Mabuni Peace Park

photo by Tomokazu Kitjaima · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by Tomokazu Kitjaima · CC BY-SA 3.0

Among the 242,659 names carved here are those of the enemy too: 14,012 Americans.

The monument is called the Cornerstone of Peace and bears the names of everyone who died in the Battle of Okinawa, without distinguishing between soldiers and civilians or between sides: 149,703 from Okinawa, 78,365 from the other Japanese prefectures, 14,012 from the United States, 381 South Koreans, 82 North Koreans, 82 British, 34 Taiwanese. There are one hundred and eighteen slabs, arranged in a fan around the square. ⚠️ The list is not closed: in 2026, 95 names were added, and three removed because they had been carved twice. Eighty-one years later, they are still writing down who died here.

It stands on Mabuni Hill in Itoman, the southern tip of the island, where the battle of 1945 ended: those retreating had no more land behind them. The monument was unveiled on 23 June 1995, fifty years later, and every 23 June the prefecture updates the count of names: it is the date on which Okinawa remembers the end of the battle. The same park holds the prefecture's peace museum and dozens of monuments erected by individual Japanese prefectures for their own dead.

ℹ️ The park is open 9:00–17:00, every day of the year. The area is very large and flat, and can be covered on foot, with an internal shuttle service. ⚠️ The peace museum has its own hours and ticket, to be checked before your visit. You can search for a name on the slabs at a terminal in the park, and also from home on the prefecture's website.

🚉 Peace Memorial Park Entrance · 5 min walk

Sources: pref.okinawa.jp · heiwa-irei-okinawa.jp · heiwa-irei-okinawa.jp · okinawastory.jp

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