Story and Photos by Reggie Cantú
The opening looks impossibly small and the darkness below gives me the heebie-jeebies, as if I am glimpsing an oblivious future in eternity. I ask myself, “What did you do, you foolish — foolish man?”
I failed to note that the tour offered by Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) was advertised as the “Extreme” Tunnel Rats Tour. As I followed tour guide Chris Majewski into the void, I see that all who enter must creep on hands and knees into the endless hole. I stifle an urge to panic, in a location where Japanese troops made their last stand against Americans some 60 years past.
I turn to Majewski, catching him in the beam of my flashlight. He calmly cracks sunflower seeds waiting to see if people are coming through.“Can you tell that I’m ready to bolt?” I ask needlessly. He saw I had hung back to let the others go ahead.
“No problem,” he replied nonchalantly.
Majewski is a man passionate about the caves and probably knows more about them, the relics and their history than almost anybody. He reads the caves like a book.
On our way to the war museum at Camp Kinser, Majewski began the spiel he had given many times before. However, we felt right off that he was giving it especially for us, a motley assortment of military adventurers and civilian sightseers. It was comforting to hear that it was unlikely we would meet the dreaded "habu” snake or the intimidating foot-long millipede this time of year.
The “historical display” facility is not sanctioned to be called a museum, but is as close to one as possible. Majewski is the main man behind the collection. He has put together five rooms of memorabilia compiled from different sources, many from the sites beneath the Okinawan rock. He stressed to be careful if we came across rusting pieces of metal. Some of them are parts of ordinance that can explode.
After the lecture and captivating exhibit tour, I realized we were already two and a half hours into the day.
The first cave is a cakewalk. The mouth in the cleft of a hill is high enough to require only a ducking of the head to enter. Someone in our group asked why the weathered soles of long ago footwear remained on a rock shelf. Majewski explained that the Japanese soldiers took their boots off, probably for good luck, as an optimistic gesture anticipating they would return to claim
them. Dry flowers are prayers for peace left by recent visitors.
After lunch, the next two caves we visited were more extreme. Although I went inside, my anxiety at being confined got the better of me so I retreated. That people lived and died in the tunnels beneath was amazing to me. I find it difficult to imagine the nerve of young men like them or those who flew as tail gunners in B-29’s or served in submarines. Maybe when the mission is greater than the person, he or she can go far beyond their own perceived limits.
Perhaps it is a passionate response to challenges. Majewski is a passionate man, completely at home in his calling. A medical officer asked a question about ceremonial swords. Majewski went into a rap about them that illustrated the depth of his ardor for any subject that interested him. We listened transfixed to the many angles he used in his answer.
Claustrophobic or not, a tour with Majewski will enlighten you in wondrous ways. One final word: At the beginfling of the tour you must sign a waiver. Do it while you can, before someone asks, “Where are you taking people?” and puts an end to it.
Sign up now at the MCCS Tour and Travel office near the Foster Commissary.
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