Original is not easy, please follow it!
Author: Liu Bowen, Yipinwen team, no transfer is prohibited without authorization!
In the tragic Okinawa battle in the late Pacific War, in the face of the US attack, the Japanese army often drove Okinawa civilians out of the tunnels and hidden troops, and then hid in them by themselves. A large number of Okinawa civilians were exposed to the dual firepower of the US and Japanese troops and were brutally shot and killed. The Japanese army, who claimed to be fighting to "defend Okinawa", revealed their true face that made the people of Okinawa feel heartbroken. Okinawa's local student soldier Oda Masahide was lucky enough to die and wrote down his memories after the war. Later, Masahis Ota became a professor at Ryukyu University, a well-known leftist scholar and social activist. He was re-elected as governor of Okinawa Prefecture for two terms in the 1990s. He devoted his life to the just cause of opposing US military bases and opposing Japan's militarization. He died in 2017. The following are the personal memories written by Masahis Ota:
(Mr. Masahis Ota)
"The American machine was hovering in the sky, and I immediately jumped to the lower left of the road and saw a horizontal trench. There was a simple earth wall at the entrance, which was used for storm prevention. You could tell at a glance that it was an air trench dug by the people. When I was about to avoid the air raid, a muzzle pointed at my chest: "This is not possible! This bastard, who lets you in? Didn't you see this? come out! You annoying student! "While reprimanding, he continued to scold: "What's the matter! Is this an imperial soldier? Is it considered a magic weapon? "While he was cursing, "Click, click..." The sound of airplane shooting like cutting bamboo was connected together. There was no hiding something beside me, and I couldn't help but move another step towards the entrance of the trench. The soldier shouted again: "Do you kid understand nothing? I won’t forgive you if I run around! Haven't you seen the thing coming out there? "I looked in the direction of the gun. In the potato field four or five meters away in front, an old man was lying on his back, his charred clothes peeled off, his chest naked, and his buttocks and thighs were covered with turbid purple-black blood. As soon as I saw this scene, the anger in my chest dissipated. "What else is this? No, no. "I tried hard to get rid of the doubts in my mind and shook my head. But the fact is indeed that, the reality is ruthless, my hair is dizzy and swollen. "Didn't you see what's rolling there? Student, you are such a thing! "I can't forget the tone of the soldier's warning and scolding, and my mind is full of anxiety and doubts."
(The painful memory of war is one of the important reasons for the existence of the Ryukyu independence movement in Okinawa to this day)
No matter what moral point of view, an army's behavior cannot be tolerated. To grab a hidden place with civilians to save their lives, and to shoot and kill Okinawa civilians who should have been protected by them, what kind of conceptual support does the Japanese army need to do this without any obstacles? It is contempt, discrimination and distrust of Okinawans. The air defense trench in Zhenbi is said to be closest to the US military. One day, when a couple hurriedly packed their things, the three or four-year-old child cried, which made the three Japanese soldiers hear it. They immediately pointed the bayonet at the child's parents and said, "Children are not allowed to cry, what should they do if the enemy hears it!" They forced them to throw the child into the pool and drowned. The child thrown into the pool emerged from the water and wanted to climb to the shore. The Japanese soldiers went over and held the child's head until they died. There were also children crying in the air defense trench in Xiwu's mountain city. The Japanese army forced their children's parents to inject poison into their children to death.
(The painful memory of the war is one of the important reasons for the existence of the Ryukyu independence movement in Okinawa to this day)
in the final stage of the Okinawa Battle, the defeated Japanese army retreated from the old capital of Okinawa Shuri at night. The heavy rain affected the retreat speed, and the Japanese army without transportation was marching hard in the mud. The sharp flares left them without any escape, the US military's shells continued to fall, and a large number of wounded soldiers were killed. These wounded soldiers are still capable of moving. The seriously injured in the Nanfengyuan Army Hospital has long been distributed by medical staff.The leader of the 32nd Japanese Army, Umejima, led the remnants to Mowenren Village at the southern end of Okinawa Island, and set up the last command post in the tunnel numbered 89 on the back mountain of Mowenren Village. During the retreat, 20,000 Japanese wounded soldiers died, and 70% of their weapons and equipment were discarded or destroyed.
(The painful memory of the war is one of the important reasons for the existence of the Ryukyu independence movement in Okinawa to this day)
Large-scale collective suicides that shocked the world during the Okinawa War began to appear at this time. Collective suicides in the Okinawa War were first seen in the wounded Japanese soldiers. When the Japanese field hospital located in Fengjian Castle received a retreat order in early June, it required that all wounded people who could still move retreat with the army, and all the remaining ones would be killed or killed, and they could not surrender and be captured. Military orders are like a mountain falling, and they must be obeyed unconditionally. Some wounded soldiers endured the pain and insisted on going out on their own. In the end, there were seventy or eighty people left, and they were really unable to move, so they had to die on the spot.
The health officer told them that there are three ways to commit suicide: grenade self-destruction, potassium cyanide injection, and shooting, hoping that everyone will give their own opinions. More than fifty people wanted to inject medicine needles, sixteen people wanted to self-destruct with grenades, and those who were seriously disabled and unable to move were asked to carry them outside, take a breath of fresh air before shooting them.
People who want to inject potassium cyanide have their heads facing north and lie side by side. The large syringe was filled with potassium cyanide venom. When the gunshots of killing the injured soldiers outside sounded, the venom was injected into the wounded soldiers' veins one by one. These people stopped breathing silently one after another. Then there was the explosion of the grenade. According to the records of the book "Okinawa War and Peace Education", there were about 10,000 seriously injured soldiers dealt with in this way.
(The painful memory of war is one of the important reasons for the existence of the Ryukyu independence movement in Okinawa to this day)
At this time, the fate of the Japanese army's failure is irreversible, and the fate of the Japanese army in Okinawa is about to collapse. The cruelty of the Japanese army to treat the Okinawans reached a level that was previously unimaginable at this moment. The most typical example of Okinawa's main island is the Oimei Village Tono Kiya incident. After the U.S. military landed, about 90 civilians caught on the run were placed here. On the night of May 12, 1945, a team of Japanese soldiers appeared and beheaded several people in charge. They drove the women and children to the beach, shouting "Don't you feel ashamed to be a prisoner of the US military?" While throwing grenades, they killed more than 20 people on the spot, and then snatched away all the bedding and food, which was no different from killing and robbing. In order to hide your own traces and ensure your hiding place, you can drive away civilians and abuse children in the caves. The direction of the Japanese retreat was consistent with the refugee shelter for Okinawa refugees, so soon the Japanese army seized refugee shelter caves and drove refugees out of the caves as a shield. This is very similar to what happened before. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare after the war, as many as 10,000 Okinawa civilians died on the grounds of "providing hiding places." References: Proof of War Responsibility: From September 18th Incident to the Pacific War, the entire history of Greater East Asia, modern history of Okinawa, notes on Okinawa,
