On the 23rd, Okinawa celebrated the 77th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa at the end of the Pacific War.
It is also a day to renew our pledge to peace and face the history of Okinawa.
In the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, more than 200,000 people died and one in four people in the prefecture died after a fierce ground battle involving residents.
June 23 is the day when the systematic battle of the former Japanese army is said to have ended, and Okinawa Prefecture has designated it as "Memorial Day", and a memorial service for the war dead will be held from noon at the Peace Memorial Park in Mabuni, Itoman City. I will.
It has been 77 years since the Battle of Okinawa, and the number of people who have experienced it has been decreasing year by year. As of October, about 90% of the citizens of Okinawa were born after the war.
In addition, the natural caves and gama that have been used as a place for peace learning have deteriorated and are closed in some cases, and the inheritance of the memories of the war has become an issue.
This is also the 50th anniversary of Okinawa's return to the mainland.
The "peaceful island without a base" that many citizens of the prefecture had hoped for before returning was not realized, and about 70% of the facilities dedicated to the US military in Japan are still concentrated in Okinawa.
This year's "Okinawa Memorial Day" is a day to renew the pledge to peace and to face the current situation of the heavy base burden on Okinawa.