Okinawa_prefectural_Peace_memorial_Museum-2007-06-27_4

The Cornerstone of Peace is a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

in Itoman commemorating the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

and the role of

Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...

during World War II. The names of over two hundred and forty thousand people who lost their lives are inscribed on the

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

Purpose

was unveiled on 23 June 1995 in

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remember ...

of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa and the end of World War II. It was erected to: (1) Remember those lost in the war, and pray for perpetual peace; (2) Pass on the lessons of war; and (3) Serve as a place for meditation and learning.

Name – Political background

Constructed by the administration of Masahide Ōta, and as detailed in his book of the same name ''Okinawa: Heiwa no Ishiji'', the name 'Cornerstone of Peace' alludes to the Japan-US security partnership. Ōta writes 'It would not be an exaggeration to say that the motivation which led to the building of this 'Cornerstone of Peace' has also become the basis for the people of Okinawa devoting heart and soul, night and day, to solving the military base issue.' When US President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

visited the Cornerstone of Peace in 2000 he delivered a speech promising efforts to reduce and consolidate US bases in Okinawa, as previously agreed by the US and Japanese governments.

Design

The winning design, entitled 'Everlasting Waves of Peace', comprises concentric arcs of wavelike black granite

stelai A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), wh ...

or screens. These are

inscribed {{unreferenced, date=August 2012 An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figu ...

with the names of all those who died, regardless of nationality and civilian or military status. The names are in horizontal order from left to right, and in their native alphabet according to place of origin. The series totals some 116 stones, with the text running a total length of .

Inscription

As of June 2015, there were 241,281 names. By order of inscription are 77,380 from other

prefectures of Japan Japan is divided into 47 prefectures (, ''todōfuken'', ), which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They include 43 prefectures proper (, '' ken''), tw ...

, by prefecture; 149,329 from

Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest cit ...

, by hamlet; 14,009 from the USA, by

unit Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation Music * ''Unit'' (a ...

; 82 from the UK; 365 from the Republic of Korea; 82 from North Korea; and 34 from Taiwan. The numbers correspond to recorded deaths during the Battle of Okinawa from the time of the US landings in the

Kerama Islands The are a subtropical island group southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Geography Four islands are inhabited: Tokashiki Island, Zamami Island, Aka Island, and Geruma Island. The islands are administered as Tokashiki Village and Zamami Vi ...

on 26 March 1945 to the signing of the

Japanese surrender The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ( ...

on 2 September 1945, in addition to all Okinawan casualties in the Pacific War in the fifteen years from the

Manchurian Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...

, along with those who died in Okinawa from war-related events in the year before the battle and the year after the surrender. 234,183 names were inscribed by the time of unveiling and new names are added each year.

Location

The site chosen for the memorial is Mabuni Hill in Itoman City, site of the Japanese headquarters and scene of heavy fighting in late June 1945 at the end of the Battle of Okinawa. The area forms part of the .

Related initiatives

The Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum (沖縄県平和祈念資料館 ''Okinawa Kenritsu Heiwa Kinen Shiryōkan'') was opened in 1975. In 2001 the Okinawa Peace Prize was established in order to recognize local contributions to peace in the Asia-Pacific region. The Centre for the Study of Pacific War Memories at the

University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

is developing a visualization project in order to reproduce

virtually In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra that studies infinite groups, the adverb virtually is used to modify a property so that it need only hold for a subgroup of finite index. Given a property P, the group ''G'' is said to b ...

the Cornerstone of Peace while making use of recently

declassified Declassification is the process of ceasing a protective classification, often under the principle of freedom of information. Procedures for declassification vary by country. Papers may be withheld without being classified as secret, and event ...

photographs from the archives of the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

References

External links

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The Cornerstone of Peace
*
The Cornerstone of Peace
{{coord, 26, 05, 42.7, N, 127, 43, 30.1, E, display=title, region:JP_type:landmark Japan in World War II World War II memorials in Japan Monuments and memorials in Japan Buildings and structures in Okinawa Prefecture Tourist attractions in Okinawa Prefecture Peace monuments and memorials Itoman, Okinawa