This horse drawn cart draws supplies through tent city on the island of
Ie Shima in WW2.
Ie Shima is just North West of the island of Okinawa and was held by the
Japanese forces
until the end of the war. It was used as an advanced fighter base to
support the B-29
Bombers
as they flew to drop their bombs on the main island of Japan.
The story of Ie Shima goes much deeper than that. It was where the real,
original surrender
documents were signed and finalized before the publicly official signing of the
Japanese
surrender that was done in Tokyo bay which is what we all see. The story
of this
Japanese surrender and the
Japanese planes
used to transfer the documents and
Japanese officials, known as the Betty Bombers, can be seen in other parts of
this exhibit.
