Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
General Buckner Memorial Plaque
The commanding officer of the 10th Army, Lt.-Gen. Buckner, was killed here on June 18, 1945, three
days before the island of Okinawa was declared secured. He was surveying the last skirmishes of the
batle when he was struck in the chest by shrapnel from enemy ire.
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GENERAL BUCKNER MEMORIAL PLAQUE
中将バクナー記念碑
From the Chinen Peninsula,we'll drive back across this southern end of the island, west to
Naha City. We'll stop for a moment, however, at one not very well known memorial along the
way. It's a small bronze plaque set on to a stone. It bears the inscription: “Lieutenant Gen-
eral Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. killed on this spot 18 June 1945 Battle of Okinawa.” That's it,
just a reminder of the fleeting nature of life, and of heroism. It's a small reminder of one man
among the many men who died in service to their country. The General Buckner Memori-
al Plaque (
中将バクナー記念碑
; Chūjō bakunā kinen-hi) is rather hard to find. It's located in
Kuniyoshi (
国芳
; Kuniyoshi), not far from Itoman (
糸満市
; Itoman-shi), where much of the
fighting took place.
The Batle of Okinawa
Island by Island, one stepping stone to the next, across the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, from
Pearl Harbor to the Johnston Atoll, to Alaska's Aleuian Islands, to Samoa and Fiji, to Midway, Wake
and the Marshall Islands, to New Caledonia, the Coral Sea and the Solomon Islands, to New Guinea
and Guadalcanal, to Saipan, Leyte Gulf, the Northern Marianas, Guam, Bataan, Palawan, the Philip-
pines and Borneo, to the Japanese islands of Iwō Jima and, finally, to Okinawa, the Pacific War was
