Kakazu Takadai Park

American forces landed on 1 April 1945 and pushed south toward Shuri. From around 6 April they ran into the defences the Japanese army had built across Ginowan and Urasoe to shield its headquarters under Shuri Castle, and the fighting along that line went back and forth for more than 40 days. Kakazu was one of the hills where the two armies traded ground again and again, and many people died here.

Ginowan City turned the hill's natural woods into a park. A concrete pillbox with gun slits survives from the Japanese positions, and memorial towers stand for the dead. From the lookout, built in the shape of a globe as a wish for world peace, you can see Cape Zanpa to the north and the Kerama Islands to the west.

The park sits in a city where US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma takes up 29.4% of the land, according to the prefecture's figures. Families come for the playground and the open lawn, and the city has planted many cherry trees that peak in late January and early February. Pair it with the Sakima Art Museum, also in Ginowan.