The Kadena Story

Okinawa was one of the last battlegrounds of the Second World War. The three–month long warfare, which started on April 1, 1945 – a beautiful Easter Sunday according to American war correspondent Ernie Pyle – ended with hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides – including that of Pyle himself. When the winners and the losers left the scene to reappear in later acts, telling endless stories of their own, Okinawans – the residents of the islands – who lost more lives than either of the American or Japanese troops, were left behind on the dark stage to be little noticed by the world audience.