Between April and June 1945, the last great battle of the Second World War was fought on an island home to nearly half a million civilians. Around two hundred thousand people died, and an estimated one in four Okinawans lost their lives. Twelve stops from north to south following the front line: the cave where a village took its own life the day after the landing, Kakazu Ridge, Sugar Loaf Hill, Shuri Castle and the underground headquarters beneath it, the avenue reborn from the ashes, the market born of the black market, the ship of evacuated children, the bunker of the admiral who asked that Okinawa not be forgotten, the cave of the student nurses, the museum of testimonies, the Cornerstone of Peace and the cliffs of Mabuni where it all ended. Approximate audio duration: 24 minutes.
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La Batalla de Okinawa: la más sangrienta del Pacífico y lo que no se enseña
Entre abril y junio de 1945, la última gran batalla de la Segunda Guerra Mundial se libró en una isla habitada por casi medio millón de civiles. Murieron alrededor de doscientas mil personas, y se calcula que uno de cada cuatro okinawenses perdió la vida. Doce paradas de norte a sur siguiendo el avance del frente: la cueva donde una aldea se dio muerte al día siguiente del desembarco, la colina de Kakazu, el cerro Sugar Loaf, el castillo de Shuri con el cuartel subterráneo debajo, la avenida que renació de las cenizas, el mercado que nació del mercado negro, el barco de los niños evacuados, el refugio del almirante que pidió no olvidar a Okinawa, la cueva de las estudiantes enfermeras, el museo de los testimonios, la Piedra Angular de la Paz y los acantilados de Mabuni donde terminó todo. Duración aproximada de audio: 24 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~24 min of audio · 55.11 km on foot (~13 h 45 min walking) · about 14 h 15 min in total
You are standing at the mouth of a cave in a small valley in Yomitan. Strings of paper cranes hang here, and a sign asks for silence. In Okinawa these natural caves are called gama.
Very close to here, on the beaches of Yomitan and Kadena, American forces landed on 1 April 1945. It was one of the largest amphibious operations of the war. More than fourteen hundred ships surrounded the island.
Around a hundred and forty villagers had hidden in this cave. For months they had been told that enemy soldiers raped women and killed prisoners. Falling into their hands was worse than death.
On 2 Apr…
2
Kakazu: the First Wall
You are at the top of Kakazu Takadai Park in Ginowan. From the lookout you can see a huge runway surrounded by houses. It is Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
The landing on 1 April met almost no resistance. The Americans were surprised. General Mitsuru Ushijima, commanding Japan's 32nd Army, had chosen not to defend the beaches.
His plan was different: to wait in the south, on ridges like this one, turned into fortresses of tunnels and caves. He was not trying to win. He was trying to bleed the enemy and delay them as long as possible, buying time for the defence of Japan's main islands.
T…
3
Sugar Loaf: the Hill Among the Malls
You are in Omoromachi, Naha's newest district. There are shopping centres, offices and the monorail station. In the middle stands a small mound with a water tank and a viewing platform. It is easy to walk past without noticing.
The US Marines called it Sugar Loaf. The Japanese knew it by the name of the district, Asato. It rose only about twenty metres, but it was protected by two neighbouring hills that covered it with their fire.
In May 1945 it was the key to the western flank of the Shuri line. If it fell, the Americans could outflank the Japanese headquarters.
Between 12 and 18 May, the…
4
Shuri: the Palace Above the Headquarters
You are at Shuri Castle, on a hill overlooking Naha. Notice the stone walls: they are not straight, they curve like waves. For more than four centuries this was the palace of the kings of Ryukyu.
In 1879 Japan annexed the kingdom and turned it into Okinawa Prefecture. And in late 1944 the army found another use for this hill: beneath the castle it dug the headquarters of the 32nd Army.
There were more than a thousand metres of tunnels, with offices, sleeping quarters and command rooms. Soldiers dug them, along with Okinawan students and local residents. From down there General Ushijima direc…
5
The Miracle Mile
You are on Kokusai-dori, Naha's main avenue. Souvenir shops, Hawaiian shirts, bars, colourful signs. It stretches for a little over a mile. It is hard to believe that eighty years ago almost nothing here was left standing.
Naha's destruction began before the battle. On 10 October 1944, hundreds of aircraft from American carriers attacked the city all day long. Most of Naha burned. Okinawans still remember it as the Ten-Ten Air Raid.
