Beth and Bijou on the ferry.
One of the main scenic spots is Gusukuyama, a mountain on the center of the island. We met a local Okinawan at the beach who took us to the top.
Gusukuyama, which is called fondly by the nickname of Ijimatacchu, stands slightly toward the east and faces the center of the island. The mountain is 172 meters above sea level. Halfway up the mountain, there is a place called Gusukuyama-utaki, where it is thickly wooded and where people go to pray for safe voyages, good health, and good harvests.
View from the top of Gusukuyama...
Tropical Okinawa...
Another stop was the Ernie Pylie monument.
Ernie Pyle, the son of a farmer, was born in 1900. After studying journalism at Indiana University he found work on a small newspaper in La Plante, Indiana. In 1923 he moved to the Washington Daily News and eventually became the paper's managing editor.
In 1932 he was commissioned to write a travel column for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain. He did this until the outbreak of the Second World War when he became a war correspondent. He moved to England in 1940 where he reported on the Blitz for the New York World Telegram.
Pyle went with the US Army to North Africa in November 1942. This was followed by the invasions of Sicily and Italy. He also accompanied Allied troops during the Normandy landings and witnessed the liberation of France. By 1944 Pyle had established himself as one of the world's outstanding reporters and Time hailed him as "America's most widely read war correspondent."
In 1945 Pyle was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Later that year he went with US troops to Okinawa. On 17th April, 1945, Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese sniper while on a routine patrol on 18th April, 1945.
For more information on Ernie Pyle see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Pyle
http://www.journalism.indiana.edu/news/erniepyle/
For more information on IE Island see:
http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/007/english/point/ie/index.html
