On 26 March, Zamami Village holds its memorial service commemorating the landing of US troops there during the Okinawa Campaign, with the pledge, “We won’t let this fact of history fade from memory!” (26mr25)

Splendor of Okinawa: Hyacinth Orchid, roadside Futenma, 24mr25


During the Okinawa Campaign in the closing stage of World War II, US troops began their landings starting in the Kerama Island Chain on 26 March 1945, 80 years ago today.


On the morning of 26 March 1945, the US troops, starting from Me-nu Beach on Aka Island in the Kerama Chain, landed in the surrounding islands one after another.


The sea was filled with countless Allied warships. Okinawa was devastated by a fierce artillery barrage, a “typhoon of steel”. Its seas were scattered with the bodies of kamikaze pilots. One in every four residents of Okinawa Prefecture became a victim. The combined total of victims from both the US and Japanese sides surpassed 200,000.


Not just Okinawa Island, but also its outer islands were ravaged by the fires of war. Tragedies occurred in numerous cases, when island civilians, cornered in flight from US troops, committed group suicides.


At Zamami village, where the US troops first landed, many relics of the war remain. Its mayor, Satoru Miyasato, spoke on the record to our Sankei reporter. He stated, “I’m convinced that it’s our obligation to pass on to future generations the preciousness of peace and the idiocy of war, without letting the facts of our history fade into oblivion.”


On 26 March, Zamami village organizes its memorial service for that day and Governor Denny Tamaki will attend this year.



Original Japanese article: Sankei Shimbun, published Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 01:04.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/53dc52c5ecbcd0f4721078c106f4235a9dc16339


Denny in the News:

Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 


This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 


Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.


Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.

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