Myth of Arrival

A Couple of Notes:

Throughout this movie I have been trying to use only Okinawan phrases and concepts in the dialog. Thus, using the Okinawan term for mother, “Okkaa,” instead of the Japanese,“Okasan,” makes perfect sense to me. However, because 99% of my research comes from books, there are certain phrases I will remain ignorant about until I finally make an Okinawan friend who can correct my mistakes. For example, what would the wounded soldiers call the nurses? I am not sure what the Okinawan word for “Nurse” actually is; plus there are so many other factors to think about. Most of the soldiers are grown men (many Japanese, not Okinawan) all hurt or maimed in some terrible way or other and all requiring deeply personal assistance that they probably have never asked a fourteen year old girl to do before (as a nurse aide myself I have seen the struggle my residents go through just to ask me to do something as personal as wipe them after using the bathroom; never mind if there are social boundaries like age and gender involved).

Finally, I settled on “Wunai” as a good term to use. Its definition is “A sister, either elder or younger, from her brother's point of view” (Sakihaea, 221). If I was slowly rotting from gangrene in a humid cave without pain killers or anyway to keep clean I think I'd consider anyone helping me to be family. However, there is another term closely linked to “Wunai,” which is “Wunai-gami” — which is, “a sister deity, referring to a sister when she is acting in accordance to the traditional belief that she has spiritual powers to protect her brother” (ibid.) Perhaps the closest thing we have in the West is the concept of a Guardian Angel but regardless, since the line is spoken to Kohitsuji by a young man dying of brain fever (a horrific way to die by all accounts; unchecked fevers that literally stripping away one's humanity as the brain rots from within), since she herself was in training to be an onarigami before the war started, his begging to her to play out her role as his divine sister seemed appropriate.

At the end of the film I try to make a point about something I came across in an excellent book by George Feifer, who quotes Shigemi Furukawa as saying: The way of bushido is to die – but in this battle where we and the enemy stand on different dimensions of metal and supplies, it completely loses its meaning. Something is now beginning that has had no precedent in Japanese military: death without meaning.

Ask any Westerner with a professed love of all things Japanese and they might not be able to tell you who the current Prime Minister is but they'll know all about Bushido (since all samurai movies feature at least one Mifune Toshiro wannabe "finding the right place to die" by simply gutting himself like a bluefish on the field of battle). I know the explanations are very complex as to why many Japanese choose to rewrite the Battle of Okinawa in order to cast the Imperial Army in a favorable light (and by doing so negate the atrocities committed against the Okinawans) but I wonder to what extent seeing the defense of Okinawa as a "death without meaning" has been a motivation in this rewriting; especially for people trying to honor ancestors who might not have been very honorable right before they died?

“Amazing Grace” — Let's just say singing in Okinawan is not as easy as I hoped; anyone with a better voice is welcome to submit their version and I will gratefully use it in the film (hint, hint).

Coming up with music for these films has been interesting; sometimes I have been forced to improvise as I went along (that is me mumbling a lullaby in the second film simply because I couldn't find anyone else willing to try to sing in Okinawan … not that I'd call what I am doing “singing” in its pure sense). Still, once in a while I come across a rendition of a song I am so blown away with I think “that's it! If I ever get a budget for this project I want this person to perform on it!” I was blown away by a performance by Natsukawa Rimi singing Amazing Grace in Okinawan! Even though after seeing the Japanese TV version of the Himeyuri, which uses the traditional American Gospel song sung in English, I had decided against using it (after all, I don't want to simply cut and paste somebody else's work and call it my own) … but after listening to Rimi's version I can't but want her to sing an Okinawan version of Amazing Grace in my movie too.

Natsukawa Rimi you are my new hero!

[cut to: the endless rain, mud, night. An Imperial Army hospital truck bringing wounded to the 3rd Surgery Unit. Cut to: nurses unloading countless bodies.]

Tira: How many came in this time?

Ashitomi: Eleven, I think.

Higa: I counted thirteen, but one is dead, I think. He lost his face.

Katsuko: Please, I need a stretcher!

[cut to: stretchers, Himeyuri hauling bodies into the caves]

[f/x: water dripping from cave walls. Ashitomi hurrying from body to body, checking bandages. The wounded are grouped depending on the type of treatment they need to receive, almost all are amputations. In one corner untreated gangrene cases toss about in agony; their limbs swelled dark and grotesquely]

Wounded Soldier #1: Wunai … please, wunai …

Ashitomi: Yes? What is the matter?

Wounded Soldier #1: I am … so ashamed. Please, I need to go to the bathroom … I can't move, it's been two days … please.

