Okinawa on Monday pledged to preserve and pass on the lessons of history at a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the end of a fierce World War II ground battle between Japan and the United States that claimed more than 200,000 military and civilian lives.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki attended the ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, where the final stage of the battle was fought. It comes amid fears of rising global tensions and a controversial comment by a lawmaker regarding portrayals of civilian deaths at a local museum.
At the event, Tamaki said the reality of the battle and its lessons “have been preserved from the stories of war survivors” and form the “roots of the people of Okinawa and our enduring desire for peace.”
He told the ceremony it is “our mission as those living in the present to preserve and pass on” the significance of the battle to future generations “as the spirit of Okinawa.”
A man prays at a cenotaph at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, on June 23, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Another 342 names were added to the list of war dead inscribed on monuments, bringing the total to 242,567 people.
Speaking amid heightened concerns over international conflicts following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Ishiba said “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.”
The Battle of Okinawa, fought from March to June 1945 on the main island of Japan’s southern prefecture, exacted a devastating toll on the local population, with one in four residents killed. There were also cases of civilian abuse and forced suicides carried out by the Japanese military.
In May, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker retracted remarks that a museum exhibit in Itoman rewrote the history of the Himeyuri student corps, many of whom died in the battle, to paint the Japanese military in a negative light. The corps was formed as a nursing unit.
In an apparent reference to the issue, Ishiba in his speech named the Himeyuri corps as among civilians killed, and left flowers at a monument to them after the ceremony. He said it had been his personal wish to visit, and that he was left with a “deep feeling of solemnity.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (R) and Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa in World War II at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, on June 23, 2025. (Kyodo)
After Japan’s defeat, Okinawa was under U.S. administration until 1972. With the island prefecture remaining host to a lion’s share of U.S. military installations in Japan and its people facing issues arising from their presence, Tamaki said Monday that Okinawa “continues to shoulder an outsized burden.”
Long-standing resentment over noise, pollution, and crimes by U.S. troops has deepened with the recent disclosure of multiple alleged sexual assault cases.
Ishiba pledged in his speech at the ceremony to “visibly reduce the burden of U.S. bases” in Okinawa, calling it his “deep-held resolve.”
Other attendees included Shigemitsu Tanaka, a representative of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024, and Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs.
Before the ceremony, those who experienced the war and their relatives paid their respects at the Itoman park’s Cornerstone of Peace.
Sitting in a wheelchair, Asako Idogawa, 89, repeatedly traced the inscription of the name of her older brother, who was burned by a U.S. flamethrower. “Perhaps I won’t be able to come next year,” she said, adding that “war is cruel.”
Japan has been strengthening its defense capabilities in the prefecture in recent years as tensions grow with China over Taiwan and the nearby Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing, which calls them Diaoyu.
The move has raised concern among Okinawans that their islands could again become the front line of conflict.
Photo shows a paper crane and sunflowers at the “cornerstone of peace” monument at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on June 23, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. The monument bears the names of all people who perished in the battle including civilians. (Kyodo)
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