We Were Forced To Smell Each Other’s Underwear — Japanese Women POWs Vomited From Shame-ZZ

Smell each other’s underwear.

Four words in Japanese from an American guard.

Okinawa, June 1945.

A makeshift P camp carved from mud and canvas.

30 Japanese women soldiers stand in a wooden barracks that smells like diesel and fear.

Signal operators, nurses, artillery spotters, survivors of a battle that killed 100,000.

Yuki, 22, hasn’t changed her clothes in 3 weeks.

Her underwear is caked with dried blood and mud.

Her hands shake as she watches the American MP, Private Miller, 24, from Iowa, hold up a pair of clean white underwear from a crate.

He says something in broken Japanese, points at the underwear, points at the women, then gestures to his nose.

Haruko, 19, the youngest nurse trainee in the unit, vomits immediately.

The sound echoes in the frozen silence.

Over 140,000 Japanese PS were taken by US forces by wars end.

Only 80 were women.

Yuki is one of them.

And right now, standing in this barracks, she’s certain she knows what comes next.

For weeks, Japanese propaganda told them, “Americans will humiliate you in ways death cannot erase.

” This apparently is how it starts.

Miller repeats the phrase, “Louder this time.

His face is red, nervous, but his voice is firm.

” Coro wokag.

Smell this.

Yuki’s brain fractures.

Is this psychological warfare? a new kind of torture designed to break them before the interrogations begin.

She looks at Lieutenant Kimora, 31, the highest ranking woman in the camp.

Kimora’s jaw is clenched so hard her teeth might crack.

The Geneva Convention says PWs must be treated humanely, separated by gender, given food, water, medical care.

But nowhere in that rule book does it mention this.

Haruko is still bent over, dry heaving.

Reiko, 27, an artillery spotter who hasn’t spoken since capture, stares at the floor.

Her lips move silently, repeating something.

Maybe a prayer.

Maybe just the word no over and over.

Miller’s boots crunch on the gravel floor as he steps closer.

He’s holding the underwear out now, like an offering.

His hands are shaking, too.

Quick question.

Comment below what city are you watching from right now.

I want to see how far this moment travels.

Where where was Seru Soramoto? We thought we’d be executed.

This was worse.

Then Private Miller does something no one expected.

He repeats the phrase louder this time.

And points directly at Haruko.

The measuring tape clicks as Miller fumbles with the crate.

Wait, no, wrong memory.

Rewind.

Miller thinks he’s saying, “Please change into these.

” What he actually said no, smell this.

One vowel, one tonal mistake.

And now 30 women stand paralyzed, convinced they’re about to experience the worst thing propaganda promised.

Haruko sinks to her knees.

Tears stream down her face.

She’s 19.

She still believes the emperor is divine.

She thought dying for him would be glorious.

This, whatever this is, feels like the opposite of glory.

Yuki’s throat tightens.

Her heart hammers so hard she can feel it in her teeth.

She’s trying to process the logic.

Why would they ask this? What information could possibly be gained? Or is the cruelty the point? Miller’s face twists in confusion.

He looks at the women, looks at the underwear in his hand, looks back at the women.

Something’s wrong, but he doesn’t know what.

He took a six-week Japanese crash course before deployment.

Learned 47 words, passed with a D+.

He volunteered anyway because his brother died at Eoima and he wanted to understand them.

Right now, understanding feels impossible.

The US military employed roughly 6,000 Nissi translators in the Pacific theater.

Only 11 were stationed in Okinawa P camps in June 1945.

Corporal Tanaka, 40, Japanese American from California, is one of them.

And he’s currently 4 miles away, translating interrogation documents with no idea what’s happening in this barracks.

But he’s about to find out.

Boots slam into the gravel outside.

The door crashes open.

Tanaka steps in, breathing hard, sweat dripping from his cap.

Someone radioed him, told him to get here fast.

He sees Miller holding the underwear, sees the women frozen in various states of shock and nausea, sees Haruko on her knees, sobbing.

Tanaka’s brain does the math in 3 seconds.

He turns to Miller.

His face goes from confusion to horror to rage in the span of a heartbeat.

He says one word in English.

What? Miller blinks.

I told them to change into clean underwear for the medical exam.

Doc Shaw is waiting outside with the TB testing equipment.

And Tanaka closes his eyes, exhales through his nose, then says something in Japanese to the women.

[Music] He’s asking you to change into these not smell them.

The silence that follows is worse than the fear.

Shinjjitsuas do between truth and rumor.

We couldn’t tell which was real.

Tanaka looks at Miller, then at the women, then back at Miller, and says one word in English.