[cut to: Ashitomi bends down to pick up a bed pan only to find it is half-full with urine. She undoes the wounded man's trousers and helps slide them down. As the man urinates Ashitomi tries not to vomit. They are both highly embarrassed]

Wounded Soldier #2: Wuani-gami, it hurts! Please kill me!

Kohitsuji: Brain fever … gangrene … tetanus … he will die soon … he is not even human now.

[cut to: A small antechamber set off from the cave. Kohitsuji helps hold down the leg of a screaming boy. There is no pain killer. A doctor takes an old saw and begins to slice the leg off. The boy twists and screams in pain. Suddenly his eyes go blank and the screaming stops but the doctor keeps cutting into the boy as if so exhausted he can do nothing else]

Wounded Soldier #3 [sitting up in bed and shouting]: Hey! You bastard!

[jumps up and grabs a small, wounded officer, begins choking him]

Wounded Soldier #3: You bastard! You ordered us to attack yesterday! You! You killed everyone! You ordered us to attack knowing we would all die! I will kill you!

Ashitomi [rushing over]: Please, sir! Please let go!

Wounded Soldier #3 [slowly turning around in disbelief] : Idiot! What do you know? You are a child! Why are you even here? [strikes Ashitomi]

[Ashitomi lands in mud and urine and feces. Kohitsuji and Katsuko rush over to help her up]

Ashitomi: Me? Me? I'm the idiot? We are in hell and I'm the idiot? [screams]

[f/x: moans and screams all around cave]

Wounded Boy: We are forsaken … Forsaken! Where is my honor? Don't let me die this way … give my death meaning … my death … my death!!

Works Cited

Feifer, George. The Battle of Okinawa. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press (1992)

Sakihara, Mitsugu. Okinawan-English Wordbook. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press (2006)

This is an image I made of a Star Lily, the lilium auratum, which gets used interchangeably throughout both this story and histories of the Himeyuri.

When I started writing this poem I was fascinated with the Okinawa word kusa-nu-nuii; grass roots. Grass isn't as beautiful as lilies, of course, but the lilies are gone from this life for now and forever; it is you and I, the grass, that remains. Then I stumbled upon the phrase kaamii kee-sun; literally translated as “to forcefully flip a turtle over or on its back.”

That seemed more appropriate to the story, though I couldn't work the turtle and the grass into a 3-line haiku. As I understand it, the phrase can have several meanings; to commit an act of violation or rape, to brutally maim or, (perhaps my translation is poor but it is closer to the spirit of the poem I am working on) to annihilate completely.

Star Lilies all gone …
… so let our sleeping grass roots
have long memories.

History, they say, has terrible ways of repeating itself. In this part of the film we meet a 10 year-old girl, Chiaki; a neighbor of Kohitsuji's, someone she tries to take care of even as the Himeyuri begin their fateful march across the island to the battle front.

I chose the name Chiaki on purpose; it is the the pseudonym of a young girl the Okinawa media dubbed “Chiaki Hibi;” a junior high school student raped this year in February by a U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergent. For a full account of the incident as well as the reports of some activists actually trying to get something done, please read the Feminist Peace Network's resolution.

Regardless of my Government's lawyers who appear to be trying to place the blame squarely on the the 14 year-old (labeling her as some sort of Okinawan Lolita) I have a hard time separating the story of this young child from the children who made up the Himeyuri in 1946. In both cases those who claimed to have a vested interest in their protection (and the population of Okinawa itself, truth be told) allowed terrible things to happen on their watch. Whatever your feelings about our U.S. Military bases scattered over Okinawa this rape is not an isolated occurrence with our soldiers. I do not wish to demonetize my Military, most of which do not go about raping children. However, for over the last six decades rape cases have been reported by the locals — both in the Okinawa media, their government and survivor's first hand accounts — only to have my own military administrators look the other way, make embarrassing excuses they should be ashamed of or simply claim some vague form of diplomatic immunity. As long as these men are escaping the law how can anyone claim justice has been served?

I say my military because it is easy for us to distance ourselves from such events and people. Things that happen half a world away by members of an organization many people on the Left already have doubts about has been and will remain far too easy to dismiss. Perhaps because it is so easy to say “That Isn't My Problem;” which might explain why we've let those who need to be held accountable off the hook for so long? To be a citizen is, after all, to be responsible. If I don't start with myself, why should I expect anyone else to?

Still, I sincerely sympathize with the Okinawan people who wish to have such people off their islands; who wouldn't?

Notes:

Naha is the capital city of Okinawa.

“Namu amida butsu” – Pure Land Buddhist prayer, roughly translated as “I trust in the Buddha of Immeasurable Light and Eternal Life.”

