NAHA, Dec 18 (News On Japan) –
As a part of a postwar Eightieth-anniversary challenge titled “Passing On, Staying Connected,” this text seems again on the Battle of Okinawa by the recollections of Higa Tomiko, who survived one of many fiercest floor battles of World War II by holding up a white flag, reflecting on what she noticed as a seven-year-old woman who wandered alone by a devastated battlefield and the emotions she now hopes to entrust to future generations.
Barefoot and wearing torn clothes, the picture of a small woman clutching a white flag captures the tough actuality of a kid who survived by herself amid relentless combating, and Higa’s recollections hint how she endured these days alone.
Higa, now 87, skilled the Battle of Okinawa 80 years in the past when she was simply seven.
Higa recalled that she was advised the triangular white flag was internationally acknowledged as an indication of laying down arms, that means those that raised it might not be killed.
Born in Shuri, Naha, Higa misplaced her mom to sickness and lived together with her father and 4 siblings. As combating intensified, her father, Naoaki, left residence to seek for meals and by no means returned, prompting the 4 remaining youngsters to flee south. Running desperately previous scattered our bodies, they continued for about 10 days earlier than lastly reaching Yonesu Beach in Itoman.
Higa stated they arrived at night time, surrounded by full darkness.
Exhausted regardless of the close by sound of shelling, she fell asleep, solely to wake and discover that her brother Naohiro, three years older, mendacity beside her, had stopped shifting. She recalled that when her sister tried to raise him by the pinnacle, the again of his head was soaked with blood.
After dropping her brother, Higa grew to become separated from her two sisters throughout evacuation and spent a couple of month wandering the battlefield alone.
As she was near dropping the desire to reside, she occurred upon a pure cave shelter referred to as a gama, the place she encountered an aged couple. She recalled listening to a voice over a loudspeaker from outdoors telling these contained in the shelter to come back out.
Responding to the decision from U.S. forces urging folks to come back ahead, Higa left the cave, abandoning the bodily frail couple.
She stated the aged lady tore a loincloth right into a triangle to make a flag, telling her “life is precious,” and including that whereas saying such phrases may sound like avoiding duty, she needed to position her hopes in youthful generations and be sure that conflict would by no means occur once more.
Eighty years after surviving alone on the battlefield, the message entrusted to Higa now asks those that inherit her story what they’ll do for the long run, carrying ahead the want for peace held by a toddler who as soon as walked by conflict with nothing however a white flag.
Source: TBS