Thread by @mrjeffu

History Thread[1]: There was a fire at Shuri Castle in Okinawa today - causing great damage to the UNESCO World Heritage site. As many have pointed out, most of the castle dates to 1992. It had to be almost completely rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II.

[2] During the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, Shuri Castle was a major strong point in the defensive positions set up by the Imperial Japanese Army. When American forces reached the Shuri Line in late May, they encountered some of the toughest fighting of the Okinawa campaign.

[3] The hills and ridges in the area became infamous as scenes of desperate fighting and carnage. Perhaps the most well-known was Sugar Loaf Hill (known to Okinawans at Kirimachiji), shown here in a photo colorized by Prof. Watanave's research project (

https://twitter.com/hwtnv/status/862817540891856898

).

[4] In preparation of the American advance on the Shuri Line, the battleship Mississippi spent three days (May 25-May 28) bombarding Shuri Castle. This left it in ruins. A week later, the Mississippi was hit by a kamikaze plane (but was able to stay in the battle).

[5] Rather than defend the ruins, the Japanese troops in the area mostly withdrew from the castle complex and moved to other defensive positions. Nonetheless, the Americans saw their subsequent capture of the castle as a symbolic/psychological victory.

[6]The capture of the castle called for a symbolic flag-raising. US Marines raised a flag, but it was not the flag of the United States. It was the flag of the Confederate States of America, provided by Marine from the South. Eugene Sledge mentions the episode it in his book.

[7] The flag is said to have belonged to Marine Captain Julius Dusenberg, a South Carolinian. According to his grandson, Dusenberg carried the flag in his helmet. He was wounded and taken off the battlefield before the capture of Shuri Castle, but his men kept the flag.

[8] The Marines used Captain Dusenberg's Confederate flag because they supposedly did not have an American flag on hand. His grandson claims that the Dusenberg was later blamed for the controversial flag-raising and denied a Medal of Honor as a result. abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/okinawa-c…

[9] There are no known photos of the confederate flag that flew over Shuri Castle. There are photos, however, of an officer raising the American flag that replaced it several days later. There is some disagreement over why the Confederate flag was not replaced sooner.

[10] General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., the son of a Confederate general, was in command of the area. There are varying accounts of how he reacted to the flag: Did it offend or please him? Did troops give it to him as a present?

[11] One book described him as a racist who was very happy about the flag. On the other hand, an article that argues against displays of the Confederate flag claims that Buckner ordered the flag to be taken down. foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/16/tim… (by @tomricks1 )

[12] Another version of the story involves General Buckner ordering Captain Dusenberg to take down the flag. The book's author does not have a citation for the source. If we are the believe Dusenberg's grandson, the captain would not have been there to receive that order.

[13] Unfortunately, General Butler could not set the record straight on the flag-raising. He died on June 18, 1945. This photo was taken that day, before a Japanese artillery bombardment killed him.

[14] Back to the castle itself - as photos show, very little of it remained after the Battle of Okinawa. Almost everything would need to be rebuilt, and it would take a long time for that to happen. It was finished in 1992 to mark 20 years since Okinawa's reversion to Japan.

[15] The rebuilt Shuri Castle hosted world leaders for a G20 Summit back in 2000. The Japanese government commemorated the summit by issuing 2,000 yet notes with Shuri Castle's gate on them. They're somewhat rare in Japan, but overseas currency exchange offices often have them.

[16] Today's fire was horrible, but this is definitely not the end of Shuri Castle. It will be back, and hopefully much faster than it took to rebuild it after World War II. The government has made a pledge to rebuild it: mainichi.jp/english/articl…