Photo/Illutration Takamatsu Gushiken holds a piece of human remains inside a cave in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 16, 2022. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“Gamafuya” in the Okinawan dialect means a “cave digger,” and that is what Takamatsu Gushiken, a 69-year-old Naha resident, calls himself.

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army set up bases in Okinawa’s natural caves called “gama.”

For more than 40 years, Gushiken has volunteered to go into those caves and search for the remains of people who died in the Battle of Okinawa.

“They still keep turning up,” he said.

That comment startled me, I am ashamed to say.

I visited Okinawa early this month and asked Gushiken to guide me around the hills in the city of Itoman, where many wartime caves remain.

In the wilderness where banyan trees with entangled boughs grow, the dark mouths of multiple caves gaped open. Donning a headlight, Gushiken crawled on his hands and knees through gaps in the rough limestone walls, gently grazing the cave floor with a spatula as he proceeded.

“Here,” he said after a while. What he found was readily identifiable as a human bone.

Gushiken refers to the remains as “silent witnesses,” the causes of whose death can only be guessed. Were they shot? Did they die trying to flee from fires?

“The ultimate reality of war boils down to (people) getting killed, doesn’t it?” Gushiken murmured. His words hit home.

Today is Okinawa Memorial Day.

During the last 78 postwar years, how sincerely has Japan mourned the many Okinawan lives that were lost? Why is it that not only in Okinawa, but also around the Japanese mainland, the remains of many victims of the war are still lying in the fields, unreturned to their bereaved families?

Perhaps the war has not really ended.

Head bowed, Gushiken spoke gently to the bone he’d found: “I want to let the people who are living now know as much of the hardships, terror and despair you underwent, so that they will never start another war.”

I closed my eyes and joined my hands in prayer.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 23

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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