#himeyurinoto

[liaasato]

March 17, 2019

After Shuri Castle we ate a Teishoku Soba lunch. Accompanying the soba was the most delicious stewed soki (pork spare ribs with cartilage still attached). So Ono!

In addition to visiting the Shuri Castle, we also visited some heart-heavy sites later in the day. 

The first being the Himeyuri-no-to Memorial Park, which commemorates the female high school students who served as nurses during the war time. Due to limited staff, these girls around (15-20 years old, my age) served as military aids to the soldiers fighting in battle. Forced into terrible conditions the girls who had no medical experience or knowledge were tasked with stitching wounds from battle, removing bullets, and wrapping broken bones. Difficult to see in the photo I shared but, there is a ~10ft wide hole in the ground where a make-shift hospital once was. About a few stories under the earth was where many of the girls had sacrificed their lives to serve their home.

Our last destination was the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum. Showcasing stone hedges with names of the recorded fallen, exhibits of the war time replicas and recovered objects from the aftermath, this museum was probably the most heavy museums I had ever visited. I remember distinctly not being able to walk through parts of the museum because I just did not have the stomach. Audio and video recordings of survivor testimonies were also being shown along with countless articles and quotes from Okinawans. Despite the heavy subject of war and death, the Museum does a great job in exemplifying and spreading peace. 

“In order that we may mourn for those who perished during the war, pass on to future generations the historic lessons of the Battle of Okinawa, convey our message to the peoples of the world and thereby contribute to establishing permanent peace, we have hereby established, displaying the whole range of the individual war experiences of the people in this prefecture, the Okinawa Prefectural Memorial Museum.” [From the museum brochure.]