81 Years On, Ex-Okinawa Wartime Student Nurse Urges No More War

Naha, Okinawa Pref., June 23 (Jiji Press)–Yasuko Onaga, 96, who was a student nurse mobilized for the now-defunct Japanese military during the Battle of Okinawa in the closing days of World War II, is sharing her wartime memories and urging that war never be repeated. With the southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa marking the 81st anniversary of the end of the ground battle on its main island on Tuesday, Onaga, a resident of Naha, the capital of Okinawa, is making a powerful appeal for peace amid rising international tensions. Onaga was a 15-year-old student at a girls’ school on Okinawa’s main island when she joined a military unit led by Keijun Nagaoka in March 1945. An evacuation order was issued for the then village of Mawashi, now part of Naha, prompting her family to flee to the northern part of Okinawa’s main island. But Onaga, who had received a militaristic education, felt compelled to serve her country. She worked as a cook and nurse in underground caves under the direction of a military medic. In late May 1945, while drawing water, Onaga heard someone shout, “Get into the cave.” As she ran inside, a U.S. tank shell struck the cave, blowing away troops at the entrance. U.S. soldiers then followed up with flamethrowers and gas bombs. The cave was blasted, and the surrounding bedrock collapsed. Onaga, who took shelter in a crevice between rocks, saw body parts scattered around and illuminated by a flare as she tried to escape. “It was a mess,” she recalled. “It was a sea of blood.” Amid the chaos, Onaga fell off a cliff and lost consciousness. By the time she came to, her unit was gone. Despite being hit in the back by machine-gun fire, she crawled on through the pain. She drank water from a river strewn with corpses. Determined not to die there, she headed south in search of her unit. Japanese soldiers briefly suspected her of being a spy, but she managed to rejoin the unit about a week later. In the early morning of June 22, 1945, while hiding in a cave, Onaga heard a U.S. announcement calling on Japanese troops to surrender. With a U.S. sweep of the area imminent, Nagaoka urged the women in his unit to surrender. To the bewildered Onaga, Nagaoka said, “Please live and tell people that a war like this once took place.” Following his order, she surrendered and was taken prisoner by U.S. forces. The Battle of Okinawa ended a day later. “Nothing is gained from war,” Onaga said. “Everything ends up in ashes.” After the war, Onaga became an elementary school teacher and devoted herself to peace education. Even in her 90s, she continues to share her experiences from the Battle of Okinawa. She believes that Nagaoka, on the day she surrendered, entrusted her with the task of helping make Japan a nation that never goes to war again. More than 200,000 people lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa, the largest ground battle in Japan during the war. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]