NAHA - As part of a postwar 80th-anniversary project titled “Passing On, Staying Connected,” this article looks back on the Battle of Okinawa through the memories of Higa Tomiko, who survived one of the fiercest ground battles of World War II by holding up a white flag, reflecting on what she saw as a seven-year-old girl who wandered alone through a devastated battlefield and the feelings she now hopes to entrust to future generations.
Barefoot and dressed in torn clothing, the image of a small girl clutching a white flag captures the harsh reality of a child who survived by herself amid relentless fighting, and Higa’s memories trace how she endured those days alone.
Higa, now 87, experienced the Battle of Okinawa 80 years ago when she was just seven.
Higa recalled that she was told the triangular white flag was internationally recognized as a sign of laying down arms, meaning those who raised it would not be killed.
Born in Shuri, Naha, Higa lost her mother to illness and lived with her father and four siblings. As fighting intensified, her father, Naoaki, left home to search for food and never returned, prompting the four remaining children to flee south. Running desperately past scattered bodies, they continued for about 10 days before finally reaching Yonesu Beach in Itoman.
Higa said they arrived at night, surrounded by complete darkness.
Exhausted despite the nearby sound of shelling, she fell asleep, only to wake and find that her brother Naohiro, three years older, lying beside her, had stopped moving. She recalled that when her sister tried to lift him by the head, the back of his head was soaked with blood.
After losing her brother, Higa became separated from her two sisters during evacuation and spent about a month wandering the battlefield alone.
As she was close to losing the will to live, she happened upon a natural cave shelter known as a gama, where she encountered an elderly couple. She recalled hearing a voice over a loudspeaker from outside telling those inside the shelter to come out.
Responding to the call from U.S. forces urging people to come forward, Higa left the cave, leaving behind the physically frail couple.
She said the elderly woman tore a loincloth into a triangle to make a flag, telling her “life is precious,” and adding that while saying such words might sound like avoiding responsibility, she wanted to place her hopes in younger generations and ensure that war would never happen again.
Eighty years after surviving alone on the battlefield, the message entrusted to Higa now asks those who inherit her story what they can do for the future, carrying forward the wish for peace held by a child who once walked through war with nothing but a white flag.
Source: TBS
