♪ welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm yoshi ogasawara. people in japan's southern prefecture of okinawa are looking back at one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of world war ii. 75 years ago today the japanese military operations against u.s. forces on the islands came to an end. an annual service was held tuesday at the site of the last major confrontation in the battlele of okinawa.

at exactly noon, people at itoman's peace memorial park observed a moment of silen to remember relivives a fririen and pr f for wld p pea. the battlef f okina ererupd in the closg g stag of f wod war r . fiting b bween the u.s.-led allied fors and thnonow defunct japane i imperl ararmy killed more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians. that includes a quarter of okinawa's population. governor tamaki denny read a peace dedeclaration. >> i pray that the souls of those who lost their lives in pastst wars may rest in peace. i will continue to pray for peace and happiness in t the future of mankind. >> prime minister abe shinzo delivered a video message.

coronavirus measures also forced organizers to scale down the ceremony with only a few hundred people taking part. abe spoke about the u.s. military presence in okinawa. the prefecture hosts most of the country's american facilities, about 70%. abe promised change without setting any specific benchmarks. on this day, those who lost relatives in the war visit the peace monument. it bears the names of everyone who perished. this man was 5 years old when the fightiti erupted.. he lost his father, brother, and grandparents. >> translator: i prayed and asked them to watch over us so that there will be peace and happiness. >> the passage of time brings its own challenges. as fewer and fewer residents have lived through war, many are asking how best to hand down the lessons of history.

>> translator: i used to think our lives were pretty ordinary. but compared to the past during the war, we are blessed. >> while the offfficial ceremons are over, people will continue to pray privately for continued peace. a new memoir from one of donald trump's former advisers is revealing details about the presidenent's strategies in asi. that includes not only the g go of his north korean summits, but also money talks with japan. john bolton's book is spilling secrets from his days as u.s. national security adviser. it paints trump's first meeting with north korean leader kim jong un as mainly for show. bolton claims the president said

he was prepared to sign a substance-free communique. that apparently changed in trump's second meeting. kim asked the u.s. to lift sanctions in exchange for scrapping the nuclear complex. the e books says this made trum irritable and frustrated. he said the president asked if it would be a bigger story to get a small deal or to simply walk away. by thehe third summit t bolton trump was looking at meetings as a way to get media attention. it included a photo-op in the demililitarized zone between th twtwo koreas. the book also includes revetitions abouout japan. trump asked the country to quadruple its annual payments to host american troops. it quotes trump as saying bolton should threaten to withdraw all u.s. forces in order to secure the $8 billion a year deal. japan's defense minister refutes

the claims. >> translator: negotiations on the cost of hosting u.s. bases have not begun. and the united states has not made any demands to japan. >> the u.s. secretary of state has criticized the b book and d disputed its contents. mike pompeo says bolton is spreading lies. now and update on on going tensnsions on the kean peninsul north korn defectors have onc agagn st anti pyongyang leaflets across the border. the group said they sent half a million leaflets north around midnight on monday. the flyers contain photos of north korean leader of kim jong-un and his grandfather and sister, labeling them killers. seoul has banned the pamphlet drop soh koror sayst took the lis of ridents nrhe military demarcation line at

risk. the group sent similar leaflets to the north late last month triggering serious reaction from the reg eej. last week pyongngyang blew up a liaison office with the south in the border city of kiss song. they're threatening to deploy troops as an inter-korean joint project. the world health organization is urging countries to once again tighten anti-coronavirus measures. johns hopkins university is reporting that the number of cases worldwide has surpassed 9 million. >> it seems that almost every day we reach a new and grim record. yesterday more than 183,000 new cases of covid were reported to w.h.o. >> the director general called on countries to beef up anti-virus measures including

testing suspected cases, isolating those infected and tracing contacts. brazil's outbreak shows no sign of abating with the total number of cases in the country topping 1 million. professional soccer has returned to some areas of brazil despite the rising infections. several clubs ended up finding cases among their players in pre-training tests. 21 of the 27 members of the sao paulo corinthian club tested positive for the virus. in the middle east, saudi arabia says a limited number of citizens and residents will be able to make the annual hajj pilgrimage. due to the start in late july, it typically draws 2 million muslims around the world and is an economic driver in the kingdom. germany has a jump in the coronavirus reproduction rate, one of the benchmarks for

reinstating restrictions. a government research institute says a single virus carrier infects an average of 2.76 people. the goal is to get the number below 1. german researchers say the overall number of new infections remains low in the country. they attribute the spike to a mass outbreak of more than 1,000 people at a meat processing plant in north rhine-westphalia state. officials at japan's health ministry are trying to repair a glitch in the nation's coronavirus contact tracing app which was rolled out just days ago. the smartphone app is known as covid-19 contact confirming application or coca for short. the free software became available last friday, and has been downloaded 3.7 million times as of tuesday. app store's encrypted data sent

