At first, I thought like this; “I have to visit places from the first point where all the thing had begun. It means the point where they’d landed in 1945.” For this, I had to look into the correct points from notes. (the author of this website has been studying so hard that I could find those points and understand what had happened there at that time. Of course I’m trying getting those books and reading them.)
On a day in May, that was almost evening, I’ve visited three of them; Sobe in Yomitan, Hija River in Kadena and Mihama in Chatan. From those coasts the troops had come. What did they think? Growing up in Japan, almost Japanese can imagine the feelings of Okinawan people, though, we’d better be able to guess what soldiers of the U.S. thought and felt in front of the battle beginning, shouldn’t we?
When I visited the coast of Sobe, I happened to enter into a private area. The person living there noticed me, and he guided me around the area. He also invited us into his house and garden. From there we can feel the entire ocean view.
He said, “This is so beautiful places, isn’t it?” and I said, “Yeah, so nice. Have you lived here for a long time?” He smiled and denied.”No. I’m from another village. But I love this place and moved here. You’re from the main land, don’t you? Where are you from?”
The seashore is very calm, and some were taking a walk or fishing. This peaceful scenery.
He started talking with some foreign people after a while. Those men are rents, so he was the owner. Then he said laughing; “People in Sobe are very international, so that we can speak English.”
When I visited Hija River, the sun was falling in the west horizon, and it was getting dark. The sky in the east was blue. How can we imagine the smells of blood from these scene? I was wondering what the soldiers thought. Everything must have been different. Not because of climate or view, but because of feelings and foreboding.
The scenery of the East China sea is calm today, too.