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70 years after Battle of Okinawa: Soldier saved lives with his words
From: Military Times
TOKYO — When a 21-year-old Takejiro Higa landed on the island of Okinawa in April 1945, he had no idea he would play a key role in one of the most horrific battles of World War II.
Tuesday marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, the final and bloodiest battle of the Pacific war that raged from April 1 to June 23, 1945. Thousands of people, including U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, gathered Tuesday at a memorial service on the southern part of the island.
Okinawa today remains a bastion of American military power in the Pacific. About 25,000 U.S. troops are stationed there, and the sprawling U.S. bases draw regular protests from residents who object to the noise, congestion and crime.
Higa, now 92, was a member of a little-known U.S. Army unit composed of Americans of Japanese descent. Fluent in the language, their job was to translate maps and documents, interrogate prisoners and serve as the eyes and ears of American commanders in the Pacific.
Higa was born in Hawaii but had spent much of his youth on Okinawa, from ages 2 to 16. During the three-month battle on the island, he mostly coaxed Japanese civilians and soldiers from caves and bunkers. Civilians and soldiers alike had been told that Americans would kill anyone taken captive, and that death — even by suicide — was preferable.
"I went to many caves urging the civilians hiding there to come out: 'Americans are not savages. (If) you come out, we have food and water. If you are injured, our medical (corps) will take care of you. Please come out; come out as soon as possible.' I would say that over and over in Japanese and then say the same in Okinawa dialect," Higa recalled last week from his home in Hawaii.
Higa was responsible for saving as many as 3,000 lives, according to a survey by a local newspaper years after the bloody battle. Higa didn't attend Tuesday's memorial, but he last returned to Okinawa in December to take part in a symposium on the battle.
More than 14,000 American and 77,000 Japanese troops were killed in the battle dubbed a "typhoon of steel." Some 149,000 Okinawan civilians also died, many by their own hand. It was one of many battles in which Japanese Americans of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) played an important role.
"For decades after the war, the service of MIS Japanese Americans was kept secret. And as their important contributions were declassified … the records of their service were often incomplete, or missing entirely," Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech this year.
Though lesser-known than the famed 442nd Infantry Regiment — a unit of Japanese-American troops who served in Europe and became the most-decorated American combat unit of World War II — about 6,000 Japanese-Americans also served with the MIS in the Pacific.
"They helped shorten the war, and they saved countless lives," Harris said.
Higa, as a teenager, had returned to Hawaii after his mother died. Two years later, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Higa enlisted in the Army and joined the MIS as the invasion of Okinawa was being planned.
"As I stood on the top level of the troop ship before transferring to the landing craft, I don't mind telling you, I had tears in my eyes. Because I was thinking, 'Why? I'm an American soldier. Why I am I about to invade my ancestors' homeland?' " he said.
Japan had planned a war of attrition, leaving the beach undefended but luring the American soldiers into heavily fortified jungle defenses, riddled with caves and bunkers.
Thousands of civilians had also fled to the caves, and interpreters were sent to talk them into coming out. Higa occasionally found he was talking to former neighbors, classmates and even one of his teachers. The reunions invariably ended in tears of joy and relief, he said.
When Higa returned to Okinawa last year for the symposium sponsored by the Okinawa Memorial Peace Museum, he visited a cave where he had convinced a group of 200 soldiers and civilians to come out.
The group included Toyo Tawada, now 90. The cave is located on what is now a U.S. Marine Corps air base.
"The other families in the cave were talking about going into the ocean to die because even in death they will not be separated as a family. But then (Higa) came and told us to come with him out of the cave," Tawada told interviewers.
"The one thing I can say very proudly is that although I was involved from the very beginning, even from before the invasion, I never fired one shot from my rifle at anybody," Higa said in last week's phone interview.
"By using language — English and Japanese and Okinawan dialect — I was able to do my duty as an American soldier. And at the same time, I was of some help to the innocent civilians on Okinawa. For that I'm very grateful, even today."