Outside now.

Miller stumbles out of the barracks.

His face is white.

Inside, Tanaka repeats the explanation slowly, carefully, every syllable pronounced correctly this time.

Aidu kokurasaiu.

These are clean underwear for the medical exam.

Please change.

That’s all.

But the damage is already done.

Yuki hears the words, understands them, but her brain won’t accept them.

For 3 months, Japanese military propaganda drilled one message into every female soldier.

If the Americans capture you, they will strip you, humiliate you and do things that will make you beg for death.

Training films, 23 minutes of footage, warnings about Western barbarism, instructions to save the last bullet for yourself.

91% of Japanese PS surveyed after the war said they expected execution or sexual assault upon capture.

Yuki was in that 91%.

And now a translator is telling her it was a mistake, a linguistic accident.

Lieutenant Kimura stands slowly.

Her legs tremble.

She’s the highest ranking woman here.

She’s supposed to maintain order, but she can’t stop shaking.

She looks at Tanaka, then at the crate of clean underwear, then at the women around her.

Some still crying, some staring blankly, some bent over in dry heaves.

She starts laughing.

It’s not joyful laughter.

It’s the sound of something breaking, hysterical, jagged, like glass cracking under pressure.

We were so afraid, she says in Japanese, barely able to breathe between the laughter and the sobs.

And he’s just an idiot.

Outside, Miller sits on a crate, head in his hands.

Sergeant Hayes, 29, the camp administrator, stands next to him.

Hayes is a combat vet.

He’s seen men die.

He’s seen horror.

But this this is a different kind of wound.

I thought I said it right, Miller whispers.

I practiced for weeks.

Hayes doesn’t respond.

What is there to say? Dr.

Evelyn Shaw, 34 US Army Medical Corps, is waiting outside with TB test equipment, stethoscope around her neck, Red Cross armband.

She has no idea what just happened.

She just knows the exam is now 40 minutes behind schedule.

Inside the barracks, Yuki keeps staring at the clean underwear.

Tanaka notices.

You can take one, he says gently in Japanese.

It’s yours.

But Yuki can’t move because she’s just realized something.

It’s the first clean thing she’s seen in 8 months.

Her current underwear, the one she’s wearing right now, is falling apart, bloodstained, mudcaked.

She’s been wearing it since February.

[Music] This was treatment.

We didn’t know what that looked like anymore.

Tanaka turns to Miller and says something in English.

Miller’s face goes white.

You told them to smell each other’s underwear.

Miller’s head snaps up.

What? That’s what you said.

Tanaka repeats, voice flat.

Word for word.

Corini Wokagi.

Smell this.

Miller’s face drains of color.

He stands, opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again.

Then he turns and walks back into the barracks.

The women freeze.

Haruko scrambles backward.

Kimura steps in front of the younger women instinctively, even though she’s shaking so hard her teeth chatter.

Miller drops to one knee slowly, hands visible, palms up, and bows his head.

Gman Nasai.

I’m sorry.

He repeats it again and again 11 times.

His voice cracks on the seventh.

Gman Nasai.

Gmen.

Nasai.

Gmen.

Nasai.

Reiko.

27.

The artillery spotter who hasn’t spoken since capture whispers something so quiet only Kamura hears it.

K one night.

He’s crying.

Hayes appears in the doorway, grabs Miller by the shoulder, pulls him outside.

The door closes behind them.

The women are left alone.

Silence.

Then Kimura starts laughing again, but this time it’s different.

Lighter, almost incredulous.

He’s crying, she says in Japanese.

The American Guard is crying.

The US Army Japanese language training program in 1945 was brutal.

6 weeks, 400 vocabulary words, 60% failure rate.

Miller passed with a D+, but he volunteered anyway.

His older brother, Corporal William Miller, died at Ewokima, February 23rd, 1945.

took a bullet to the chest while raising the flag on Mount Suribachi.

Not the famous one in the photo, but the smaller one before it.

Miller joined the military police corps 3 weeks later.

Requested Pacific theater assignment, requested P camp duty specifically.

When his commanding officer asked why, he said, “I want to understand them, not just kill them.

” right now outside the barracks.

He’s sitting on the ground, head between his knees, sobbing.

Private Johnson, 19, a medic assistant, approaches the barracks door.

He’s holding a canteen and a tin of crackers.

He doesn’t speak Japanese, doesn’t know what just happened, just knows someone inside might need water.

He knocks, waits, opens the door slowly.

30 women stare at him.

He holds up the canteen, smiles nervously, sets it on the floor, sets the crackers next to it, steps back, closes the door gently.

