Once: Past-Future tense/ vol.7

As you can see the following map, the U.S. troops had come down along red lines. They charged forward separately both east and west side. East one was the Rocky Crags. West one was the Skyline Ridge. Southern half of Okinawa Island consists karst landform, so there are many caves, pinnacles and sinkholes. It means that the Japanese troops pitched a camp on the pinnacles, and the U.S. troops had to come along the valley. From the overhead they’d been shot and thrown bombs. Roughly red lines show the valleys or coastlines, and red circles show the point they’d fought.

map

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After the U.S. troops had landed, some Japanese troops had been backing down along the east coastline. Now there Route329 runs in a north-south direction. Japanese had been going back to the Skyline Ridge. On here, now there’s a hospital complex.
It was after a few days from the end of the battle at Rocky Crags. From 19th Apr. to 24th they fought fiercely day and night. Still now, the remains of a gunfight can be seen; some gravestones have many holes of bullets.(You can see the picture of holes in this site.)

When I walked around there, I could find the field of chrysanth flowers, which we use this flower as vegetables in Japan. Some farmers talked something. But I couldn’t understand because of their accent. They watched me and might have been suspicious of a stranger, who set down a tripod with a big camera. I tried to talk to them, though, they went away soon.

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Few people tell me anything they think, feel or know.

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