Caves

　　There are lots of monuments to the dead and also caves in Itoman City. Lots of caves in which people hid during the fight remain unchanged. The first picture shows a monument for a Lieutenant General and his men, which stood by a big cave where they killed themselves to avoid being taken alive into custody by the Allied troops. They would have their families and want to get back home. What did they think at the last moment?
　　I eagerly wanted to visit one of those caves which was utilized as a field hospital. The monument in the second picture reads "The Monument of Okinawa Army Hospital". The hospital was evacuated from its original site to the south, near the sea. This monument was built by the cave. I stepped into the cave and wondered how the inside was at that time. They didn't have enough medicine like antibiotics, pain killers, etc and were also short of other medical equipment. Naturally no air conditioner and no flush toilet on the subtropical island of Okinawa.
　　Two poems describing young girls from the nursing unit were inscribed on the nearby monument, one of which says, "A nurse went out of the cave with four water bottles to get water somewhere for injured soldiers, but didn't come back." Another one was likewise. Though the sky was clear blue when I visited the cave, I became sad when I read the poems.