Inside, Sachiko, 23, a radio operator, picks up the canteen, unscrews the cap, sniffs it.

Water, just water.

She takes a sip, passes it to Yuki Kamita.

where no senokuga uso data wakata when I saw his tears I knew our propaganda was a lie Dr.

Shaw enters white coat red cross armband stethoscope and she’s holding something that will rewrite everything again the stethoscope is cold against Yuki’s ribs Dr.

Evelyn Shaw moves methodically, checks heartbeat, listens to lungs, writes notes on a clipboard.

Tanaka translates every step.

She’s checking for tuberculosis, for infections, for malnutrition, standard protocol.

Shaw explains through Tanaka, TB test, chest X-ray, delousing procedure.

The underwear change is for hygiene.

Lice, infections, trench rot.

US Army Field Manual, 1945.

All PS must be del within 48 hours of capture.

TB testing mandatory within 72 hours.

Yuki finally understands why she couldn’t stop staring at the clean underwear earlier.

It’s the first clean thing she’s seen in 8 months.

Her current underwear, the one she’s wearing, hasn’t been washed since February.

It’s falling apart.

Blood stained from her last menstrual cycle, which stopped 3 months ago due to malnutrition.

Mudcaked from sleeping on the ground during the retreat from Shuri Castle.

She thought it was normal.

Thought everyone lived this way during war.

But now Shaw is handing her a fresh pair.

White, folded, smelling like lie soap and starch.

Nurse Betty Hawkins, 26, from Tennessee, assists Shaw.

Gentle hands.

She hums while working.

Amazing grace.

Barely audible like a lullabi.

Sachiko, 23, the radio operator, sits on the exam bench.

She’s been hiding something.

Infected cuts on her thighs.

shrapnel wounds from a mortar blast two weeks ago.

Too ashamed to mention them.

Too afraid of what the Americans might do if they saw.

Shaw notices immediately.

Doesn’t flinch.

Doesn’t ask questions.

Just cleans the wounds with antiseptic.

Applies sulfa powder.

Wraps them in clean gauze.

Sachiko’s throat burns.

She’s trying not to cry.

In a Japanese military field hospital, per archived records, average wait time for female personnel medical treatment, 11 days, if treated at all.

Shaw just treated her in 11 minutes.

Japanese female PWs examined in the first week at Okinawa camp.

68 cases of lice, 22 cases of infected wounds, nine suspected TB cases.

Sachiko’s infection is resolved in 72 hours.

Yuki’s TB test comes back positive.

Early stage, treatable.

Shaw writes something on Yuki’s chart, shows Tanaka.

His face changes.

He turns to Yuki.

You have tuberculosis, early stage.

Dr.

Shaw is recommending isolation ward, extra rations, and penicellin treatment, daily monitoring.

Yuki’s brain shortcircuits.

They’re going to give her more food, isolate her for her safety.

In Japanese military culture, illness equals weakness equals shame.

She expects punishment.

Instead, Shaw schedules daily treatment, assigns Hawkins as her personal nurse.

Bio waatsu dewanaku cheerio norudata rkai dekinakata.

Sickness wasn’t a punishment.

It was a reason for care.

I couldn’t understand.

That night in the isolation ward, Yuki opens her pocket, takes out the old ruined underwear she couldn’t throw away, and makes a decision.

Captain Reyes, 38, the camp medical director, signs off on Yuki’s treatment plan.

He writes in her file, “Patient expressed disbelief at care level.

Cultural shock noted.

recommend psychological observation alongside TB treatment.

Yuki sits on the isolation ward caught.

The sheets are clean.

The pillow smells like soap.

There’s a window.

Bars, yes, but also sunlight.

She’s holding the old underwear in her lap, the one she’s been wearing for 8 months.

It’s stiff with dried blood and mud.

One side is torn.

The elastic is gone.

She should throw it away.

Shaw gave her three new pairs.

Clean, white, soft.

But she can’t because this this ruined filthy thing is proof.

Proof that the before existed.

Proof that the propaganda worked.

Proof that fear was real, even if the threat wasn’t.

She wraps it in a piece of paper from the medical kit.

Writes on it in pencil in Japanese.

19.

[Music] June 1944.

The day I learned fear and truth are not the same.

TB mortality rate in Japanese military field conditions 1944 45 roughly 60% if untreated.

TB mortality rate in US P camps 1945-46 under 3% with penicellin treatment.

Yuki’s case will be fully cured in 6 months.

But right now, she doesn’t know that.

Right now, she’s terrified that isolation means execution, that extra rations is a lie, that the kindness is a trick.