[Graduation Day: Walking over rocky grounds the Colonel and head doctors for the Himeyuri address the collected girls]

Colonel: Himeyuri Student Corps! Work hard so as not to bring shame to the First Girls' School! This is the greatest glory you will ever have! For those who can return to your homes to say goodbye to your families. We march tomorrow afternoon. We shall all die in the service of the Emperor! Banzai!

[cut to: later that day. Kohitsuji has returned to see her mother. She answers a knock at their door to find their Neighbor and her daughter]

Kohitsuji: Oh, it is a pleasure to see you again.

Neighbor: Ah, Kohitsuji-san, I am glad to see you are well [they bow] We have come to ask for your help.

Kohitsuji: Mine? Certainly. What can I do?

Neighbor: I do not want to leave my daughter, Chiaki, alone when I return to Naha to help my father get ready for the invasion. Chiaki is only 10 years-old but I thought she'd be much safer if she went with you, with the Himeyuri.

Kohitsuji [bending down]: Chiaki-san, is this what you want? You know we'll be working all day taking care of wounded men.

Chiaki [softly]: I … want to go home.

Kohitsuji [worried]: But Chiaki-san, the enemy is dropping bombs everywhere. Maybe your village isn't safe right now?

Mother [entering]: Do we have guests? Oh my, it is a pleasure to see both of you. Kohitsuji-san, please show some manners and put the tea on.

Kohitsuji [bowing]: Of course, Okkaa-san. [exits]

Mother: Please forgive my daughter, she leaves tomorrow to the front. I understand there are a lot of wounded men there that need caring for.

Neighbor: Please, will you help us? I must return to the capital city but I want Chiaki to be safe. Would you talk to Kohitsuji? I was hoping she would take her along.

Mother: You mean to the front lines where the enemy is bombing us night and day from what I am told? How could that be safer than your village?

Neighbor: But the Himeyuri won't be at the front, will they? I thought they were assigned to the rear where the hospitals are? Where else is safer than surrounded by our Army? Even the Americans won't bomb hospitals, would they?

Mother: Do not worry, both of you. The Emperor will not let anything happen to us. We might be on an island but we are all Japanese citizens. All of us. I am sure he would have evacuated us if anyone thought this war would drag on too long.

Neighbor: But please, talk to Kohitsuji? For Chiaki's sake …

[cut to: next day the Himeyuri march across the island to the 3rd Army Surgical Unit]

Girls [singing]: “We shall meet again/ This time as friends/ We shall see all we love/ Waiting for us at home …”

Katsuko [laughing]: Colonel-san was so embarrassing yesterday!

Tira: He was drunk!

Niigaki: And what was that terrible song he kept trying to sing? “Give your life for the sake of the Emperor/ Wherever you may go!/ Give your life!”

Tira: I think he should leave the singing to us.

[laughter]

[cut to: Chiaki marching in the crowd, looking miserable and lonely]

Higa: You know, I have never really seen a wounded man before. They kept having us bandage each other. What if I see blood and pass out?

Niigaki [teasing]: Higa-san is a big baby!

Kohitsuji: I wouldn't worry too much. I think once the excitement starts we will all just do what we have to.

[cut to: next day at their new barracks with many girls on washing detail]

Ashitomi [calling out]: Kohitsuji-san, is this what you meant yesterday as “exciting”?

Kohitsuji: Oh, I don't mind, just as long as …

[cut to: a muffled noise, girls looking around in hesitation]

Chiaki: What is that?

[cut to: explosions in the jungle, screams of planes overhead]

Man #1: Bombs! Bombs! Run to the caves!

[chaos as the nurses try to flee, shot of Niigaki looking about in panic, calling to girls still in the dormitory]

Niigaki: Chiaki! Run!

[cut to: long tracer fire as American fighters race to the 3rd Surgery Unit. cut to: Niigaki and Chiaki falling forward as bullets rip past them]

Chiaki [calling out]: Kohitsuji! Kohitsuji!

[cut to: inside of cave, girls screaming, stumbling about in the dark]

Kohitsuji: Chiaki! Run!

[cut to: American fighters dropping bomb after bomb.

cut to: Niigaki, Chiaki and a third girl pick themselves up and try to run for shelter]

Kohitsuji: Chiaki!

[Kohitsuji falls back, blinded as the three girls vanish in a burst of flame and agony]

Kohitsuji: Chiaki! No! Chiaki!

[cut to later that night: Kohitsuji praying and crying]

Kohitsuji: Namu … Amida … Butsu … Namu … Amida … Butsu … I am so sorry, Chiaki … I am so sorry Niigaki … I failed you, I couldn't protect you … you came here to do good and you are gone … Namu … Amida … Butsu … I am so sorry … I failed you.

