Marine Cpl. Felix Ordoquihandy’s name will be etched into a tablet along with 94 Japanese names and installed at the Cornerstone of Peace monument at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman city, Okinawa, June 18, 2026. (Fighting Basques)
The last of six Basque-American troops killed during the Battle of Okinawa will soon join nearly 250,000 other names on a memorial honoring those who died in one of World War II’s bloodiest fights.
Marine Cpl. Felix Ordoquihandy’s name, along with 94 Japanese names, will be etched into tablets and placed Thursday at the Cornerstone of Peace monument at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman city, Okinawa.
Ordoquihandy is the only American name to be added this year, according to Okinawa prefecture.
Pedro Oiarzabal, principal researcher for the Sancho de Beurko Association’s Fighting Basques project, had been working since 2023 to add the names of six Basque-Americans. The others are Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Uriola; Staff Sgt. Steven Sahargun; Pfc. Alejandro Itcea; Pfc. Dominique Laxague; and Marine Pvt. Lawrence Amoriza.
Through his research, he discovered all but Ordoquihandy were already inscribed, he told Stars and Stripes during a video interview Wednesday. Itcea’s first name was misspelled and will be corrected this year.
“It’s a closing of a very long episode” for the families of the six service members, Oiarzabal said from Bilbao, Spain. “They are able in a meaningful way to come to realize that their loved ones were really loved in Okinawa and they were respectfully honored in a way that they didn’t know anything about.”
Army Pfc. Alejandro Itcea’s name will be corrected on the Cornerstone of Peace Monument at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman city, Okinawa, before the 81st anniversary of the end of World War II’s Battle of Okinawa on June 23, 2026. (Fighting Basques)
The Basque traditionally hail from northern Spain and southern France. About 3 million of them live in what is referred to as Basque country, according to the U.S.-based North American Basque Organizations. Over 52,500 U.S. residents self-identified as Basque in the 2020 census.
The Cornerstone of Peace, built in 1995, displays the names of 14,012 Americans and 228,068 Japanese who died during or just after the fighting.
The Battle of Okinawa began April 1, 1945, and lasted 82 days. More than 14,000 Americans, about 110,000 Japanese troops and at least 140,000 Okinawan civilians were killed during or after the fighting.
Ordoquihandy was born in San Francisco on March 7, 1926, the son of immigrants from the Basque province of Zuberoa, France, according to his Fighting Basques biography. His father served with the U.S. Army in World War I.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on May 20, 1944, and served with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, during the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa, according to his casualty report.
He drowned July 17, 1945, at age 19 after falling from the tank landing ship USS LST 953 offshore of Okinawa, according to the report. His body was not recovered.
“[It was] a terrible tragedy after surviving two of the most terrible war incidents during the Pacific war,” Oiarzabal said.
Ordoquihandy was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with combat “V” for his “courage and outstanding devotion to duty” as a runner on May 27, 1945, according to an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 30, 1947.
Oiarzabal obtained Ordoquihandy’s casualty report and other documents via Freedom of Information Act requests and submitted them to the prefecture, which approved the addition in March.
Two of Itcea’s nieces will travel from California to Okinawa for Irei No Hi, Okinawa’s memorial day on June 23. This year marks the 81st anniversary of the battle’s end.
Ordoquihandy has no living relatives, Oiarzabal said.
“It’s the Okinawan people taking care of that name now,” he said. “So, he will never be [left alone] again.”
AloJapan.com