With its multitude of civilian casualties making it a “microcosm of the Okinawa Campaign”, Ie Island prays for peace. (22ap25)

Splendor of Okinawa: Oriental False Hawksbeard, roadside Uruma, 9ap25


Okinawa Prefecture’s Ie Island, with its multitude of civilian casualties in the ebb and flow of the expanding fierce battle, is seen as a “microcosm of the Okinawa Campaign” in World War II.


On 21 April, the “Prayer for Peace Ritual” was held to mark  80 years since the end of that battle. About 250 people, including bereaved relatives, gathered in front of the Pillar of Blessed Spirits, commemorating the approximately 3,500 island dead honored there. At the signal of a ferry boat whistle, silence reigned, while all prayed for peace.


At the ritual site, Governor Denny Tamaki noted, “Their peaceful lives were stolen by the fierce bombings, shelling from ships, and gruesome land combat. The result was a multitude of civilian casualties. It’s our obligation to pass on correctly to generations to come, without allowing the ebb and flow of memory to fade, the history of that war 80 years ago.”

 

In April 1945, US forces came ashore on Ie Island with its airfield known as the “best in the Orient”. The resulting land battle was fierce.

　

Original Japanese article: Kyodo Communications, published Monday 21 April 2025 at 17:01

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d6d7c509accf1ac35b57527c3bbb96928ea7db76


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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