In 1945 the rest was finished off. When the battle had passed, the capital was a field of ruins, and its people were in refugee camps across the island.
This av…
6
The Market Born of the Black Market
You are in the First Makishi Public Market. Downstairs, fish in impossible colours, pork in every form, tropical fruit. Upstairs, small eateries that will cook what you just bought. It is called Naha's kitchen.
This market was born of necessity. After the war there was almost nothing: no houses, no work, not enough food. People survived on rations from the refugee camps and on whatever they could find.
A black market sprang up around here. People sold goods that came out of US Army depots, tins, clothing, cigarettes, and the little they could grow or catch. Many of the sellers were women who…
7
The Children's Ship
You are in front of the Tsushima Maru Memorial Museum, near Naminoue Shrine and the sea. It is a small building. Inside are photographs of children in school uniform, letters, notebooks and shoes.
In the summer of 1944, after the fall of Saipan, the Japanese government decided to evacuate the elderly, women and children from Okinawa to mainland Japan and Taiwan. The island was going to become a battlefield, and food had to be kept for the soldiers.
On 21 August 1944 the Tsushima Maru, an old freighter, sailed from Naha with around seventeen hundred people on board, many of them schoolchildre…
8
The Admiral's Telegram
You are on a hill in Tomigusuku, south of Naha. Go down the stairs and you will enter tunnels hacked out of the rock with picks: the former underground headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The air is damp and the ceiling low.
The tunnels were dug in 1944, almost by hand. At their peak they held some four thousand men. Today part of them can be visited, including the operations room, the communications room and the commander's room.
The commander was Rear Admiral Minoru Ota. In early June 1945, surrounded and with no way out, he sent a telegram to Tokyo. It was not about his sailors. I…
9
The Lily Girls
You are in front of the Himeyuri Tower in Itoman. It is not a tall tower: it is a small stone monument beside the mouth of a cave, always covered in flowers. Next to it stands the Himeyuri Peace Museum.
Himeyuri means princess lily. It was the nickname of two girls' schools in Okinawa, one of them a teacher-training school. In March 1945 the army mobilised their pupils as nurses.
There were two hundred and twenty-two students, roughly fifteen to nineteen years old, and eighteen teachers. They were sent to the army hospital at Haebaru, which was not a building but a network of caves dug into …
10
What Isn't Taught
You are in front of the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum at Mabuni, at the southern tip of the island. It is a building with red Okinawan-style roofs. Inside, the battle is told from the point of view of civilians.
The numbers help. Around two hundred thousand people died in the battle. More than twelve thousand were Americans. Tens of thousands were Japanese soldiers from other prefectures. And an estimated ninety-four thousand Okinawan civilians died, not counting locals conscripted into service.
Okinawa then had fewer than half a million inhabitants. Counting all Okinawan dead, c…
11
Every Name
You are at the Cornerstone of Peace. Rows of black granite walls fan out towards the sea like waves. Walk among them and look at what is carved on them: names, nothing but names.
It was unveiled in 1995, fifty years after the battle. The idea was simple and, for its time, very powerful: to carve the names of everyone who died in the Battle of Okinawa, regardless of which side they were on.
Today there are more than two hundred and forty thousand names. Okinawans, Japanese from other prefectures, Americans, British, Koreans, Taiwanese. Soldiers who shot at each other are here, side by side.
…
12
The Cliffs Where It All Ended
You are at the top of the Mabuni cliffs, on the southern edge of Okinawa. Below, the sea pounds against the coral rock. On the hill behind you stand dozens of monuments raised by each of Japan's prefectures to their dead.
In late May 1945 the Japanese army withdrew here. Huge numbers of civilians had already taken refuge in this southern area, fleeing the fighting further north. Soldiers and civilians were trapped together in an ever-shrinking territory, backed against the sea.
These were the deadliest weeks for the population. Shelling from the ships, flamethrowers in the caves, hunger, thi…
How long does the "The Battle of Okinawa: the Bloodiest of the Pacific and What Isn't Taught" audio tour take?
It has about 24 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 55.11 km walking route (~13 h 45 min on foot). Plan roughly 14 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Cave of the Day After" (coordinates 26.3842, 127.7378). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Itoman and pick "The Battle of Okinawa: the Bloodiest of the Pacific and What Isn't Taught". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
