World
Takeichi Kakinohana, 85, lives on Aka Island where the American military landed during the Battle of Okinawa and where, eventually, the Japanese ceremonially surrendered on the beach where he sits on Aug. 1, 2015. Takeichi, conscripted by the Japanese Army at 15, hid with other islanders in the mountains for months when the Americans landed.
Tiffany Tompkins-Condie
McClatchy
Aka Island is part of the Ryukyu Islands in the Pacific, 15 miles southwest of Okinawa. The tiny island, home to a village of about 300 people, was the site of one of the first U.S. landings in the Battle of Okinawa. Today the island is a destination for snorkelers and divers that can be accessed by an hour-long ferry ride through crystal blue waters. Photo taken Aug. 1, 2015.
Tiffany Tompkins-Condie
McClatchy
Takeichi Kakinohana, 85, shows a photograph of the U.S. military landing in the waters around his home, the tiny island of Aka in the Pacific, on July 31, 2015. In late March, 1945, the island endured attacks by fighter planes and naval artillery as the civilians and Japanese soldiers hid on the highest mountain.
Tiffany Tompkins-Condie
McClatchy
Ferry riders disembark on Aka Island.
Tiffany Tompkins-Condie
McClatchy
Takeichi Kakinohana is concerned about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent lifting of restrictions on Japan's military, which limited their actions for self-defense since the end of WWII as he witnessed American military landing on Aka Island during the Battle of Okinawa.
Tiffany Tompkins-Condie
McClatchy
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