Fodor's Expert Review Himeyuri Peace Museum

This moving museum tells the story of 240 girls from a high school near Naha. Mobilized as field nurses in the war's final months, their hellish experiences tending to wounded Japanese soldiers in hidden caves near the city are retold in an intensely poignant series of dioramas, textual explanations, and displays. Photographs and journals show the girls' innocence and hope before the war, providing a moving counterpoint to the ghastly conditions they endured during the fighting. Photographs of each girl drive home the war's tragic effects. The museum is an hour from Naha via Bus 34 or 89 (¥590), with a change in Itoman to Bus 82, 107 or 108 (¥330). Buses depart hourly and continue on to the Peace Memorial.