Poster for Memories of Okinawa, a black-and-white portrait of an elderly Okinawan woman

Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan UniversityKinugasa

Memories of Okinawa: Voice of the War Era in Shimakutuba

Last chance6 November 2026 – 28 November 2026¥400

Screenings of testimony films in Okinawan island languages, recorded 1997-2008 from some 800 Battle of Okinawa survivors and rarely shown outside Okinawa.

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On now All of November 2026

On the poster is Kinjo Haruko, born in 1921 on Ie Island and filmed in 2005. She is one of more than 800 Battle of Okinawa survivors the Ryukyu Arc Documentation Group recorded between 1997 and 2008, each telling it in shimakutuba, the language of their home island. Okinawans had been pressed to drop it for standard Japanese, and in the battle it was treated as the language of spies. Many spoke about the war for the first time 50 years on.

The show is a screening room. About 20 films, rarely shown outside Okinawa, run in six rotating day programmes, from 9:40 and again after lunch. You sit with faces, voices and the silences between words, which the group set out to record as much as the words.

Pick your day from the museum's schedule first. Only the 2026 film on 21 November is listed with English subtitles. Entry is the 400 yen museum ticket, free on 14 November. Last entry 16:00, closed Sundays.

Look for

100 People's Memories (2003)
Six hour-long parts of survivors speaking fill a whole day on 6, 11, 16 and 27 November, from the year the series screened at the Yamagata documentary festival.
The Chibichiri and Shimuku cave testimonies
A 42-minute film of survivors recalling two caves, shown on Programme B days alongside the 1997 film that started the group.
Island by island
Programme D days move from Miyako and the Yaeyama islands in the morning to Sobe and Yomitan in the afternoon.
The 2026 film first shown in Berlin
The newest film, marking 81 years since the battle, plays twice on 21 November, the second time with English subtitles, before a 13:30 talk with photographer Higa Toyomitsu.

Good for

Going Solo
Locals Who've Seen It All
Nerding Out

Skip if

You can't follow Japanese or Okinawan: English subtitles are listed only on 21 November.

With kids

Elementary pupils pay 200 yen and secondary students 300 yen. The films are long testimonies about the battle, and one on Programme B days covers the mass suicides.