My favorite band in all their splendor … if only I had a pretzel tree!

Uminai-gami's Weaving

The title for this part of the story comes from the Okinawan Creator goddess Uminai-gami; who, along with her brother Umikii-gami, created all humans and the islands. I have yet to find if Uminai-gami was, in fact, a weaver of souls but it seemed plausible in the realm of story telling. I hope I have not offended anyone by taking such liberties.

Later in the film Ashitomi refers to herself and the other girls as being from “Ryukyu,” which is the name of ancient Okinawa back when it was an independent kingdom. Archaeological evidence points to a the island having been inhabited dating back to the Paleolithic era. Just because Japan conquered the island in 1609 does not necessarily mean it has also won over the hearts and souls of its people.

While helping to composing the music to go along with Uminai-gami's Weaving I decided to incorporate a constant static hiss in the background. I did this at first because I have no method of making the sort of ear-shattering explosions an endless rain of bombs might sound like. But the more I listened the more I liked it; static is the sound of pure chaos and that seemed fitting to what was happening. Whether it remains in the final cut has yet to be determined but I find it an interesting experiment.

[f/x: Sound of knitting. Uminai-gami weaving out fate; a sound heavy with rain and bombs falling in the mountains. Cut to: American pilots talking but the only sound is static. Cut to: line of explosions.]

Kohitsuji [fearfully]: Those bombs sound like they're getting closer.

Ashitomi [trying to change mood as noise fades away]: Kohitsuji-san, why are you looking so worried? Those bombs aren't for us, silly.

Katsuko: Ashitomi-san is right. If those bombs were for us they would have sent someone who wasn't so blind. I don't think Americans can see in the dark very well.

Kohitsuji: I know … it's just that this isn't what I was expecting.

Ashitomi: What? The bombs? Don't worry about the bombs. Himeyuri can do anything!

[In the distance the roll of falling thunder; a strange noise that never completely fades away, just grows distant for a time like waves.]

Kohitsuji: No, I know all that. It's just that so far what have we done? I do not know why they are having us work like soldiers … actually, all I did today was carry rocks out of the cave for their stupid surgery unit … but isn't that what men are suppose to be doing?

Katsuko [laughing]: Oh, lazy Kohitsuji-san! I'm still trying to get rock dust out of my underwear. I don't care what I have to do, I just wish those stupid Americans would quit shooting at us. The colonel said it was because all Americans hate Japanese so much.

Ashitomi: Okinawans.

Katsuko: What?

Ashitomi: I'm not Japanese, we're all Ryukyu! [ancient kingdom of Okinawa] I'm from Yomitan.

Tira: I'm from Ginoza.

Higa: I'm from Zamami.

Kohitsuji [laughing]: You are right! I guess no one here is Japanese.

Katsuko: Do you think the Americans will stop bombing us if they knew we aren't Japanese? After all, who wants to kill a star lily?

Tira: You know, I never understood why they call us that. We're not flowers.

Higa [laughing, striking a pose and talking in a posh manner like their Colonel]: Huh! Huh! We must protect the virtue of our pure Lilies! Huh! Huh!

[laughter from everybody]

Katsuko: I hate dirty old men. You thin you had it tough? Me and Ashitomi were put on bandage detail yesterday, cutting strips all day. That nasty doctor kept “bumping” into us. Let me dig in the dirt, at least no one tries to touch you then.

Katsuko: I heard someone say the Third Army Surgery will be safer if it is underground in caves.

Niigaki [airily]: In caves, outside of caves, it doesn't really matter to me.

Miyagi [suddenly, angrily]: Idiots!

[several girls jump up]

Miyagi: What were you expecting? That we're still in school? We can go home?

[Sudden rolling rumble of explosions not far off, lights flicker, girls fall silent staring at the ceiling]

[Cut to: endless bombs falling from bellies of aircraft, static of approaching death. F/x: sound of Uminai-gami's knitting mixed with rain and muffled explosions. Cut to: line of explosions]

Katsuko: Miyagi-san, I thought we were going to do what Himeyuri Student Corps nurses were trained to do … we'll all be working in a little tent with a red cross on it and wrap the men with big white bandages and give them shots like we've been trained to do.

Miyagi [softly]: I can't believe how naive you are. Look about you.

Niigaki: Miyagi-san, what do you think is going to happen?

[long silence]

[All heads to turn to Miyagi]

Niigaki: What do you think is going to happen, Miyagi-san? Miyagi-san?

Miyagi: I don't know but will simply telling dying men “don't give up please” really going to work?