Have you ever heard of a person named Akira Shimada?

In 1945, just two months before the start of the Battle of Okinawa, which is said to be one of the most devastating battles of World War II, Akira Shimada took his office as Govenor of Okinawa. He tried everything to protect citizen from the battle in its ferocity but went missing after the end of the battle.

On October 10, 1944, Okinawa suffered a violent air raid by the US military, and the prefectural capital Naha and Shuri got devastating damage. As the Southern Ocean Islands fell one after another and US forces were intending to land in Okinawa, the governor Izumi,Shimada's predecessor, repeatedly made business trips to Honshu and managed to be appointed as Governor of Kagawa Prefecture. Due to the irresponsible behavior of Governor Izumi, the poject of evacuating the elderly and children to the mainland was delayed. The citizens were despairing and the morale of the staff of the prefectural government was decreasing. Among health workers, teachers, and prefectural staff, there were not a few people that left Okinawa in the confusion.

In January 1945, Shimada, who was a career bureaucrat serving as the head of Osaka Prefecture's internal affairs department, was asked to leave for Okinawa as the governer, which meant death. His family was upset and tried to stop him, but he was decisive. He said, " I will take on this mission. If I reject, someone else has to die in place of me,which I don't want."

On arriving at Okinawa, Governor Shimada started work on the evacuation project to the mainland in cooperation with the head of the police headquarters Arai, and about 100,000 Okinawa citizens were saved. They also took risks to fly to Taiwan themselves to procure rice as food for the citizens of the prefecture. With a bright and cheerful new governor, the prefectural government's morale went up and hope spread to the people of the prefecture.

On April 1, the battle of Okinawa began claiming 200,000 people both in Japan and the U.S. The fierce bomberdment by US army was called "Iron typhoon". Governer Shimada tried to keep in close contact with Japanese military even after the invasion of the U.S. military began. In order to save as many prefectural residents as possible, he thought the prefectual government should continue to stay close to the prefectural people.

At the end of May, when Shuri fell, 70% of Japanese soldiers on Okinawa died and were not ready to continue the battle. However, the Japanese headquarter took the policy of delaying the US mainland landing by extending the battle with Okinawa as much as possible. To continue the battle, the army were to retreat to the south of the island , where many citizen had evacuated.

In the south part of the island, the system of command of the Japanese army went disrupted, and it became a guerrilla war in effect, with small units fighting apart.

Japanese soldiers who had been hunted down took the hell picture of taking air defenses of ordinary citizens, taking food, and executing those who disobey the orders.

The U.S. military was aware that it wanted to comply with international law and avoid attacks on the general public, but the attack became indiscriminate because of the mix of military personnel, temporary recruited students and citizens, and the general public.

In such a situation, Akira Shimada tried to fully performe the duties of the governor. Shimada was deeply admired not only by his actions, determination and leadership, but also his loving thoughts and actions towards the people of the prefectural government and those citizens who had been evacuated together with. Shimada did not lose humanity even when placed in extreme conditions, protected the lives of citizens above all else, but after the surrender of the Japanese army on June 23, he and Arai went missing together in the final battle field.

Even after 70 years from the end of the Pacific War, Shimada is being praised by Okinawans as Okinawa's Island Guard.