Himeyuri Peace Museum

The Himeyuri Peace Museum in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, commemorates the Himeyuri Student Corps, a group of 222 schoolgirls and 18 teachers mobilized as wartime nurses during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. The museum showcases their experiences through personal testimonies, photographs, artifacts, and detailed historical accounts, highlighting the harrowing conditions they endured in cave-based underground hospitals. Established on June 23, 1989, the museum aims to convey the importance of peace and the tragic history of the Battle of Okinawa.

Planning your visit

In spring 1945, 222 schoolgirls aged fifteen to nineteen and eighteen of their teachers were mobilised from two Okinawan girls' schools to serve as nurses in the Japanese army's cave hospitals during the Battle of Okinawa. They worked in tunnels under constant bombardment, amputating limbs without anaesthetic, carrying corpses and waste. In June, with the position collapsing, the army abruptly dissolved the corps and turned them out into open ground under fire. Most died in the following days — some killed in shelling, some by suicide, having been told that capture meant rape and torture. Of the 240, 136 died.

The museum, established in 1989 by survivors, is built around their testimony. Photographs of each girl are displayed with her name and how she died. A reconstruction of a cave hospital conveys the conditions. Survivor accounts, recorded over decades, form the core of the exhibition, and for many years survivors themselves guided visitors.

It is among the most demanding museum visits anywhere, and it is deliberately framed as peace education rather than commemoration of sacrifice.

It sits in Itoman in southern Okinawa, near other battle sites. Bookable options include guided tours. Current availability is shown below.