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, historical ...

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 Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

and the role of

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

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 such as home ...

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 remembe ...

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 and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

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 ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

or screens. These are

inscribed 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 figure G" means precisely the same th ...

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 (, , ), which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and Administrative divisions of Japan, administrative division. They include 43 prefectures pro ...

, by prefecture; 149,329 from

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

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

unit Unit may refer to: General measurement * Unit of measurement, a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law **International System of Units (SI), modern form of the metric system **English units, histo ...

; 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 on 2 September 1945, in addition to all Okinawan casualties in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

in the fifteen years from the Manchurian Incident, 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 land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

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 The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

References

External links

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The Cornerstone of Peace
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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 Pacific theatre of World War II memorials