The , sometimes called "Lily Corps" in English, was a group of female high school students and teachers formed into a nursing unit for the Imperial Japanese Army during the Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

 in 1945. 222 students and 18 teachers of the former Okinawa Daiichi Women's High School and Okinawa Shihan Women's School were mobilized by the Japanese army on March 23, 1945. Many of the Himeyuri students thought that the Japanese army would defeat the Americans in a matter of days, and accordingly brought various school supplies to study and get ready to get right back into the classroom.

History

During the nearly 3-month-long battle, the Himeyuri students were on the front lines performing surgery and other difficult duties. Near the end of the battle of Okinawa, many were living in dark caves filled with countless gravely injured and dead soldiers.

Unit dissolved

On June 18, 1945, an order of dissolution was given to the unit. Up until the dissolution order was given, only 19 of the students had been killed, but in the early morning of June 19, many of them were killed during an attack by US forces on the Ibara third surgery shelter. In the week following the dissolution order, approximately 80% of the girls and their teachers perished. Survivors committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 in various ways because of fears of systematic rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

 by US soldiers. Some threw themselves off cliffs while others killed themselves with hand grenades given to them by the Japanese soldiers for just that purpose.

Himeyuri Monument

The Himeyuri Monument was built on April 7, 1946 in memory of those who died. Many of those who survived helped build and continue to maintain the facilities. As of 2008, there are still Himeyuri students alive.

See also

• Battle of Okinawa
  Battle of Okinawa
  The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
  
  
• Himeyuri Monument
• Himeyuri Peace Museum
• History of the Ryukyus

External links

• Himeyuri Peace Museum
• Himeyuri Gakutotai
• Himeyuri Monument and the third army field hospital in cave