In 1978, more than 30 years after the Battle of Okinawa,

Etsuko Mashio visited a special nursing home in Okinawa, and later, she wrote a story about an old man

who looked up at the sky through a glass door on the second floor to scout for U.S. military aircraft called “dragonfly” during the battle. *1

He was said to be hunched over and terrified.

Another resident glanced at him and said “Look, he’s doing it again”

What kind of view was he looking at behind a gap in the clouds shaking his back.

 

Now, the original building was demolished, and where the glass door would have been located is covered with soil and overgrown with weeds.

Climbing up the heap of soil, which seems to be made to the height of a two-story building, a big sky opens.

When you listen carefully, you feel like you can catch the sound of the other side of the sea.

Maeda Highlands (“Hacksaw Ridge”) known as a fierce battlefield is seen.

Release the shutter slowly.

 

Hiroshi Hosaka describes the role of the postwar generation as follows:

“To accept the silence of the survivors and to cultivate the ability to feel and sense the compassion (empathy/ sympathy) of even a faint groan” *2

 

The sky that the old man looked up at is still there today.