Shiraume-no-To is a monument dedicated to the 22 girls of the No. 2 Okinawa Prefectural Girls’ High School while serving as nurses during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. Shiraume translates to mean “white plum blossom” or “white apricot blossom” and was the insignia of the school.

As American generals targeted Okinawa in the Pacific island-hopping campaign of World War II, Japanese military leaders had a grave understanding that each day the tiny island could hold out was another day that the invasion of mainland Japan was delayed. In order to wage a war of attrition against the invading forces, the Japanese military mobilized the civilian population of Okinawa in the war effort. Many Okinawan males over the age of 16 were forced to serve in a corps of homeland defenders. Similarly, female students were conscripted and organized into student corps and given minor training in first aid and medical care.

The Shiraume Student Corps was comprised of the 56 seniors of the No. 2 Okinawa Prefectural Girls’ High School. They served with a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, primarily in a cave on the southern portion of Okinawa. By some accounts, they were the first student corps to be formed, having been created on March 6, 1945.

The girls served in deplorable conditions similar to those described by the Himeyuri alumnae. One Shiraume survivor vividly remembered being forced to feed cyanide to wounded Japanese soldiers.

After the First Field Hospital was disbanded on June 6, the girls moved south to serve in the Kuniyoshi Cave. Many of them perished on June 22, when American forces bombed the bi-level cave. (The first level was destroyed, but the second level still exists.)

In 2000, the surviving alumnae of the Shiraume Student Corps published a 326-page account of their experiences in the caves during the battle. It included maps of the caves in which they worked, photos of the schoolmates they lost in the battle, and timelines. Additionally, the story of four of the survivors was told in a 2003 documentary by Masayuki Hayashi. In the film, several of the survivors return to the hospital-cave for the first time since 1945.

Shiraume-no-To, built in 1947, is a secluded monument that is virtually unknown compared to the monument and museum established by the Himeyuri Alumnae Association.