The Himeyuri Monument marks a cave in southern Okinawa where a number of student nurses died during the final weeks of the 1945 battle. The site has been preserved around the entrance to the original cave, and the museum beside it tells the story of the Himeyuri Corps through the words and photographs of the girls themselves.
The Peace Museum opened in 1989, built by survivors, and has been expanded since. Its approach is distinctly personal: rather than battlefield maps and weapon displays, it presents individual stories, school photographs, and diary entries. By the time you reach the cave entrance and look into the darkness, the visitors who died here feel specific rather than abstract. The site is close to the Peace Memorial Park and the two are worth visiting together; set aside most of a day for the southern war memorial circuit.