米軍上陸から８０年で慰霊祭　沖縄県知事が初参列―「集団自決」の座間味村

　太平洋戦争末期、国内最大の地上戦で民間人を含む２０万人以上が犠牲となった沖縄戦で、米軍が沖縄県座間味村がある慶良間諸島に初めて上陸してから２６日で８０年となった。多くの住民が集団自決したとされる同村では同日午前、村主催の慰霊祭が行われ、遺族らが犠牲者の冥福と恒久平和を祈った。
　慰霊祭は村を見渡す高台に建立された「平和の塔」で開催。玉城デニー知事が県知事として初めて参列し、「私たちは先の大戦を通して戦争の恐ろしさと平和の尊さを学んだ。戦争の不条理さ、平和の尊さを次の世代に正しく伝えることが私たちの責務だ」とあいさつした。
　住民代表の高江洲敏子さん（９３）は「現在、村は自然豊かで、素晴らしい観光地となった。この平和がいつまでも続くよう祈っている」と述べた。（2025/03/26-14:39）

A memorial ceremony was held in an Okinawa Prefecture village Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. military's landing on the Kerama Islands, which preceded fierce ground battles in the southwestern Japan prefecture during World War II.
   Bereaved families and others prayed for peace and the victims of the ground battles during the ceremony, hosted by the village of Zamami in the Kerama island chain about 40 kilometers west of the main island of Okinawa.
   Over 200,000 people, including civilians, were killed in the ground battles on Okinawa islands. The U.S. military's landing on the morning of March 26, 1945, led to a mass suicide using grenades and other means, which left an estimated 290 Zamami residents dead.
   The total number of military and civilian causalities in Zamami reached about 1,200, including those who died in air raids and naval gunfire.
   "We learned the horror of war and the preciousness of peace through the last world war," Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said during the event. "It's our duty to correctly convey to the next generation the absurdity of war and the preciousness of peace." He is the first Okinawa governor who attended the annual memorial in Zamami.