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RE: Tribute to Himeyuri no To
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Jeffrey Tuthill
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Apr 24, 2006 14:36 PDT
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Haisai Robert-san,
I am so happy that you enjoyed my little story poem about Himeyuri no to.Often I reflect the human tragedies of our past and wonder how we are able to continue on as a race without learning from the darker points in history. Occasionally, I am moved enough about a horror in time that I compose poetry or prose about the moment. This is one such occasion, and having lived in Okinawa and visited this memorial a few times, certainly helped in my poem composition.
Thanks again for your comments of appreciation.Best Regards,
Jeff Tuthill
oi-@msn.com
From: Robert Martin <RMLCF-@aol.com>Reply-To: okin-@topica.comTo: okin-@topica.comSubject: Tribute to Himeyuri no ToDate: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 12:01:28 EDT
Haisai, Jeff -
I have been traveling and just now am able to respond to your excellent and quite poignant tribute to the student nurses and teachers now memorialized in the "Himeyuri no To" shrine. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.
On June 18, 1945, our machine gun platoon of E-2-29 in the 6th Marine Division was crossing the Kuwanga Ridge (just west of Makabe), heading for Kiyama Gusuku Ridge and Arasaki as this was almost the end of the battle. We did not know that the colonel of our 22nd Regiment (Harold Roberts) and 10th Army Commander General Simon Bolivar Buckner were both killed on that day and we most certainly did not know about the "Himeyuri girls." Our division was always on the left (west) side of Okinawa and the 1st Division was next to us, and on their left, the 7th Army, most likely the troops who first found the cave.
I visited the memorial in 2001 and saw a detailed map of the area, noting exactly the trail (not even a road then) where our
unit was near the Kiyama Ridge. Yet to think that these girls were being killed or killing themselves during this period of time is haunting in many ways to me.
All U.S. Army and Marine infantrymen feared caves as they were actual and potential hiding places for Japanese soldiers..especially with Nambu machine guns. No one walked in front of a cave without adequate coverage and usually throwing grenades, using flame throwers or calling for demolition squads became standard procedures in 'knocking out'
caves. Also, the Japanese were well known for either emptying the caves of Okinawans and sending them to our lines
(especially at night!) or having them in the cave and as they would be leaving, their Nambu guns would start firing.
Small wonder the leaflet given at the Himeyuri shrine says,"The young, defenseless nurses, thrown out of their caves but
not allowed to surrender, now had to fend for themselves in the hellish storm of fire and steel as the U.S. forces quickly
tightened their strangle-hold on the Japanese Army on the peninsula. This aggravated the sacrifice of the student corps,
eventually claiming the lives of the students and teachers..... We still cannot forget the indescribable tragedy we witnessed and experienced, nor can we condone the crimes of the educational system of that age that denied us even the right to think and judge as individuals, and denied us even the right to live as decent human beings, finally herding us like animals into the battlefield of certain death." (From the Himeyuri Alumni Association, 1989).
Thanks again for your poem.
Robert Martin See if you've won, play MSN Search and Win
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