Japan Tourism
‘A Special Memory In My Heart’
Why The Solomon Islands Remains Important To Japanese
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| Members of the Guadalcanal War Veterans Association: front left to right, Sherigu Maeda, Yasuo Yamamiya, rear, left to right, Kiyoshi Takahama, former diplomat and Masao Ureshi, a historian. PHOTO: Moffat G. Mamu |
Each year Japanese war veterans and bereaved family members visit island war shrines, battle sites and monuments to pay tribute and respect to loved ones who died during the war.
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Eighty eight-year-old Yasuo Yamamiya was one of the 10,000 Japanese survivors of that battle. He was a communications officer in the Japanese Imperial Army. Yamamiya was drafted into the Army in 1938 at the age of 17.
Today, Yamamiya still remembers the seven months he spent on Guadalcanal surviving bombing, hunger, thirst and malaria. He was involved in the construction of the airport at Lunga. He was also stationed at Mt. Austin where he reported on the movement of U.S. Army and Marine forces.
Yamamiya said that he was fortunate to survive the conflict.
“The Solomon Islands still has a special memory in my heart for what had happened,” he told me in an interview. Yamamiya has visited the Solomon Islands four times to set up peace bells and pay tribute to fallen soldiers.
Eighty seven-year-old Shigeru Maeda was an officer in the Japanese Imperial Navy who served on Bougainville and in the Solomons. He was captured by Allied forces.
“The Solomon Islands is significant to Japanese because of the lives that were lost,” he said.
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| Noriko Murayama, center, who lost her father during the battle for Guadalcanal. On both sides are two other women who lost relatives in the Solomon Islands during World War II. PHOTO: Moffat G. Mamu |
He died at Bonege in West Guadalcanal in 1942 after being transferred from Papua New Guinea. She also lost uncles in the battle.
“I was nine years old when my father died at the war,” Murayama recalled. “I had no father (and) others would bully me for not having a father.”
Being the only girl in the family, she lived with her grandparents, and after the war went through Tokyo Women’s University and graduated with a degree in economics.
“My interest in the Solomon Islands grew when I learn about the war and the Solomon Islands where my father was killed,” said Murayama, now 75. “Because of that I was thinking about Solomon Islands and finally visited Solomon Islands.”
She has visited the Solomon Islands each year for the past three years. She was last there in February 2007 to see the place where her father died and also to pay tribute. “The Solomon Islands is very important to me,” she said.
The Solomon Islands is also important to Hinako Hamazaki. Her late husband, Sekizo, served on Guadalcanal and survived the war. He was one of the 10,000 survivors and served as an Army chief battalion officer.
After the war, Hamazaki returned to Japan in 1947. He later formed the Guadalcanal War Veteran Association. Since the death of Hamazaki, who was the president of the association, his wife has taken a leading role in organizing Japanese Guadalcanal war veterans.
“Today the association is still operating looking after war veterans affairs. We have a special connection with the Solomon Islands,” she said.
Chief Executive Director of the Japanese Solomon Islands Friendship Association (JSIF) Kiyoshi Takahama said there are significant historic connections between Solomon Islands and the Japan.
“Every year Japanese visit the Solomon Islands to pay their respect,” he said. Takahama, a former Japanese diplomat in Honiara, said he knows of one war veteran who has visited the Solomons over 17 times to pay tribute to his fallen comrades.
