Port, Yoron and Okinoerabu along the way.
The ferry usually docks at the marine terminal at Kametsu’s Kametoku Port (亀徳港; Kamétoku-kō), but when the Pacific Ocean is stormy, the ferries often dock at Hetono Port (平土野港; Hétono-kō) on the island’s East China Sea side. Hetono lies just below the airport.
Ryukyu Bullfighting
Known as Tōgyū or Ushi-zumō (闘牛大会; “bull sumo”), it’s tough, potentially dangerous and probably politically incorrect but it’s popular on Okinawa and especially so on Tokunoshima. It’s a match between bull and bull. Thus, it really has nothing to do with Spanish, Portuguese or Mexican bullfighting where the contest is between man and bull and which, in many cases, ends in the bull’s death. Okinawan bullfighting, as it’s often called, is more like Sumo wrestling for bulls. The animals are guided by their coaches. Bulls will lock horns, push and shove one another, each attempting to force the other to yield. The match is over when either bull relents or tires, then withdraws. Great care is taken so that bulls are not harmed. Should a bull be gored, the contest is immediately stopped and the bull is given medical aid.
The Mushiroze volcanic rock formations.
A view of the East China Sea from Cape Inutabu.
In many ways, Tokuno is a perfect model of a typical Ryukyu Island. It’s small but not too small. It has beautiful waters, a couple of good beaches, friendly people and several nice hotels and minshuku in its small main town. All in all, Tokuno has at least a couple of days of interesting sightseeing.
First worth seeing are two rather unusual items. Along with Okinawa’s main island, Tokuno is one of the centers of “Tōgyū,” otherwise known as “Okinawan” or “Ryukyu” Bullfighting. It’s a unique form of the sport and has nothing to do with the bullfighting found in Spain or other places. In Tōgyū, the bulls fight each other, not a matador, and nobody dies.
The second, in this case rare, item is the presence of the prehistoric Amami Black Rabbit (奄美の黒兔; Amami no Kuro-Usagi). Along with Amami-Ōshima, Tokuno is the only other island, indeed the only other place in the world, where this nocturnal and secretive creature may be found. Unfortunately, since they truly are an animal of the jungle—and a nighttime one at that—most casual visitors will not get to see one.
Much easier to find and see because they never move and don’t hide themselves at night are the great rock formations at the island’s northwesternmost tip: Mushiroze (むしろ瀬; Mushi-rozé). They are volcanic, thus giving a clue to Tokuno’s origins. It’s not a coral island. At Tokuno’s opposite northern cape, the northeasternmost Promontory Kanami (金見崎; Kanami-zaki), you’ll find the Kanami Sotetsu (Sago Palm) Tree Tunnel (金見ソテツトンネル; Kanami Sotésu), a 400-year-old oceanside collection of these great ancient cycads. There’s one more seaside natural attraction, the “Glasses’ Rocks” (メガネ岩; Mégama-iwa) of Innojofuta (犬門蓋; Innojo-futa) near Hetono. It’s a twin set of natural arches carved by the sea bearing a resemblance to a pair of eyeglasses.
Another good view, this one from the island’s most prominent southwest cape, is from the Observatory at Inutabu (犬田布岬; Inutabu-misaki). The vista from the cliffs here is as long as the eye can see. It’s an impressive great stretch of headlands fronting the East China Sea. Close by on this same cape is an enigmatic monument for a non-Japanese, for there is nothing on or around the monument in English to describe it. If there were a plaque in English, its significance would still be virtually unknown except perhaps to naval historians.
The memorial is to the Battleship Yamato (大和) and the men who perished on her. She was, at the time of her construction, the largest ship ever built. Commissioned and launched at the beginning of the 1940s, the Yamato class of warships was intended to counter the numerical superiority of the United States’ fleet. The flagship Yamato and her sister ship Musashi (武蔵) were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing over 70,000 tons fully loaded and armed with the largest caliber of naval artillery ever placed on a warship. The Yamato had an extraordinary length of 863 feet (263 meters), a beam of 128 feet (39 meters) and a draft of 36 feet (11 meters). Originally intended to be a group of five such ships, these two were the only ones to be built. Neither survived World War II.
The Glasses’ rocks, a twin set of natural arches.
Although the Yamato saw action in 1944 at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and was damaged in the Japanese naval disaster of Leyte Gulf, by this stage of World War II the Empire of Japan was all but vanquished and near desperation. In April of 1945, in what was planned to be a final “special attack” (特攻; tokkō; lit. “suicide”), a euphemism for a suicide mission, the Yamato, along with nine other battleships, was ordered to sail to Okinawa and once there to beach itself and thereby implant its armory to defend the island. The mission was code-named Operation “Ten-go” (天號作戰 or 天号作戦; Kyūjitai or Shin-jitai) and is usually referred to as “Ten-gō Sakusen.” Once the ship had exhausted its munitions, or was destroyed, the crew was to join the island’s defenders.
The Yamato Memorial (大和慰霊塔) is a lonely memorial, but sacred and moving, for out at sea from this place thousands of men lost their lives in service to their country.
It never happened. Exiting Japan’s inland sea, the ship and its escorts were spotted by American submarines. On April 7th, attacking in three waves, US dive bombers pounded the Yamato with bombs and rockets while torpedoes pummeled the port side. Broken, battered and listing badly, the crew was ordered to abandon ship. As the great battleship capsized, it created a suction that drew hundreds of swimming crewmen back towards it to drown. As the ship began its final death roll, an enormous explosion ripped through it as fires had reached the ammunitions magazines. The resulting mushroom cloud was over 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) high and witnessed hundreds of miles/kilometers away on Kyūshū. Of the Yamato’s crew of 2,778, only 269 survived. The US Navy lost 10 aircraft and 12 airmen. Five of the other warships were also destroyed and several thousands of men on those ships perished as well.
This photo was taken from a carrier plane from the USS Yorktown shortly after the Yamato was destroyed by bombs and torpedoes and just before it sank.
The highlight of the Kure Yamato Museum is this 1:10 scale model of the battleship Yamato. It is 86 feet (26.3 meters) long. In Tokyo, at the Odaiba Maritime Museum (船の科学館; Fune no kagakukan), there is a 13-foot (4-meter) 1:20 scale model of the ship.
From the start of the attack, about 30 minutes after noon on April 7th, 1944, to the Yamato’s drop beneath the waves, about 2:30PM, it is estimated that the ship was hit by at least eleven torpedoes and eight bombs. The wreckage of the battleship was located in 1985 and explored more extensively in 1999. The remains of the Yamato lie under 1,115 feet (340 meters) of water in two main pieces. Undersea dive photographs show the bow portion, severed from the rest of the ship, in an upright position, the 7-foot (2-meter)-wide golden chrysanthemum crest still glowing
