Fire Embers

Elementary School, Izena Island, Okinawa, Japan
July 28th
3:00 PM

Izena Island is located north-west of Okinawa Island, an island of only 5 kilometers in diameter, and about 40 minutes to walk from end to end of the island. It has a population of only about 1500 people. A place just known for its traces of pottery from the Jōmon jidai period and for being the place of origin of King Shō En, of the Ryukyu Kingdom and founder of the Second Shō dynasty from the town of Izena, which is still today in the same place, or partially now, because just two days ago a devastating earthquake struck the region of Okinawa and caused significant damage to the area. Although it was fortunate not to receive a direct hit from the tsunami that followed, the damage is still extensive. As if that wasn't enough, the island is completely cut off from the rest of the world, as the only ferry that has been hit by the tsunami is now on the mainland. Even so, the community is united in these difficult times, neighbors have united and organized to help those in need, and that is what we are seeing here, in these images of the Izena primary school where people have come to receive help and attention.

Damn, in this picture the place looks good too! And this is the best I could get after buying someone's phone after I lost mine when the hotel flooded.

Why did this have to happen to me!

It was my vacation!

How is it possible that exactly the same day I arrive on this stupid godforsaken island there is a damn earthquake that almost wiped out Okinawa and I can't even get decent pictures! I need to get something for the paper, I have never worked as a correspondent, and I just have a golden opportunity to get to work in TV news, I am stuck in this place and I can't get pictures of destruction when everyone is just uploading them to the internet right now! My boss is going to be pissed!

Wait a minute, why would Mr. Nakatsuka be mad at me in the first place? This was my damn vacation! It was normal that I didn't work to begin with! But I need the money! exclusive photos pay very well, having a journalist on site telling his experiences about what happened too! I'm a journalist! I live from other people's disgrace!

Trying to get ideas on what to do with my current situation I went for a walk again trying to find something I could use as a journalist. Walking around the city I found nothing, there were a couple of places destroyed but only partially, nothing that was surprising or that had already been shown on TV. I went to the beach, but far from the beautiful tourist destination it was recently, it is full of debris, probably even from other islands, not even a corpse. In the distance, quite far away you can see the island of Okinawa, and you can also see quite a large group of ships, I saw helicopters leaving some of them for what is surely an aircraft carrier and its escorts trying to help, I can't take a picture with this smartphone that is worth it.

Wait a moment!
Several of the helicopters are coming this way!
They're coming to help!
This is my chance! I have to go where they land!

From the trash on the beach, I found a bicycle that I used to chase the helicopters when they flew over the island. It said they were heading north so I pedaled as fast as I could to meet them. I arrived at Uchihana village a couple of minutes after them, and when I did I couldn't believe how different the situation was, so much so that I blamed myself for not coming here first. Here I could find just what I was looking for, first-level catastrophe destruction.

I could see the helicopters, they were from the United States, but the personnel that came out of them were from the JSDF, they were bringing down and taking out quite a few boxes, they looked like they were supplies and things to create a small base camp, the head of the island arrived shortly after in a car and a couple of trucks, he pointed them to a nearby school which would be the main shelter for the island. The soldiers assembled everything in the trucks and set off, I followed them closely to the site.

When they arrived at the school a large group of people were waiting for help. Several people were injured, but most of them were fine, but many people were hungry, and I was not an exception either, but I took advantage of the situation to finally do my job.

"Excuse me for a moment"
"Can someone spare me a moment?"
"My name is Nozomi Yasuda. I am a journalist"
"I work for the newspaper Nichibotsu no taiyō Shimbun"
"Would you mind if I take some pictures and ask you some questions?"

"Nozomi Yasuda?"
"Yes, I have read some of your newspaper investigations."
"What a surprise to find you in a place as far away as this one"

"Well I was on vacation here unfortunately and now I have to work"
"May I know who I have the pleasure to talk to?"

"Sergeant First Class Takara Isamu"
"2 years of service"
"My team has been sent to this island as part of the Okinawa rescue effort."

"Are you the ones in charge of helping on this island?"
"Aren't you too few?"

"We are currently understaffed in the area"
"The city of Naha has suffered the most damage and due to its population, it has priority"
"We have established the population density in the areas and the command believes that we are sufficient to man this island"
"We would like to do much more but resources are limited"

"I could see earlier that you came in U.S. Army transport helicopters"
"May I know why?"

"Okinawa was not the only region affected by the earthquake, Hokkaido was also severely affected"
"The US military is based in East Asia on this island so their presence is much larger in this area than ours to begin with"
"They offered to provide assistance here so that the bulk of the JSDF can focus their efforts in the north which is also in urgent need of help"
"The aircraft carrier USS Essex and her escort just arrived at Okinawa island and made even more helicopters available"
"Thanks to them we were able to make the trip here in the first place"

"So you are saying that the Japanese government left this sovereign territory to the United States to control?"

