Unearthing Okinawa’s forgotten war dead

Bones of war: Visitors paying respects to WWII victims at the Himeyuri peace museum in Itoman, Okinawa Island. — AP

Takamatsu Gu­­shi­ken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave bu­ried in Okinawa’s jungle.

He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pie­ces of bone emerge. These are from the skulls, he says, of an infant and possibly an adult.