Spring Has (Almost!) Sprung

Today we are in Okinawa -- our last port in Japan.  We visited three museums dedicated to the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.  All of them were very informative ... and very depressing.  I must admit I am "warred out" now.

We first saw the former Japanese Navy underground headquarters -- a warren of tunnels and rooms hacked out of the limestone cliffs by pickaxes.  They served as underground headquarters to endure the American bombardment and long drawn out fighting, and could sustain 4,000 soldiers in horribly cramped and unsanitary conditions.

We then visited the Himeyuri Peace Museum and Cenotaph, which commemorates the students and teachers from the Okinawa Female Normal School and the Okinawa Prefectural Girls' First High School who perished during the Battle of Okinawa.  One year after the battle ended, the Cenotaph was built on the area above a limestone cave in which most of the schools' casualties occured.  So many beautiful young lives lost.  So terribly tragic.

The last stop was to the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum with yet more displays and testimonies of the battle.  Honestly, by the time I was half way through this museum, I couldn't take any more and fled outside to the peace of the gardens.

The main photo here is of an early blooming cherry blossom -- a welcome sight indeed after several hours of death and destruction and tragedy.

PS:  We just got a notice that internet service in China (our next destination) will be negligible ... so sorry for a few days' delay in service!  Stay tuned ...