OKINAWA: AN ALBUM’S RETURN

A podcast series that uses my family’s role in returning a wartime-era photo album to Okinawa as a starting point for a larger investigation into the island’s history, its ongoing struggles with the legacy of war, and how Okinawans are working toward peace and justice today.

Podcast Trailer

How it Started

Lieutenant Duke Wieden

After my grandfather, Duke, passed away in 2012, my grandmother, Carolyn, discovered an Okinawan photo album in his Navy trunk. She learned from a close friend of his from the Navy, that he found it while storming the beaches during the battle of Okinawa and that he’d always intended to return it. Determined to finish what he couldn’t she began a multi-year search for the family. In 2013, she succeeded discovering that the album had been created by 14-year-old Mitsuko Sunabe, who tragically drowned during U.S. air raids. With help from new friends on the ground in Okinawa, Carolyn was also able to identify and connect with Mitsuko’s surviving relatives. She learned that the Sunabes were originally from the small town of Irei. Irei was largely destroyed in the battle of Okinawa and turned into US military base, Camp Lester.

Mitsuko Sunabe as a toddler, circa 1930s

Prewar map of the village of Irei. Highlighted is where the Sunabe family lived.

Archived journal entry from Mitsuko’s Sister-in-law, Kamado Sunabe, describes the grim circumstances of the War and details how Mitsuko died – drowning while attempting to walk from the main island to Yagaji before the tide subsided, pressured by the urgency of escaping the air raids.

In January 2014, Carolyn and several family members traveled to Okinawa to meet the Sunabes and return the album. The trip carried immense weight. On the beaches where Duke had landed 70 years earlier, war stories that once felt distant were suddenly grounded in place. Meeting the Sunabes was joyous and meaningful, yet it also gave a human face to the suffering they had only read about. Iha San, Mitsuko’s only surviving sibling, shared how during the battle, extreme hunger drove them to search the bodies of fallen soldiers for leather belts, which they would boil in hopes of creating some form of nourishment. For Carolyn, moments like this transformed photographs into three-dimensional lives, and history into lived reality. For the Sunabe family and others related to this album, the return was also quite profound: nearly all records of Mitsuko had been lost in the war. As Iha San put it, this whole experience felt like “some kind of destiny.” Today, the photo album resides at the Irei Community Center, where it serves as a historical record, helping families with ties to the town of Ire, discover photographs of relatives who may be preserved within its pages.

My grandmother’s favorite photo from the album. The infant in white was in attendance during the return of the album.

I understood the importance of a story like this even at a young age. In 2016, the summer before my Senior year of high school, long before I had aspirations of becoming a journalist and podcaster, I taped interviews with my grandmother and others that went on this trip to hear about their experiences and why they thought the return of this album was important. While I’ve always been intrigued by this story, I had only ever viewed it from the surface level. My perspective shifted when I read letters between my grandmother and Reiko, a woman whose family appeared in the album. Reiko described how she and her elderly mother regularly protested against the construction of the U.S. Marine base at Henoko. Their passion and persistence shocked me, and opened my eyes to Okinawa’s ongoing struggles.

This discovery led me down a path to learn more about the people of Okinawa and what they want, the depth of the troubles they have faced in their history and their ongoing efforts towards peace and self determination. Most Americans know little about Okinawa. That includes the 27 years of U.S. control, the 18 percent of the island still occupied by U.S. military bases, the ongoing burdens of the military presence, and the long-lasting effects of the devastating Battle of Okinawa, where my grandfather and many other U.S. soldiers fought, leaving the island in ruins and claiming the lives of at least a quarter of its population.

Education

Share overlooked histories of Okinawa with U.S. and Japanese audiences, addressing widespread gaps in knowledge.

Project Goals

Deepen Human Connection

Use my family’s story as an entry point to stories of reconciliation, empathy, and peacebuilding.

Amplify Okinawan Voices

Center Okinawan perspectives on war memory, ongoing struggles, visions for peace, and to analyze our countries' shared histories and explore what ongoing peacebuilding looks like today.

Encourage Dialogue

Spark conversation in the U.S. and Japan about the legacy of militarization, the burden of U.S. bases, and pathways toward mutual respect.

While the total amount and sequencing of episodes is still being finalized, the series will center on four main elements:

Project Structure

MY GRANDPARENTS’ STORY

How Duke found the album, why Carolyn returned it, and how this helped her process both his memory and her grief.

  • Interviewees for this subject matter: Carolyn Wieden, Sherrie and Ken Wieden (Duke’s children), Jorge Itokazu and Erik Lundberg (who assisted Carolyn in Okinawa).

THE SUNABE FAMILY’S STORY

Exploring Mitsuko Sunabe’s life, the album’s meaning, and how her family and others in similar situations endured and rebuilt after the war.

  • Interviewees for this subject matter: Mr. Koji (current community leader of the town where the Sunabe family was from), Shimabukuro Sakura (An archives specialist at the Chatan Municipal Archives), and living relatives of Mitsuko as well any other surviving individuals whose photographs were in the photo album and or their remaining family and friends.

HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

A broader look at Okinawa’s history: from the Ryukyu Kingdom through Japanese annexation, WWII, U.S. occupation, and today.

  • People I’d like to interview for this subject matter: Hoshin Nakamura (peace activist and survivor), archival material on Takejiro Higa (Nisei interpreter), historian Fumi Inoue, filmmaker Linda Hoaglund, and others.

POSTWAR REALITIES AND PEACEBUILDING

Current protests, postwar remembrance, repatriation efforts, and global parallels.

  • IPeople I’d like to interview for this subject matter: Satoko Oka Norimatsu (author of Resistant Islands), Moé Yonamine (Oregon based educator/advocate), activists Masaki Tomochi and Yamashiro Hiroji, Governor Denny Tamaki, and the founders of Obon Society.

Summary

This story began with my grandmother’s dedicated effort to return a photo album, and it has since grown into a larger exploration of how memory, loss, and reconciliation shape our understanding of war and peace. Along the way, it also connects to the present, where Okinawans continue to speak out against military expansion and ongoing injustices. I believe this podcast can help audiences reflect on our shared history, listen to Okinawan’s perspectives, and imagine a more peaceful future.