The Battle of Okinawa is one of the bloodiest and most tragic chapters of the Pacific war, claiming the lives of 110,000 Japanese troops, 140,000 Okinawan civilians and 12,520 American servicemembers. It’s etched in the memory of every survivor. Though their numbers are dwindling — most are in their early 90s — they all have stories to tell, including the moral quandaries they faced.
To help ensure that future generations never forget the horrors of nuclear war, a Japanese photography education organization is hosting a month-long photo exhibition with images that document the death and damage. These rare images survived censorship laws and were collected over several years for the 70th anniversary of the bombing.
In the United States, generations were taught that Japan would never have surrendered so quickly without use of the atomic bomb and that victory would have required a bloody invasion of the Japanese mainland, costing hundreds of thousands of lives. Japanese students were generally taught a very different narrative.