out by other smartphones that come in a 1-meter radius for 15 minutes or more. it allows users who test positive to anonymously notify others who they have come into contact with. users of the app who contract the virus are supposed to upload a personal number assigned by public health centers to register their infection. ministry officials say the software allows erroneous numbers to be accepted and registered. to prevent confusion, officials have halted the issuance of personal numbers. this means the app's contact notification function will remain out of service until the glitch can be fixed. the coronavirus pandemic has seen over 18,000 people test positive in japan. over 96060 people have d died.

ed. our meteorologist sayaka mori joins us with the forecast. >> it looks like sunny weather will continue into the majority of wednesday but rain will return on wednesday night. that may continue into thursday morning. yes, it isn't the rainy season but we will see a spell of nice break in the rainy weather at least for the next 24 hours or so. same goes for western japan. the seasonal frontal system is now in the soigt, allowing drier air across western japan. dry and hot conditions will continue at least into wednesday. we have a low over china. that is expected to hit the korean peninsula on wednesday, cooler conditions expected. it will affect western japan on

thursday as well as friday. temperatures are going to be 31 in shanghai with the chance for severe thunderstorms. seoul at 25, but it was hot on monday. the high rise to 35 degrees. it's going to be much cooler as we go into wednesday. tokyo at 27. we might see rainfall in the evening hours. and then it's the rainy season with a 34 for the high in manila. over the weekend we saw impressive footage coming out of sydney. thick fog covered the city. this is supposed to be the sydney harbor bridge, but it's really hard to see the structure. this is from the bottom of the bridge. so we saw very beautiful conditions the morning hours, but it looks like drier conditions can be found across many places in australia as we go into wednesday. temperatures are going to be 16 in sydnene witith a chance for rainy weweather. now,w, on monday a meteor lit u

the sk wewe have thihi footage from t country. green strksks caused by a possible meteor f flash across the skyky on monday. there was an exploloon as the object flew through t sky, but no damage was reported. that's it for me. have a nice day. ♪

before we leave, a little something from the competitive world of super computers. for the first time in nine years, the bragging rights to the fastest machine on the planet go to japan. fugaku claimed the top spot upon entering the rankings for the first time. the super computer was developed by the research institute and electronics firm fujitsu. it won four of six major categories including speed. so just how fast?

well, it's capable of hundreds of quadrillions of operations per second, about three times more than the u.s. super computer that won last time. the other categories they topped are performance in skom pew terrible for industrial use, artificial intelligencnce applicationsns and big data anytics. officials are confident the machine can helelp improrove society.y. in fact, it's already tacklinin one of the most taxing issues of our times. >> we're using fugaku for many apapplications, to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. we believe the super computer will be useful in many ways, and there's still room to improve its performance. >> fugaku is the successor to the kay super computer which became the world's fastest in 2011.

that's all for this edition of nhk "newsline." i'm yoshi ogasawara in tokyo. thanks for watching. we'll have more for you soon. w welcome to "newline in depth." i'm aiko dodan. today we fococus on the closing daysys of world war ii. even after japan surrendered, fighting continued in okinawa faro the south as japanes forces resisted, the u.s. military advanced. the battle in okinawa was the bloodiest fighting on japanese soil. in all, over 200,000 people

died, most of them civilians. one quarter o of thehe localal population perished. it came to an e e on september 7th, 1945 whej the japanese forces in okinawa signed a document of surrender. recently an nhk world investigation unearthed japanese and u.s. documents that shed light on the forced mobilization of the local civilians by the japanese military. why those people became targets in the warfare and why so many lost their lives. >> it lies in central okinawa. more than 5,500 people from this village died in the battle that took place 74 years ago. there's a reminder of the fierce

fighting t that took place.e. it's one of the fortt piedd positions the imperial japanese army used to fight u.s. forces. it's rare to find such well preserved ruins from the battle. we explored the site with a military expert and village officials. >> translator: this area was attacked. you can see it's burnt. it was probably charred by a flame thrower. in early april 1945 naka became the site of the first full scale battle between japanese and u.s. forces. underground tunnels like this one were used to ambush american troops. the area deep inside the tununn has collapsed. so the overall structure remains

unknown. most records of the battle were destroyed d during the war. 74 years later village officials are still struggling to understand what exactly happened. >> translator: many villagers got caught up in the war and lost their lives. we're trying to get a better grasp of the linksks between thr deaths and the military operations that took place here. once we understand that, we'd like to share this information with local residents. >> many local residents were mobilized before the battle to help build fortified positions. among themm was 89-year-old toy arikaki. she was just 14 at the time. she said she and her classmates were forced to carry heavy loads of soil on a daily basis.

