Himeyuri students

Common card · No. 372201

The Himeyuri students (姫百合学徒隊, Himeyuri Gakutotai; Himeyuri Student Corps), sometimes erroneously called "Lily Corps" in English, was a group of 222 students and 18 teachers of the First Okinawa Girls' High School and Okinawa Women's Normal School formed into a nursing unit for the Imperial Japanese Army during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. They were mobilized by the Japanese Army on March 23, 1945. The students were wrongly told that the Japanese army would defeat the American invasion easily, and that they would be safe from danger. Many brought their school supplies and uniforms with them to study and prepare to return to school. Deployed instead to frontline cave hospitals under constant gunfire and bombings, few students and teachers managed to survive the war.

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