Fumiko, 20, Yuki’s bunk mate from the main barracks, asks Tanaka if she can visit the isolation ward.

Tanaka checks with Shaw.

Shaw checks the infection risk, clears it.

Tanaka tells Fumiko, “Yes, tomorrow.

15 minutes.

” Fumiko’s eyes fill with tears.

“Why?” Tanaka wonders.

Why would visitation permission make her cry? He’ll find out later, but for now, he just writes it down in the camp log.

P 37 requests visitation for Purdy 14.

Isolation TB approved.

That night, Yuki lies in the isolation ward, stares at the ceiling.

The building is quiet except for the hum of the diesel generator outside.

Ko, 25, a former military instructor, lies in the adjacent bed.

Pneumonia.

She’s been here 3 days.

She whispers to Yuki in the dark.

Kazoku, even if I go home, my family won’t forgive me.

Yuki doesn’t respond because she’s thinking the same thing.

In Japanese culture, PWS bring shame.

Surrender is worse than death.

Coming home alive means living with dishonor.

But here in this ward, with clean sheets and daily penicellin injections and a nurse who hums hymns, here survival feels possible.

Shaw writes something on Yuki’s chart.

Tanaka translates it later.

Patient responding well.

Prognosis excellent.

3 weeks later, Fumiko visits.

She’s not alone.

Pencil scratches on paper.

Yuki folds the wrapping tighter around the old underwear.

Tucks it under her pillow.

Out of sight, but not discarded.

Chaplain Morris, 52, a Protestant minister, visits the isolation ward every Thursday.

He’s learned basic Japanese phrases from Tanaka.

His pronunciation is terrible, but his effort is genuine.

He asks Yuki through a mix of broken Japanese and hand gestures if she has faith.

She doesn’t know how to answer.

Faith in what? The emperor shattered.

The military a lie.

Survival uncertain.

Morris doesn’t push.

just leaves a small wooden cross on her bedside table, says in English, knowing she won’t understand all of it.

If you need it, it’s there.

Yuki stares at the cross for 3 days, doesn’t touch it, doesn’t throw it away.

Ko in the adjacent bed watches.

Her pneumonia is improving.

She’ll be moved back to the main barracks next week.

Late at night, when the nurses finish their rounds, Ko and Yuki talk, whisper, debate.

What happens after the war? Ko thinks they’ll be sent to work camps.

Hard labor, punishment for losing.

Yuki thinks they’ll be sent home, but home might be worse than captivity.

The Japanese military didn’t tell families about female PS.

Officially, women didn’t serve in combat zones.

Officially, there were no women to capture.

So, when Yuki goes home, if she goes home, her family will have no framework to understand.

No honor, no glory, just shame.

Podu letters sent home from Okinawa camps, June 2, August 1945.

Over 4,000 letters from Japanese female PS 11.

Censorship fears shame.

Family dishonor concerns.

Yuki writes hers in September.

It takes her 11 drafts.

She doesn’t mention the mistransation.

Doesn’t mention the TB.

Doesn’t mention Miller’s tears or Shaw’s kindness.

She writes, “I am alive.

I am being treated according to international law.

I hope to return home when the war ends.

Her mother receives the letter in November 1945.

Doesn’t reply for 8 months.

When she finally does, the letter is four sentences long.

We received your letter.

We are grateful you are alive.

The neighbors know.

It has been difficult.

Yuki reads it twice, folds it, puts it in the same drawer as the wrapped underwear.

Ko is moved back to the main barracks.

Before she leaves, she tells Yukiashtach noim.

If we couldn’t fight, then remembering is our duty.

Yuki doesn’t understand yet, but she will.

Rain patters on the tin roof.

Yuki stares at the ceiling.

The cross sits untouched on the table.

3 weeks later, Fumiko visits.

She’s not alone.

The door opens.

Fumiko steps in first, then Haruko, Reiko, Kimura, Sachiko.

Seven women total.

They’ve pulled their rations.

Made Yuki a birthday cake.

August 3rd, 1945.

Yuki turns 23 today.

She’d forgotten.

In Japanese military culture, individual birthdays weren’t celebrated, only the emperors.

The cake is small, made from Red Cross supplies, powdered milk, sugar, flour.

Nurse Hawkins helped bake it in the camp kitchen.

It’s lopsided.

The frosting is uneven.

Yuki stares at it.

Can’t speak.

Fumiko sets it on the bedside table next to the wooden cross, lights a single candle salvaged from the chapel.

The women sing happy birthday in Japanese.

quietly, hesitantly, like they’re not sure they’re allowed.

