Zamami-jima

Located in the Kerama archipelago about 30 km west of Naha, Zamami-jima has but one small village with a population of about 600. Famous for its winter whale watching and summer diving opportunities, I stepped off the ferry from Naha when I spotted a whale statue and a giant "Welcome to Zamami Isl." sign.

Apparently, "Isl." was an abbreviation for "islands" plural, and I was not on Zamami Island, but instead on nearby Aka-jima in the Zamami Islands, a sub-archipelago of the Kerama Islands. I walked into the only place to stay on the island and asked where my guesthouse was located. They had no idea, which I found bizarre on an island with a population of well under a thousand. The innkeeper's daughter did know of my minshuku, tossed me in her van, and floored it back to the dock. We were just in time to see the ferry pull out...one of three ferries daily. Luckily I only had to wait another couple of hours for the next "ferry" (a three-seater, pictured below) to Zamami-jima.

The Kerama Islands (and Zamami-jima in particular) were occupied by the US Navy navy during World War II, from which they could attack the main island of Okinawa-Honto. The great Japanese historian Ienaga Saburo describes this tragic episode:

Garrison commander Akamatsu Yoshitsugu of Tokashikijima, Kerama archipelago, Okinawa, ordered local inhabitants to turn over all food supplies to the army and commit suicide before U.S. troops landed. The obedient islanders, 329 altogether, killed each other at the Onna River with razors, hatchets, and sickles. U.S. forces occupied nearby Iejima and used some of the local people to take surrender appeals to Akamatsu's unit on Tokashikijima. Akamatsu's men klled the emissaries and many members of the island's self-defense unit for allegedly violating orders. On another Okinawan island, Zamami, unit commander Umezawa ordered the island's elderly and children to commit suicide in front of the memorial to local war dead from the Sino and Russo-Japanese Wars. The remaining islanders were forbidden to pick any potatoes or vegetables. Thirty persons who violated the order were starved or shot.

A memorial was erected by the residents of Zamami Village on Aka-jima in honor of the 200,000 who perished in the Battle of Okinawa:

My birthday dinner at a minshuku in Zamami Village:

This minshuku was built by the innkeeper's (pictured above, left) great grandparents more than 120 years ago. The structure miraculously survived the war, though some of the floorboards only barely survived the Levenson stomp:


A shiisa perched on the roof:

Furuzamami Beach: