Okinawa Diary

Kannon Do

Kannon Do

We visited Kannon Do in Shuri first, since it opened earliest. It was built by the king of the Ryukyus to celebrate his son's safe return after being held hostage in Shimazu. The building is red looks a little Chinese. There were some people in the building for worship.

There was a monument and a banyan tree which had roots all over around the tree. This tree is something special in Okinawa, and we saw some in Shikinaen Garden later.

We walked to the Ryukyu Traditional Craft Center, but it was already closed for the New Year. We walked further to see Ichukenji no To, the memorial for boys who were involved in war and died. In March 1945, 10th and 11th grade students graduated together and went into the military. Other students worked for the military as students. The names of the boys who died were listed on the monument. Some of them were only in the 7th grade.

I was wondering how those innocent boys felt while they were working under bombs and cannon balls. Were they fearful? Did they believe that Japan would win the war?

When I was working for a Ph.D. at University of Kansas in 1976, there was a professor at Ryukyu University who was in about 7th grade at that time, and he talked about his experience in battles. When we were invited to the Truman memorial lunch in Kansas City, I was representing Japan and he was representing the Ryukyus, since only one person was invited from each country.

Then we walked to the Okinawa Prefectural Museum, which was closed for the New Year. We walked along Ryutan and visited Benzaitendo on a small island connected with Tenyu Bashi (Angel Bridge). It was built in 1502 to store Buddhist sutra sent by a Korean king. When Satsuma invaded Ryukyu, it was burnt and a statue of Benzaiten was installed there. It is an important cultural property.

We also visited Enkakuji Temple, which was the largest temple in Ryukyu It still shows how stone carving art was great in the Ryukyus.

Headquarters

We saw the outside of the headquarters of the Japanese military during the battles against the US. Because of this headquarters, almost everything around here was destroyed completely. This was an undergound tunnel headquarters, which extended quite long way through Shuri.

Then we visited Suimuikan, the visitor center for Shuri Castle. We could see some exhibits and videos. They have a nice model of contemporary Shuri and Shuri about 200 years ago. We saw some interesting videos. Those videos were explanatory and showed interesting ceremonies, etc. How the Chinese royal envoy was treated was especially interesting.

Then we walked down the slope paved with rocks and visited a bingata factory, which is traditional type of dyeing in Okinawa. The master explained how to make a kimono, wall hangings, etc.

We took a taxi to Shikina-en, a garden where they entertained Chinese royal envoy. This was a royal villa, and there is a nice garden and a plain palace. The garden is kaiyushiki -- a garden centered around a pond -- and you can see good views wherever you are in the garden. It has two nice arched stone bridges. It has some Chinese influence with a six-sided building on an island. The palace looks very simple and plain, but it has 15 rooms. We could see all the rooms inside.

Then we took a taxi and crossed southern Naha to the navy headquarters in Tomishiro City, which is the newest city in Okinawa. It was an underground headquarters and it was surrounded by the US military, and the soldiers could not withdraw to the south. They fought here, and Commander Ohta committed suicide on June 13.

We could go through the tunnel and see the headquarters room, where the top people were, where Ohta died, the code room, etc. There were 4,000 navy soldiers there.

The reason why there are flowers here is that navy soldiers left from this tunnel for the final battle, though they were very poorly equipped. They chose to fight against the US military rather than commiting suicide. I do not know how many left from here, but I wonder what they were thinking when they left. At least they knew they would not come back.

There is an exhibit room, and there is a memorial on the top of the hill, where you can see Naha well.

We walked down to Tomigusuku, which is just a park now. Since we did not have much time and the entrance was high, we decided to go back to Naha. We took a city bus for the first time. While we were waiting for a bus, we talked with a high school girl, and she gave us quite a bit of information about what people in Okinawa are doing.

Kokusai Dori

Prefectural Government

We walked along Kokusai Dori to find a restaurant for lunch. Kokusai Dori is about one mile long, starting at the Prefectural Government Building, which is one of the largest modern building in Naha. There is a shisa, gurdian dogs at one end of Kokusai Dori.

Shisa are very common in Okinawa. Shisa are dogs that usually appear in pairs, usually at the entrances of buildings. They guard those buildings. We saw many at the entrances of the houses. There are some on the ground too. We heard that there are some in the rooms too. This idea may sound strange, but shrines in Japan have a pair of dogs or lions at the entrance, and probably the two customs come from a common source.

We looked for a restaurant for a while. However, a couple of restaurants we had in mind were closed, so we decided to go to Makishi Market again. We went to the food court on the second floor.

lunch

lunch

We took a taxi to the airport and waited in the ANA lounge in Naha Airport. Believe it or not, they have Awamori, and I enjoyed the last taste of Okinawa until we left.