Tanjubi Omedatu Goyas.

Yuki’s throat tightens.

Her eyes burn.

Not from gratitude, from shock.

Because this moment, this small lopsided cake, this candle, this song fractures something deeper than propaganda ever could.

She’s not a soldier here, not a prisoner, not a number.

She’s a person with a birthday.

Kimora sits on the edge of the cot.

She’s thinner than she was in June, but her eyes are sharper.

She tells Yuki in Japanese, “We’re forming a group after the war.

Support network, letters, meetings, testimony.

If anyone will listen, you’re in.

” Japanese female P support group formed August 1945 Okinawa 12 founding members.

By 1950, membership 47.

By 1980, membership 200 plus, including daughters, granddaughters, historians.

Yuki will serve as secretary for 40 years.

But she doesn’t know that yet.

Translator Tanaka enters.

He’s holding something, a book, English Japanese dictionary.

He sets it on Yuki’s lap, inscribed on the first page in English.

Words matter.

Learn the right ones.

CPL Tanaka.

Yuki runs her fingers over the inscription.

Doesn’t understand all the English yet, but she will.

Fumiko sits next to Yuki.

Whispers something only Yuki hears.

Tomodachi gabayoki.

America.

When my friend got sick, I couldn’t protect her.

Now the Americans are doing it.

That’s why she cried.

When Tanaka approved the visitation, because for the first time, someone else could protect what she couldn’t.

The women stay for 47 minutes.

Double the allowed time.

Hawkins doesn’t stop them.

They eat the cake.

It tastes like powdered sugar and hope.

Sachiko tells a joke.

Reiko laughs.

First time since capture.

When they leave, Yuki sits alone in the isolation ward, stares at the empty plate, the melted candle, the dictionary.

She opens the drawer, takes out the wrapped underwear, holds it.

6 months later, October 1945, the war is over.

Yuki stands at the camp gate, free, but going home terrifies her more than capture ever did.

October 1945.

Yuki returns to Hiroshima.

The city is ash.

Her family’s house half standing.

Her mother survived the bomb.

Her father didn’t.

Her mother sees her at the door.

Stares, turns away.

Horioto.

Prisoners don’t return to families.

Yuki stands in the doorway for 11 minutes waiting.

Her mother doesn’t turn back.

She leaves, takes a train to Tokyo, finds work as a translator.

American occupation forces need Japanese speakers.

Yuki uses the dictionary Tanaka gave her.

She doesn’t go home again for 18 years.

In 1952, she marries a civilian, a bookstore owner.

He doesn’t ask about the war.

She doesn’t tell him.

Three children, 1954, 1957, 1960.

She never tells them about the camp, about Miller, about the mistransation, about the underwear she still keeps wrapped in paper hidden in a box in the attic.

Until 1989, her daughter, Madori, 35, is cleaning the attic, finds the box, opens it, yellowed paper, faded pencil writing, and a piece of cloth so old it’s disintegrating.

What is this? Yuki is 67 now, gray hair, steady hands.

She hasn’t thought about Okinawa in months, but she remembers.

She sits Midori down, tells her the story, all of it.

Midori listens, doesn’t interrupt.

When Yuki finishes, Midori asks, “Why did you keep it?” Yuki doesn’t answer immediately.

Finally, because fear is easy to forget, and if we forget, we repeat.

Japanese female PS who publicly discussed their captivity before 1980.

Fewer than five.

After 1989, after Emperor Hirohito’s death, after a cultural shift, over 30 testimonies were recorded.

Yuki’s testimony, 1991, Tokyo War Museum archive.

2 hours 47 minutes, one of the longest on record.

She donates the underwear to the museum.

The label reads, “The object of mistransation, fear, shame, and the language barrier, June 1945.

” Visitors read the label, then listen.

Most stay for the full recording.

In 1989, Haruko calls.

After 44 years, she’s a doctor now.

Osaka specializes in our infectious disease.

I became a doctor because of Dr.

Shaw.

Haruko says, “I wanted to give care the way she did.

” The support group holds its final reunion in 1995.

50th anniversary of the war’s end.

Nine surviving members.

They bring their daughters.

Yuki stands at the front, reads a statement.

[Music] We felt shame.

Not because we were afraid, but because we wouldn’t have believed the explanation, even if they’d given it.

In war, fear is the first language we learn and the hardest to unlearn, even after the words are corrected.

If you were Yuki, standing in that barracks in June 1945, conditioned by propaganda, certain of the worst, would you have believed Tanaka’s explanation? Or would fear have been louder than truth?