Trekking through mud and rocks in the humid jungles of Okinawa, Japan, Takamatsu Gushiken arrived at a ground slope where human remains have been left forgotten since World War II.
The 72-year-old offered a brief prayer and lifted a makeshift protective covering, revealing half-buried bones believed to belong to a young Japanese soldier.
“These remains deserve to be returned to their families,” stated Mr. Gushiken, a businessman who has voluntarily searched for the war dead for over forty years.
This sun-kissed island in southern Japan commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa on Monday.
Mr. Gushiken expressed his desire to return ‘every last one’ of Japan’s war dead from Okinawa to their families.
Since then, Japan and the United States have forged an alliance, and official estimates suggest that only 2,600 bodies remain unrecovered.
Yet, long-time residents and volunteers like Mr. Gushiken claim that many more are buried beneath buildings or farm fields, or are concealed in jungles and caves.
Currently, rocks and soil from the southern parts of Okinawa Island, where the most intense fighting occurred, are being quarried to create foundations for a new US air base.
This plan has incited anger among Mr. Gushiken and others, who argue that it will disturb the remains of World War II casualties, many of whom were likely killed by Americans.
While Okinawa is now a popular beach destination, its lush jungles hold the scars of combat from March to June 1945, when the US military launched its final assaults on imperial Japan.
Full skeleton
As he walked along winding forest trails in the Itoman district at the southern end of Okinawa, Mr. Gushiken envisioned where he might have hidden as a local or a soldier under attack, or where he might have searched had he been an American soldier.
Climbing over moss-covered rocks on a narrow, leafy path, Mr. Gushiken reached a low-lying crevice between boulders the size of buses, just large enough to shelter two or three individuals.
He carefully sifted through soil scattered with fractured bones, shirt buttons used by Japanese soldiers, a rusty can lid, and a metal piece from a gas mask.
At another nearby location, he and an associate discovered a complete skeleton in April, likely belonging to a soldier who seemed to have suffered a blast wound to the face.
Mr. Gushiken is seen beside the skull of an individual who perished in the Battle of Okinawa.
Only a few steps from there, green thigh and shin bones rested among dried leaves, fallen branches, and vines.
“These individuals… their last words must have been ‘mom, mom’,” Mr. Gushiken said, emphasizing that society has a duty to return the remains to family tombs.
At 28, Mr. Gushiken was first asked to assist in searching for the war dead, shocked by the vast number of remains in the area.
Though he initially thought he could never do it again, he eventually resolved to contribute to reuniting families in death.
‘Every last one’
After the war concluded, survivors in Okinawa, who had been held captive by US forces, returned to their devastated hometowns.
As they endeavored to rebuild their lives, these survivors collected dead bodies into mass graves or buried them individually without recording their identities.
“They witnessed their communities completely destroyed. People struggled to identify where their homes were. Bodies hung from tree branches,” recalled Mitsuru Matsukawa, 72, from a foundation managing the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park.
A woman offers prayers for lost loved ones at the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park.
The site features a national collective cemetery for the war dead.
Some younger individuals have joined the recovery efforts, such as Wataru Ishiyama, a history student from Kyoto who frequently visits Okinawa.
The 22-year-old is a member of the Japan Youth Memorial Association, which focuses on recovering Japanese war remains both at home and abroad.
“These individuals have been waiting for decades in such dark and remote places, and I want to return them to their families – every last one,” he said.
Mr. Ishiyama’s volunteering has sparked his interest in Japan’s “national defense and security issues,” and he is contemplating a career related to the military.
Protesters voice their opposition to the construction of US military bases in Okinawa.
The new US air base is under construction on partially reclaimed land in Okinawa’s north, while materials for its construction are being excavated in the south.
“It is a sacrilege to the war dead to discard the land that has absorbed their blood into the sea for a new military base,” Mr. Gushiken asserted.
He passionately argued that jungle areas which might contain World War II remains should be preserved for their historical significance, serving as peace memorials to remind humanity of the horrors of war.
“We are now in a generation where fewer individuals can recall the Battle of Okinawa,” Mr. Gushiken noted.
“Only bones, the fields, and various discovered artifacts will remain to keep the memories alive.”