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/news/world/2015/06/22/okinawa-japan-soldier-anniversary/29070981/
From: Military Times
TOKYO — When a 21-year-old Takejiro Higa landed on the island of Okinawa in April 1945, he had no idea he would play a key role in one of the most horrific battles of World War II.
Tuesday marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, the final and bloodiest battle of the Pacific war that raged from April 1 to June 23, 1945. Thousands of people, including U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, gathered Tuesday at a memorial service on the southern part of the island.
Okinawa today remains a bastion of American military power in the Pacific. About 25,000 U.S. troops are stationed there, and the sprawling U.S. bases draw regular protests from residents who object to the noise, congestion and crime.
Higa, now 92, was a member of a little-known U.S. Army unit composed of Americans of Japanese descent. Fluent in the language, their job was to translate maps and documents, interrogate prisoners and serve as the eyes and ears of American commanders in the Pacific.
Higa was born in Hawaii but had spent much of his youth on Okinawa, from ages 2 to 16. During the three-month battle on the island, he mostly coaxed Japanese civilians and soldiers from caves and bunkers. Civilians and soldiers alike had been told that Americans would kill anyone taken captive, and that death — even by suicide — was preferable.
"I went to many caves urging the civilians hiding there to come out: 'Americans are not savages. (If) you come out, we have food and water. If you are injured, our medical (corps) will take care of you. Please come out; come out as soon as possible.' I would say that over and over in Japanese and then say the same in Okinawa dialect," Higa recalled last week from his home in Hawaii.
Higa was responsible for saving as many as 3,000 lives, according to a survey by a local newspaper years after the bloody battle. Higa didn't attend Tuesday's memorial, but he last returned to Okinawa in December to take part in a symposium on the battle.
More than 14,000 American and 77,000 Japanese troops were killed in the battle dubbed a "typhoon of steel." Some 149,000 Okinawan civilians also died, many by their own hand. It was one of many battles in which Japanese Americans of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) played an important role.
"For decades after the war, the service of MIS Japanese Americans was kept secret. And as their important contributions were declassified … the records of their service were often incomplete, or missing entirely," Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech this year.
Though lesser-known than the famed 442nd Infantry Regiment — a unit of Japanese-American troops who served in Europe and became the most-decorated American combat unit of World War II — about 6,000 Japanese-Americans also served with the MIS in the Pacific.
"They helped shorten the war, and they saved countless lives," Harris said.
Higa, as a teenager, had returned to Hawaii after his mother died. Two years later, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Higa enlisted in the Army and joined the MIS as the invasion of Okinawa was being planned.
"As I stood on the top level of the troop ship before transferring to the landing craft, I don't mind telling you, I had tears in my eyes. Because I was thinking, 'Why? I'm an American soldier. Why I am I about to invade my ancestors' homeland?' " he said.
Japan had planned a war of attrition, leaving the beach undefended but luring the American soldiers into heavily fortified jungle defenses, riddled with caves and bunkers.
Thousands of civilians had also fled to the caves, and interpreters were sent to talk them into coming out. Higa occasionally found he was talking to former neighbors, classmates and even one of his teachers. The reunions invariably ended in tears of joy and relief, he said.
When Higa returned to Okinawa last year for the symposium sponsored by the Okinawa Memorial Peace Museum, he visited a cave where he had convinced a group of 200 soldiers and civilians to come out.
The group included Toyo Tawada, now 90. The cave is located on what is now a U.S. Marine Corps air base.
"The other families in the cave were talking about going into the ocean to die because even in death they will not be separated as a family. But then (Higa) came and told us to come with him out of the cave," Tawada told interviewers.
"The one thing I can say very proudly is that although I was involved from the very beginning, even from before the invasion, I never fired one shot from my rifle at anybody," Higa said in last week's phone interview.
"By using language — English and Japanese and Okinawan dialect — I was able to do my duty as an American soldier. And at the same time, I was of some help to the innocent civilians on Okinawa. For that I'm very grateful, even today."
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/news/world/2015/06/22/okinawa-japan-soldier-anniversary/29070981/
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WWII World War Two
Okinawa
WWII World War Two Okinawa
Posted >1 y ago
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