Okinawa, Japan: The International Dateline Strikes Again

It is Sunday here in Okinawa, Japan. My phone is set to not automatically update time and date. I did

this back in Alaska when the time was not moving, but we were. Imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning at 6:20 AM because my alarm had not gone off at 6. I looked at my watch and it said 6:20. I looked at my phone and it said 5:20. Apparently, somewhere in the bowels of my phone it adjusts to
daylight savings time even though I am in charge of setting the time manually. What’s truly odd about
this is that you are not on daylight savings time yet, but my phone adjusted anyway because the manual
date I have set says it is time to change over even though you won’t change over until tonight. The
mysteries of smart phones are deep and undecipherable to us mere mortals.

Today we are in Okinawa and will see the war information from the battle of Okinawa from the island’s
viewpoint having just visited the information from the kamikaze pilots and airfields point of view in
Chiran. We are getting a real WWII perspective that is unique and overwhelming.

Every single US president, cabinet member, and federal legislator should be required to do these Peace
museums. They speak most eloquently to the futility, costs, and inhumanity of war. Seeing the granite
monuments listing 200,000 dead in the battle of Okinawa, reading about the battle which was all about
slowing an inevitable attack on the Japanese mainland (biggest island), seeing the underground tunnel
complex where the Japanese holed up with the damage done to walls by the blasts of their suicide
grenades all led to a dark sense of futility. Okinawa was once a peace-loving sovereign nation. China
and Japan both exerted influence until Japan finally took over. Then the US took over after WWII.
Descriptions of the autocratic rule of the US are not pretty. It is so at odds with what we are supposed
to aspire to as a nation.

We visited the museum first. The history of war for this place starts in the early 1900’s and sets the
stage for WWII. They have historical footage with English subtitles that describe the battle which was
only about delay, not about winning which makes the 200,000 deaths seem even more senseless Many
of the native Okinowans were forced from their homes and went to find shelter in nearby caves. Many
of the caves were commandeered by the Japanese soldiers who committed numerous atrocities among
the Okinawan people. The parallels with the present situation in Gaza is striking.

Once out of the museum we went down to the row upon row of black granite monuments inscribed

with the names of the dead. They include the names of all who died during this battle: soldiers from
both sides of the conflict as well as civilians. I wonder if the person who designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC was familiar with this memorial. My guess is yes. Above the museum on the hill are a number of monuments and memorials donated by various prefectures. It reminds me of the numerous chapels in major cathedrals in Europe but outside surrounded by sea and sky. A place to contemplate why human beings have such a need to exert domination over others by casting them as inhuman, taking what is not theirs, and trying to coerce those they conquer to accept their new status by force. It has not worked in Okinawa, it did not work in Afghanistan or Iraq, it will not work in Ukraine or Gaza or Taiwan.

After the peace park we went to see the Japanese tunnel system where they put their command

structure for defense of the island. The extensive tunnel system was at a high point where the Japanese
could oversee what was going on at the airfields for the island. 

It is eerie to walk down the stairs into the tunnels and see the spaces occupied in the last days before the fall of Okinawa. While the Japanese soldiers were committing suicide, forcing suicide on many native islanders, and watching the suicide bombers from the mainland attack the Allied fleet, Japanese on the mainland were not committing suicide. Would many have done so without the A bomb? We will never know. It all seems so senseless.

A hard day.