Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1987. An exact replica was cast and it stands at Bancroft Hall today—and it's still rung for
football victories.
Naha's Tsushima-maru Memorial Museum.
15
TSUSHIMA-MARU MEMORIAL MUSEUM
対馬丸記念館
There are two more lesser sights in the general area, one in the Kumé neighborhood, in fact,
next door to the Naminoe Shrine; the other a few blocks north in the Tomari district.
Around the corner, one block east of the Shinto Shrine, to the right as you are facing it,
is a small museum dedicated to a very sad event—the World War II sinking of the
Tsushima-
maru
. Mentioned on page
46
in connection with Akusekijima in the Tokaras, this was the
tragic 1944 wartime event that took the lives of some 1,500 civilians, more than half of whom
were schoolchildren. All were being evacuated from Naha and Okinawa to the “safety” of Ka-
goshima on the Japanese mainland when the USS
Bowfin,
, a navy submarine, torpedoed the
ship.
The Gallery of lost children at the museum.
The Tsushima-maru Memorial Museum (
対馬丸記念館
; Tsushima-Maru kinen-kan) is
dedicated to these young victims as well as the tragedy of war. It's a somber place. One prob-
lem, there's nothing in English, everything is in Japanese, but you really don't need a trans-
lator. The Gallery of hundreds of photos of the children and babies who perished speaks for
