Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum

Established in 1975, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum commemorates the Battle of Okinawa and promotes peace education through exhibits and memorials.

Planning your visit

The Battle of Okinawa, fought from April to June 1945, killed somewhere between a quarter and a third of the island's civilian population — over 100,000 people — alongside roughly 90,000 Japanese and 12,000 American soldiers. It was the last major battle of the Pacific war and the reasoning behind the decision to use atomic weapons rather than invade the main islands.

The Peace Memorial Museum stands at Mabuni on the southern cliffs where the fighting ended. Its exhibitions are built primarily on Okinawan civilian testimony, and the account they give is uncomfortable in more than one direction: alongside American bombardment, it documents Japanese soldiers seizing civilian shelters, ordering mass suicides and killing Okinawans suspected of spying.

Okinawa was a separate kingdom annexed by Japan in 1879, and the sense of having been sacrificed runs through the island's politics still.

The Cornerstone of Peace outside carries the names of all the dead of every nationality. Allow two hours. Current availability is shown below.