Okinawa Tunnel Rats Tour

The only tour in April was on April Fool's Day which is the also the day the Marines landed on Okinawa - coincidence the tour was on this day? Thankfully, we had perfect weather on Sunday with the sun out and a little breeze so we didn't get too warm walking around.

When we booked this tour, I thought I heard Tom call it the Battle of Okinawa tour so I figured we would be walking around to the battle sites and there might be a small cave or two. I guess I misunderstood because as the tour guide is explaining in great detail all the insects to be aware of on the tour, I wonder if I am cut out for this. I hate insects, HATE them (as I sit here cowering in our extra bedroom hoping for Tom to get off work early so he can kill the MASSIVE spider chilling on our ceiling)! But that's not all - the tour guide goes on to tell us how we might find bones, skulls, bombs and other things I didn't want to come upon in a dark cave.

After the bus ride, I had run through all the possible bad scenarios. My heart didn't stop beating fast from this moment till we got on the bus to go home. The story behind the first cave was the US military found the cave and heard people inside whispering in Japanese so they called into the cave for them to come out with their hands up. Soon after, a man walked out and in English basically said "what's up?" This took them by surprise but as the man explained he had lived in Hawaii before coming back to Okinawa. He said there were at least 1100 people in the cave and they were terrified to come out because the Japanese military had been telling them the Americans would brutalize them and their families. The military explained they would give him some time to get the Okinawan civilians out of the cave but eventually they would have to blow the opening. By blowing up the opening of the cave the Japanese military would not be able to hide in the cave but it would also trap any civilians who stayed behind. Eventually, all 1100 civilians came out with the help of this man. A statue was built at the entrance of the cave for his efforts to save civilians but some years ago the Japanese came and destroyed it saying it was a lie.

Plaque built after statue was destroyed

The tour then took us to a museum on Camp Kinser. The museum had tons of artifacts found on Okinawa from the war. There were uniforms from all branches of the US military from that time and the Japanese military uniforms. Guns, grenades, bombs, Japanese dog tags, articles, letters, and tons of small pieces of personal items left behind in the caves from the Japanese military and civilians. The tour guide told us how they still find things on the island all the time - The craziest example was when the new base housing was first built the first family discovered a large piece of metal in their yard while mowing. The facilities engineer for base housing came out and discovered a huge bomb in the ground that had started to surface within feet of their front door.

USMC Combat Uniform During WWII

Current USMC Combat Utility Uniform

Bombs that blow up when stepped on - Tour guide has stepped on four!

The third cave we went to was at the top of some stairs overlooking the beach. It was a relatively small cave system but they had a cave with a lookout point where the Japanese would sit with a gun. It was overgrown but almost 70 years ago you could probably see for miles and miles.

Lookout Point

View of Beach from the Cave

By the time we reached the last cave for the day I was starting to calm down and think there wasn't anything frightening about these caves. And then we climbed down to the opening of the cave with a 20 foot drop. From what the tour guide said the cave opening had been smaller but had been hit by American artillery during the war. Now there was a large open area before the drop into the cave.

I didn't want to go but I knew I would be nervous the whole time if I didn't go in with Tom. The guide had already told all the guys there was a rope leading into a well if anyone wanted to try but he wasn't coming in to help if someone was to get stuck. Tom would be the first to want to try this so I needed to make sure he didn't. Out of five women,  only two of us chose to climb down into the cave.

I was freaking out inside until we got to an area where I didn't have to climb down anymore - the rocks were slick with mud and I had already fallen once. I could never imagine people living inside those caves as it was extremely muggy, there were no flat areas to sleep on, and dark. We climbed around inside for about 30 minutes before I started to get anxious and most people had already left.

Sorry for the bad pictures, but it was so hazy!

Bone found inside the cave

Tom went up first and waited for me to start climbing. It was definitely a challenge and a few times I didn't know if I would make it. Being as short as I am it didn't help - the first rock to climb was taller than I was. Then I had to jump across an opening between two rocks about 15 feet up and instead of just doing it I pictured myself falling and hitting my head; didn't know I had such an imagination!

Pretending to Fall.

But we made it out and got back to the bus with mud all over us. I don't know if I would go again but we had an interesting experience.

 

P.S. For those we tricked on April Fool's with our clever little joke, You're Welcome :) I wish I had a video of y'all reacting. Congrats to my little sister (and the rest of Chi Omega's DM lovers) for four years of dancing at the University of Florida's Dance Marathon - 104.8 hours of standing for a great cause!