ITOMAN, Okinawa Prefecture--Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako paid their respects to the victims of the bloodiest battle in the Pacific War in the emperor’s first visit to Okinawa since his accession to the throne in 2019.

The imperial couple flew by a special plane to the southernmost prefecture on Oct. 22.

The couple visited the national cemetery for the war dead in Itoman city that day. The city was the site of the final fighting in the bloody Battle of Okinawa between Japanese and U.S. troops during World War II. The cemetery holds the remains of more than 180,000 people who died during the three months of fighting.

“We prayed sincerely for the repose of the souls of those who lost their lives with thoughts of the suffering of the people in Okinawa, the only place in our country where a fierce ground battle took place,” the couple said in their feelings announced through their chamberlain.

TAKING EXTRA TIME TO LISTEN

Naruhito is the first emperor born after the war. He and Masako met with bereaved family members and listened solemnly to their stories.

Tokumasa Miyagi, 81, chairman of an association of war-bereaved families in the prefecture, lost his father and uncle in the Battle of Okinawa.

“I think that (the emperor’s) feelings toward Okinawa are as strong as those of the emperor emeritus (Akihito),” he said after meeting the emperor. “I hope that he will keep having the feelings.”

Miyagi saw Naruhito meet with the family members for more than 10 minutes beyond the allotted time and said, “His majesty was politely talking to each of the bereaved family members.”

“I felt that his feelings got stronger after he became an emperor,” he said.

Many people in Okinawa hold mixed feelings toward emperors through the prefecture’s complicated history with the rest of Japan.

Okinawa was once called the Ryukyu Kingdom, which existed for about 450 years until 1879. But the Meiji government (1868-1912) ended its independent rule and transformed it into the prefecture of Okinawa.

After World War II, the prefecture was under U.S. military rule. Even after Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972, it continued to bear the burden of hosting the largest concentration of U.S. military bases in the nation, which continues today. 

Masakatsu Takara, 82, living in Naha, went to see then-Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko when they visited Okinawa in 2014.

He said that he had “never had a positive feeling” toward emperors since he thought that Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, held the highest position in wartime Japan. 

Takara lost nine of his family members in a U.S. torpedo attack on the Tsushima Maru evacuation ship in 1944 when he was 4 years old. The sunken Japanese vessel was carrying many children fleeing from Okinawa ahead of an expected U.S. invasion. More than 1,400 people died.

But Takara changed his feelings after Akihito and Michiko started visiting former battle sites to honor the war dead.

In 1995, the imperial couple visited Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Okinawa prefectures. They later also traveled to Saipan and other Pacific islands that were former battle sites. Takara felt that Akihito was sincerely trying to face up to what Japan did in the war.

On Oct. 22, Takara met with Naruhito, asking the emperor to “please visit (the Tsushima Maru Memorial Museum).” Naruhito replied, “yes,” nodding his head.

“I was sure that (the emperor) could get a real sense of how the war claimed the lives of the weak first when he saw the victims’ photographs,” Takara said.

Naeko Teruya, 86, an adviser of the association of war-bereaved families in the prefecture, has the same feelings. She also went to see Akihito and Michiko the five times when they traveled to Okinawa.

Teruya said she had mixed feelings toward emperors at first. But her emotions have changed as she saw Akihito’s consideration of the bereaved family members’ feelings.

Teruya also went to see Naruhito's visit to Okinawa on Oct. 22.

“I hope that his majesty will convey to the entire nation the tragedy of the war and the preciousness of peace, and that he will be a symbol for peace,” she said.

The bereaved family members are growing much older while around 90 percent of the residents in the prefecture were born after the war.

EMPEROR’S RELATIONSHIP WITH OKINAWA

As the emperor born after the war, how Naruhito will shine a light on and face up to Okinawa, which has a rough history, complicated circumstances and is undergoing a generational change, will be closely watched. 

Hajime Sebata, an associate professor of modern Japanese political history at Ryukoku University, is an expert on the system that recognizes the emperor as the symbol of the state.

“The emperor himself should think about how he will carry on the memorial service and how he will deal with Okinawa,” Sebata said. “But as times and circumstances change, the people of the prefecture and the people of Japan should also think about how the symbol of the unity of the people should be and how it should relate to Okinawa.”

(This article was written by Akiko Tada, Mika Kuniyoshi and Hiraku Higa.)