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平和の礎, which refuses to sort the dead
At Mabuni, on the southern cliffs where the battle ended, a set of low black walls fans out toward the sea carrying names. The 平和の礎 was unveiled in 1995, on the fiftieth anniversary, and its founding decision was to inscribe everyone who died in the Battle of Okinawa and the fighting around it, regardless of nationality and regardless of whether they were soldiers or not: Okinawans, Japanese from other prefectures, Americans, British, Koreans, Taiwanese. More than two hundred and forty thousand names are cut into it, and more are added each June as families come forward and records are checked. That is why the figure it carries is larger than any one country's count — no other memorial of that war is counting the same set of people. The ceremony is held on the 23rd of June, 慰霊の日, which is a public holiday in Okinawa Prefecture and nowhere else in Japan; prefectural offices and schools close, and a child reads a poem written for the day. If you are in Okinawa in June you will notice the date before anyone explains it.