Okinawa

So we were in Okinawa starting from Monday till Thursday this week. It was our second and last study tour from Ferris, like the one we had in Hiroshima and Okayama last year. For those souls reading this and don't know where or what Okinawa is, it's a group of islands in the south of Japan, about 1,550 kilometers away from Tokyo, and is actually nearer to Manila than it is to the Japanese capital. It houses a gazillion US Military installations and was home to a horrible battle during the Second World War.

Naha International Airport

Anyway, we left Tokyo HANEDA Airport on an Air Nippol--oops Nippon, I mean--Airways Boeing-747 and since the weather was really bad in Naha (the capital city of Okinawa prefecture), our flight took longer than usual. Thankfully, we landed (safely). The moment I set eyes on Naha though, I loved it immediately! The Naha Airport (both domestic and international) itself was so pretty! The buildings were fairly new, painted in white (I love white!), and adorned with pretty cattleya orchids right from the tube you use to disembark from the plane and all over the lobbies! It's my mom who loves orchids, and not me, but these pretty things which reminded me so much of home (our yard to be exact) had a profound effect on me. (Awww shucks!) In fairness, they were really pretty though. They had all these flowers, and the sheer abundance of them totally impressed me. The leaves were so green (not yellowish at all) that it was obvious they were really taken care of properly.

 Cattleya Orchids

So after that, we boarded a nasty bus which smelled soo much of stale smoke it made me sick. Our first stop was for a viewing deck for the Kadena Air Base, the largest Air Force base not only in Japan, but in the Far East. My first reaction to this was disappointment. I thought we were going inside the bases! *buhuhuhu* I really thought that since this was such a proper, educational field trip, they'd arrange for us to be able to get inside. But that wasn't the case. Being an airplane nut, I really wanted to see the planes (as I told Annie, the movie Top Gun had a very big effect on me heh heh), and of course, you know, everything else. Hehehehe. Anyways, we saw the sprawling base and the planes from afar and took pictures of them in which they were sooo teeny.

 Kadena Air Base

The best thing about the tour was the posh hotel we stayed in during the first two nights. The lobby was pretty, the rooms were nice, there was a huge Japanese-style bath and onsen (hot spring), there was a gaming place, pretty shops where I bought a cutie bag from, and a really beautiful beach! There was also a large pool outside, but since it was still rather cold to be swimming, they drained the water out of it. We had our breakfasts and dinners at the hotel too, and that was good. So much food around! LOL.

The next day we went to more historical places, and to the remnants of an old Ryukyu castle. The Ryukyus formerly ruled Okinawa, before the were made a part of Japan in the 1870's. We also went to some sort of park place, with booths about Okinawa's Ryukyu culture. That's where Annie and I had a picture of ourselves taken in Okinawan costume, which is different from the Japanese kimono.

World Heritage marker

The third day was the most remarkable day of the trip. First we went to another US installation, the Futenma Air Station, which is right in the middle of the town of Futenma. And then we went inside a limestone cave which the Japanese turned into a hospital during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. It was absolutely unbelievable how they turned that into a hospital. The cave was underground and its alleys were very small, although they said the cave itself was more than 200 meters long. You could barely stand straight, and it was so slippery because of the water which trickled everywhere. We were bringing flashlights, and when went deep inside the cave, they made us turn our lights off, and it was so dark we couldn't see anything. I put my hand right infront of my face and I still couldn't see it! That was how dark it was. Not even a tiny ray of light was leaking in from the surface.

When we were still making our way inside, I didn't really realize how they used that cave during the war. You just get so preoccupied with not slipping or not hitting your head on the ceiling, but after that visit to the cave, we went to a museum about the Battle of Okinawa, and when we read the testimonials of the survivors, that's when I realized how horrible it was. They had all these stories about how high school students were deployed as nurses and worked inside the caves (all the caves in Okinawa were made into hospitals), how demanding the injured Japanese soldiers would be, how gross the injuries were, and just how absolutely horrible everything was.

Then we went to a bigger museum, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Musuem. It was pretty, beside the beach, and the building was beautiful. It wasn't as sad as the previous one we visited because I didn't get to read any testimonials, but it was very informative and showed the entire history of Okinawa: when it was still the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, before the war, during the war, and during the American occupation. Outside, they also had these blocks of cement which had the names of everyone who died in the Battle of Okinawa which lasted roughly round 3 months. They also had the names of American soldiers there, and our guide said that there were also names of Filipino soldiers fighting alongside the Americans who were listed there, together with the names of the American soldiers who died.

 Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum

The Cornerstone of Peace, where the names of the people who died in the Battle of Okinawa are inscribed.

On the last day of our stay in Okinawa, we went to the Shuri Castle Park, which was the main castle during the reign of the Ryukyus. It was very pretty, and showed how magnificent the old kingdom was. You'd really think that it was a shame they didn't have the chance to stay sovereign.

 The Shuri Castle

I told Annie that I was finding it really hard to be talking about war-related stuff when I was in the country who bombed and enslaved my own, but then I realized that Japan is not the same country it was. It has good relationships with the US now, and is trying to make up for the things it has done in the past. I'm also glad that they have all these museums here, which are very informative and objective. I used to think that it was to show the people how mean the enemies were, but that's not true. They're just there to remind everyone how devastating war can be and how it should be avoided at all costs.