In remembering Japan's final WWII battle, Okinawans reflect on peace

June 23 (UPI) -- More than 4,000 people on Monday filled an Okinawa park to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan's final WWII battle, while citizens reflected over long-lost loved ones and a promise by a Japanese leader to "visibly reduce the burden of U.S. bases" on Okinawa.

Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki were in Itoman to attend ceremonies at Peace Memorial Park for "Irei No Hi," known as memorial day, to remember the bloody Battle of Okinawa in which more than 240,000 soldiers and civilians died during or after battle during the last world war.

"It is the nation's vital responsibility to squarely face the folly and tragedy of war, and to do its utmost for a peaceful and prosperous Okinawa," Ishiba said as fear today seems to be heightening over international conflict following U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran.

Other attendees of the commemoration included a representative of the 2024 Nobel Peace Price-winning Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers, Shigemitsu Tanaka, in addition to the United Nations' undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu.

Tamaki asked the audience to remember the battle's lessons and think over how to "break down the absurd current situation and bring lasting peace to the world."

American and Japanese officials offered remarks of peace during separate ceremonies in scorching heat, during which an additional 342 names were added to the vast park's Cornerstone of Peace monument on Mabuni Hill, where the battle's final ground stage was fought on the main island of Japan's southern prefecture.

The addition now brings to 242,567 the total inscribed names of Japanese and other foreign soldiers who died in the Battle of Okinawa from April to June 22, 1945.

"We now have potential adversaries who seek to disrupt that and who seek to change the status quo of peace that is here," Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, said earlier Monday as he spoke to roughly 50 U.S. Marine in front of the American part of the Cornerstone of Peace.

"It's incredibly important that the U.S.-Japan alliance see through that and be reinforced and continue to grow," Turner said while praising the alliance and maintenance of regional Indo-Pacific peace for 80 years.

During the ceremonies, Okinawa's Tamaki said the mission among those living in the present was to "preserve and pass on" the memories.

On Monday, Okinawans dressed in black, lit incense and laid out food and flower offerings by the names of deceased loved ones as committals were made to pass on lessons of history.

"Perhaps I won't be able to come next year," said 89-year-old Asako Idogawa, who repeatedly traced the wall's inscribed name of her elder brother who was burned by a U.S. flamethrower.

She added that "war is cruel."

Ishiba asked the crowd to reflect on "the stupidity and tragedy of war" before a protestor was removed after yelling, "Don't turn Okinawa into a battlefield!"

In recent years, the Japanese government has taken steps to strengthen the nation's defense capabilities on its island province with growing tension with China over independent Taiwan and disputes about the nearby group of uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which Beijing calls Diaoyu. These are among the fears by Okinawan residents that their homes could again bear witness to war.

The devastating Okinawa battle left a lingering effect on the local population, which saw one in four residents killed. The battle was followed by reported cases of civilian abuse and forced suicides at the hands of Japan's imperial military, as well.

Okinawa, under U.S. control until 1972 after Japan's military defeat nearly 30 years prior, has remained host to troves of U.S. military base installations and long-existing resentments by local residents over noise, pollution and further anger over the recent disclosure of multiple alleged cases of sexual assault by U.S. troops.

On Monday, the Liberal Democratic Party prime minister pledged his "deep-held resolve" to "visibly" reduce the long-existing "burden" of America's military presence on the island prefecture.

Okinawa, Ishiba stated, "continues to shoulder an outsized burden."

Tamaki also spoke of the "heavy" U.S. military "burden" of bases on Okinawa and spoke in protest over the ongoing construction of a new Camp Schwab airfield to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

"It is possible to suspend operations at Futenma without relocating it to Henoko," the Okinawa governor said after the event in a news conference, characterizing it as a "false solution" and called on the United States and Japan to collaborate in order find a better alternative.