"None of that"
"The present situation is an emergency, the best possible measures are being taken to ensure the welfare of the people"

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"So you do not deny that they have this area under their control!"

"Mrs. Yasuda"
"Please do not misunderstand what I say."
"Japan has not abandoned this area, the JSDF and the US Army are collaborating to help Okinawa under Operation Kami No Tasuke, God help"
"I thought this interview was to help the people of the island"
"But if you are here just to criticize our relief actions I am going to have to ask you to withdraw under the martial law that is in effect under Japan's defense code that went into effect when the state of emergency was established in the area"
"Withdraw now or you could face up to 5 years in prison"

!!!!

I would love to keep pushing for more answers, but I couldn't risk going to jail either, not like this, so against my wishes I withdrew as they asked me to. At least I was able to take some pictures that might be useful for something.

Who was I kidding? they were terrible, they were just soldiers moving boxes, nothing worthy of a magazine cover and to make matters worse I missed my chance to be with the soldiers and have exclusive access, I needed something even better to make up for all the lost time I had stranded on this stupid abandoned island. After eating something I wandered around looking for people to interview or something to create a different story than how I wasted my vacation neither enjoying nor working.

On the way out there were still several people waiting their turn to come in and be served. I was looking around when someone who was taking pictures saw me and seeming to recognize me came walking towards me to talk to me.

"I saw what you did earlier in there"
"You are quite brave enough to pursue the truth."
"Not anyone would have asked what you did in front of someone with a gun."

Did the soldier have a gun?

"Well it's my job, I just wanted to do my job but I think I got a little carried away in the end"

"Too bad you missed your exclusive interview"
"...."
"But it's just as much of a pity for them, isn't it?"
"..."
"To leave our own country abandoned to foreigners like the United States"

"Yes, how could they think of leaving this place under complete control by these people!"

"Hahaha"
"I like you a lot, Mrs. Journalist"
"...."
"You know what, my boss is looking for someone I can talk to about this problem and spread awareness about what is really going on with our country"
"While you will be able to get your desired exclusive, how about it?"
"I promise you it will be very worthwhile"

I had nothing worthwhile to stand out among my fellow journalists, and I had no chance of leaving this island to go to Okinawa either, I was confined to this small space of land where nothing was happening, so with so few options available I decided to go along, there was nothing going on anyway, so what else was there to lose besides my time.

He took me a little further outside the town where another group of people was gathering, they seemed quite excited about something, I didn't know what, but I had the feeling that there was something strange about this, but still, I continued. The man took me to the one who seemed to be the leader, he himself had a bandana on his head, had the flag of Japan, a Hachimaki, and when he saw me he stood up and began to speak to the crowd. 

"This brave man, so filled with love for his country that he finds it difficult to die, is calling out to his friends and about to die"
"Asked about the soul of Japan"
"I would say, that it is like wild cherry blossoms"
"Glowing in the morning sun," He said before taking a hasty sip of sake.

He began to speak a jisei no ku, the death poem, something that in the past samurai used to say before a battle where they were almost certain to die or commit seppuku and that was later used for darker causes during World War II.

"Our government is weak!"
"It is not worthy of its inhabitants!"
"We have been abandoned to our fate despite our fervent loyalty!"
"When the vulgar invaders attacked Okinawa during the war, even though we defended it with our lives and souls, it was brutally taken away from us!"
"A terrible deed that we are still paying for today!"
"Just look around you! The US base is the biggest part of the island!"
"And what have our leaders done!"
"Left us to our own devices in this time of need!"
"Several of our brothers and sisters have stood up against this injustice"
"But they have been brutally persecuted and executed by those who claim to work for our benefit!"
"They were hunted down like dirty animals"
"...."
"But all that will be left behind this day!"
"We will take back our own territory with our own hands"
"And we will defend it with our lives!"
"Little by little we will reclaim every island until we expel our enemies who pretend to be our allies!"
"And this day will be remembered as the day the Kanenaga Group achieved its goal."
"The day we began to reclaim the territory lost by our ancestors!"

From the crowd, a large number of Japanese imperial flags began to appear, and shouts of celebration could be heard everywhere. And to my horror, heavy weapons also appeared among several members of the group. It was then that I realized what a huge mistake I had made, right now I was in the middle of a meeting of the survivors of the Kanenaga Group port attack, the terrorists who had attacked another US base, and the bomb attack on the day of President John Smith's visit 

An explosion was heard in the background, a pile of had been nearby, it was the site of the camp that the JSDF had set up to tend to the wounded and starving. A shout was heard next to me "Banzai!" said the leader, all the others followed him and charged running towards the source of the explosion, gunshots started to sound in the distance. I was crying, on my knees, I couldn't believe what I just saw with my eyes, something I didn't want to be a part of.

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