On eve of 60th anniversary of bloody battle, Okinawans pay respects to the dead

A total of 239,801 names _ including those of 14,008 Americans _ are carved into a chest-high series of granite walls at the center of the park.
Roughly one quarter of Okinawa's civilian population was killed before the Japanese troops gave up their defense of the island.
Though returned to Japan in 1972, Okinawa continues to be a major U.S. military outpost in the Pacific, with roughly two-thirds of the 50,000 or so American troops in this country stationed there.
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