Harumi Miyagi’s mother was a village employee on the small island of Zamami in Okinawa Prefecture who provided food and lodging for 15 Japanese soldiers at her home in 1945.

When a U.S. military invasion was approaching, the soldiers gave her and other villagers clear instructions: “Don’t be caught by the U.S. soldiers. Fight against them or commit suicide.”

After the Americans landed, many Zamami villagers killed themselves and their families with grenades provided by the Japanese military in advance.

Children were strangled or had their throats slit with razors by their parents.

Miyagi learned about the mass suicide directly from her mother in 1977, the 33rd anniversary of their deaths. Since then, Miyagi, a 75-year-old researcher, has been seeking answers about what could possibly drive people to commit such horrific and unspeakable acts.

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS

On March 26, a memorial service for mass suicide victims was held in front of the “Heiwa no tou” peace tower on Zamami island, one of the first places the U.S. military landed to start the Battle of Okinawa.

“I don’t want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to experience the same fear and agony I went through at that time,” said Toshiko Takaesu, 93, a survivor of the battle and representative of the bereaved families.

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki also attended the ceremony.

“It is our responsibility to properly explain the absurdity and cruelty of war and the preciousness of peace to the next generation,” Tamaki said in a speech.

The American military landed on the Kerama islands, including Zamami, on March 26, 1945.

What followed was the three-month Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest ground battle of the Pacific War.

The death toll was around 200,000 people, including American and Japanese military personnel and civilians. An estimated one in four Okinawans died during the battle, including hundreds in mass suicides.

According to prefectural records, the death tolls in mass suicides were: 177 on Zamami island; 53 on Geruma island; and 330 on Tokashikijima island.

There were reports of suicide victims on other islands as well, but their numbers are unknown.

LIVES CHANGED BY JAPANESE MILITARY

In mid-1944, a Japanese maritime special attack force was deployed to the village of Zamami, where about 2,000 people lived.

Military servicemen started to share the homes of the residents, dramatically changing the civilians’ lives.

The villagers were repeatedly told to never surrender to the Americans, and that death would be a preferable fate than capture.

On the evening of March 25, 1945, the day before the U.S. military landing, Zamami village employees informed residents that a “prepare to die” order had been given.

Although it was believed that the order was meant to prevent villagers from leaking information, such as military deployment maps, to the enemy, many fled to natural caves or into the mountains to detonate the grenades or kill their families in other ways.

Miyagi’s mother, who cooked meals for the military as a head of the women’s youth group, survived because a grenade failed to explode.

She wrote the following in the memoir she left behind in her closing years: “For us Japanese ... the moral was individuals can be killed but the country must be served.”

Women on the island have said, “We thought we would be raped if we were captured by American soldiers.”

At that time, faithfulness to one’s husband was strongly expected, so the women begged their husbands to kill them before they were captured and violated by the enemy.

MOST VICTIMS WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Miyagi has kept investigating what happened at her hometown 80 years ago.

Eight trenches on Zamami island where mass suicides occurred were identified. Of the 135 victims whose genders and ages were determined, 112, or more than 80 percent, were women or children under the age of 12.

Although Zamami residents were forced to cooperate with the Japanese soldiers, the troops prioritized the convenience of the military and did not protect the civilian population, Miyagi said.

The residents were taught that it was natural to serve the country at the risk of their lives.

Furthermore, they followed the value that men should protect women and children.

As a result, many men detonated the grenades and strangled their loved ones, saying, “I’d rather not let my family fall into enemy hands,” Miyagi said.

Under such extreme circumstances, violence was directed at the weakest, according to Miyagi.

During the three-month battle, mass suicides occurred in other places where U.S. forces landed, including the main island of Okinawa and Iejima island.

However, the entire picture of the suicides remains unclear.

“We need to continue studying whether there were underlying issues that are relevant to current society. I think this is the responsibility of the postwar generation who received the testimonies of those who suffered in the war,” Miyagi said.