>> in late march 1945 before the grand battle began, they began pounding the area with heavy shelling and air strikes. arikoki had no time to evacuate. residents fled into the nearby jungle. she and her family survived by hiding in a hole they dug in the cliff with their own handnds. they stayed days without food or water.

>> civilians were even sent to the front line, regardless of their age or gender. we found documents that explain what they went through. these records are based on testimonies of local residents interviewed after the war. the documents are not open to the public. we were allowed to film them under the condition that individual names be kept confidential. > on march 2 27th the girlrl youth team was ordered to join the army. we were told not to leave the village and that we would be shot if we disobeyed. >> an army officer went from houseoo hou and forced school stentsts tenliststirectly. >> boysere instant tnedd inintosoldiers. girls we draft as cooks a

nurs, but enhey were handed o weaponsnd hurri to theront lin. >> translator: when we talk about the battle of okinawa, the term whole scacale mobilizizatis one of the keyey worords we use. there weren't enough troops to fightt in okinawa, so the army just went ahead and started gathering women and other civilians. the mobilization was total, both physically and mentally. >> to find out why even children were mobilized, we visited a japanese defense ministry research institute. very few of the top secret orders issued by the japanese army survived the batattle of okinawa, but these papers did because they were seized by the u.s. military. the documents include a map

drawn by the japanese battalion in nakagusuku. it showed how defensive positions were laid out across the area. the entire village was designated as a crucial stronghold to delay the u.s. invasion and protect the japanese headquarters. because the japanese army was severely depleted, the order was given to mobilize local residents to build the fort cases as quickly as possible. many civilians were forced to take part in these defensive efforts. but why did so many perish? to answer that question, we looked into the way the american forces saw the battle. >> detailed information about the battle is kept in u.s. military archives on okinawa.

>> what this actually is the intelligence monograph from the tenth u.s. army. it's basically every s scrap of informatioion they learned duri the babattle. >> the documenent was c compile prepare for a future invasion of the japanese main land. the fort cases at nakagusku are japanese defensive tactics. this drawing shows the position on the hill overlooking the village. american forces call it the pinnacle. from the document we were able to reproduce the pipinnacle's intricate network of underground tunnels. the netetwork has multiple hidd entrances. they served to stage surprise attacks from u.s. troops from multiple directions. tunnels were built all across the area. they instilled tererror among american soldierss because no oe

could tell where the next attack woulcome from. >> the battle of the pinnacle comes as a horror show. this is the first taste the americans have of a consolidated japanese defense on t this isla. it becomes a game-changer for them. >> more than 700 u.s. soldiers attacked the pinnacle. they were pushed back preetdly by a joapanese force that was four times smaller. americican forcess intensisifie their attack. a growing number of civians wewere caught in t the crossfir. > it's nothing that the amicicansad come to face with up tohahat pointnt in the pacif. like i was saying, a huge civilianan population, but how you extricacate the civilian population from a military that basically fronts up with the civilian population.

>> hiroka was 91 years old, subscripted as an army nurse at the age of 14. she says american forces shot continuously and without discrimination. she wandered across the battlefield for three months. many of the nurses were killed. she survived by hiding in caves.

>> 74 years on, people in naka are still looking foreclosure. this man was ten when his father didied on the battlefield. his mother was sent to the front line as a cook and never came back. the details off where and how they died remain a mystery. visiting one of the most famous battlegrounds known as hacksaw ridge. he recently learned about a document that says his mother might have died here. he examines the monuments bebearing the names off the victims, but his mother is noto amonong them.

>> the fighting in okinawa dragged on for weekeks. the japanese forces on the island finally laid down their weaponons five dayay after the government signed d japan's surrender. the surrender ceremony in okokinawa took p place at a jap nieces airfield which is now the u.s. ken da air base, one of the biggest facilities in east asia. from this moment okinawa was placed under u.s. rule and not returned to japan until 1972. for decades, lingering trauma from the fighting prevented many survivors from speaking out about what they went through.

now, though, some of them have begun to share their experiences. it is important that we listen to what they have to say to ensure this tragedy is not forgotten. that's all for today's >> new lockdowns in part of

germany and portugal as more covid-19 cases emerge. onlya as saudi i arabia says 1000 pilgrims as opposed to the millions who come every year will be e allowed. says turkeyron