Yasuko Onaga, 96, who was a student nurse mobilized for the now-defunct Japanese military during the Battle of Okinawa in the closing days of World War II, is sharing her memories and urging that war never be repeated.

With Okinawa marking the 81st anniversary of the end of the ground battle on its main island on Tuesday, Onaga, a resident of Naha, is making a powerful appeal for peace amid rising international tensions.

Onaga was a 15-year-old student at a girls¡¯ school on Okinawa¡¯s main island when she joined a military unit led by Keijun Nagaoka in March 1945.