The Village of Ie was the site of intense fighting during
World War II in the
Battle of Okinawa.
Ernie Pyle (1900 – 1945), a popular World War II-era American journalist and winner of the 1944
Pulitzer Prize was killed in Ie on April 18, 1945. Pyle was initially buried on the island, but is now interred at the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in
Honolulu. Approximately a half of residents lost their lives during the battle of Ie, and 1,500 villagers who survived the battle were removed to the internment camps in
Kerama Islands or an arid strip of
Henoko Bay, the northeast area of Okinawa island. Residents of Ie were allowed to return to the island during a two-year period starting in May 1946. Life in the village was hard after World War II; little housing remained on the island, and prewar property boundaries were difficult or impossible to determine. Residents in the immediate post-war period lived in homes made of scavenged materials and relied on American rations for food. An elementary school was built immediately after the war, and the first village hall was constructed in front of Udunyama. One third of the village remains under U.S. military control. ==Cultural Properties==