Sightseeing

Himeyuri Peace Museum

The Himeyuri peace Museum was built in 1989 at where the Himeyuri students had once studied before the US forces landed on the island. At this museum, you can learn about the Battle of Okinawa through the photos taken during the war, portraits of all the students who sacrificed their lives, diorama of the Himeyuri caves, memoir by its survivors and more.

Himeyuri Students (Lily Corps)

Himeyuri students sometimes referred to as Lily corps, was a unit of 18 teachers and 222 students of the Okinawa Daiichi Women’s High School and Okinawa Shihan Women’s School to perform surgery as well as other difficult duties during the Battle of Okinawa.

Since the unit was organized by the Japanese army on March 23^rd, 1945, until May 25^th they had served to the bone for the injured soldiers. After the date, they split up into six groups to hide in the dark caves filled with dead soldiers situated near where the current Himeyuri monument stands.

The whole unit had to leave the caves after an order of dissolution was given on June 18^th, 1945. While other groups were leaving their shelters, many of the students and teachers in the Ibara third surgery shelter were killed during an attack by US forces before they could even leave.
The total of 136 out of 240 of the students and teachers lost their lives.

In the following year, the Himeyuri monument was built in memory of those whose lives were taken away.