forced to walk. Passing through sugar cane fields, we went from Tamagusuku to Sashiki, resting one or two nights in the middle of rice paddies.
○ Collecting Remains
We went to collect remains. We found those of one person from the Nashiro community, three people from the village, and a mainland Japanese. When we dug up the remains, they each had certain characteristics. The Japanese was wearing military boots, and defense corps members were wearing tabi (Japanese socks). Their teeth also had characteristics. The person from Nashiro did not have any teeth. A person from the Maeda community was wealthy, so there were gold fillings. We buried the solider back in the ground, and other than that, we took everything home.
