
Hiroshi Ohta, poet &
second lieutenant

Keii Kochihira, music teacher
by Tokyo University of the Arts Archives
At the end of 1944 during World War Ⅱ, forthcoming landing operation of U.S. Armed Forces were feared in Okinawa. Hiroshi Ohta as a second lieutenant of antiaircraft platoon, had a duty to determine a position for battle. Under his command, ”Himeyuri girl students(Lily Corps)” were mobilized to cooperate with soldiers to build a position of an antiaircraft gun.
Despite severe work of carrying soil and rocks, they worked so much beyond his expectation without his order. Their devotion to the work touched Ohta’s mind much, so he made a poem named “ Poetry to give graduates" and gave it to them.
Acacia confusa trees grew along the road to their schools. At end of next March, upperclassmen of them were expected to graduate the school. The poem comprised two meanings described above and celebrated coming graduation.
Among the teachers who led girl students, Keii Kochihira was a music teacher. He wrote the song to the poem and
named the music as "Farewell Song". Two young men cooperated with each other over different positions of a military officer and a music teacher, and the sad and beautiful story had started .
* “Himeyuri girl students”
comprised both students of
Okinawa First Girls' High School and Okinawa Female Normal School
located at the same campus in Naha
City, Okinawa.
