June 23

Today is Memorial Day in Okinawa. There is a moment of silence, a lot of prayer, and a few speeches by officials. Many mark the day by visiting the peace park in Itoman, at the southern tip of the island of Okinawa.

They burn incense and leave flowers and other tokens in front of the stones engraved with the names of each and every known victim of the invasion in 1945--and because Okinawa's society is tightly knit, the names are known and still remembered. We are talking about one third of the island's population.

One elderly woman reached up as high as she could, pointing to an engraved name. "That's my father," she said. Going down the list until her pointer finger was at waist level, "My mother, my daughter, my son..."

One third of the population...