Encountering the Enemy

Then…
18-year-old U.S. Marine, Norman Baker and the 17-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl, Yoshiko Shimabukuro only knew the enemy from the propaganda they were fed.

Baker’s mind: The Japanese were fanatical, brutal animals with no respect for life.
Shimabukuro’s mind: Americans were long-nosed demons who rained hellfire from the skies before raping and pillaging anything with the worse-than-death fate of crossing their path.

Today…
Japan the United States, the bitterest of enemies during World War II, are now the closest of Allies. 

But for Baker and Shimabukuro, who experienced the darkest of the war, has found it difficult to reconcile. Baker took decades to open up about the experience and Shimabukuro has spent her life telling children of the horrors of her personal battle. She was told, “If the American’s come bite off your tongue and bleed to death.” At one point the fear was so great she asked a friend to kill her. When the Americans did come for her she thought the liquid that was poured on her was gasoline. “They are going to set me afire.” But it was something to kill the maggots. She resisted and hated being captured. “It was the worst shame.” When she heard the war over she wanted to know, “Who won?” She now says, “I do still believe the Americans are a kind people.”