The sights
Banzai Cliff
At Puntan Sabaneta, the island’s northern point, a sea cliff about 30 metres high faces the open Pacific. In July 1944 many Japanese civilians and soldiers died here rather than surrender. Rows of stone cenotaphs placed by Japanese prefectures and families, and a statue of Kannon dedicated to peace, now line the clifftop.
ℹ️ Free, open site with parking. Please be quiet and respectful: relatives come here to pray. The cliff edge is unfenced in places — keep back, especially in wind. Sunset is fine here, and after dark it is one of the island’s best stargazing spots.
Suicide Cliff
Inland, the escarpment of Laderan Banadero rises roughly 250 metres above the Marpi plain. Here too, people leapt to their deaths in 1944. A road loops up behind the ridge to a viewing platform and a peace memorial, with a sweeping view of the plain, Banzai Cliff and the ocean beyond.
ℹ️ Free. About 10–15 minutes’ drive from Banzai Cliff on a paved road. Stay behind the railings. Mornings are usually clearer; cloud can sit on the ridge in the wet season.
Last Command Post
A concrete bunker built into the foot of the cliff, with rusting Japanese guns, a small tank and a torpedo displayed outside. The name is traditional — the Japanese commander’s actual final headquarters was elsewhere — but the site conveys the end of the battle powerfully. Beside it stand the Okinawa Peace Memorial and the Korean Peace Memorial.
ℹ️ Free, open site beside the road with parking. You can enter the bunker; the floor is uneven and it is dim inside. Do not climb on the guns or remove anything. Allow 20–30 minutes.
The Grotto
A collapsed limestone cavern holding a deep pool of intensely blue seawater, connected to the open ocean by three underwater tunnels through which daylight glows. It is one of the best-known dive sites in the Pacific. Around 110 steep concrete steps lead down from the car park to the water’s edge.
ℹ️ Entry has been free, though a fee has been discussed — check locally. Closed when the sea is rough. Surge through the tunnels has caused drownings: snorkel only in calm conditions and ideally with a guide, and dive only with a local operator. The viewing platform alone is worth the stop.
Bird Island
Isleta Maigo Fahang is a small limestone islet sitting in a turquoise bay on the north-east coast, protected as a seabird sanctuary. Most visitors admire it from the clifftop lookout, where terns and noddies wheel below and the reef shows through the water.
ℹ️ Lookout free, with parking; best in morning light. A rough trail leads down to the beach — steep, slippery after rain and with strong currents offshore, so not for casual swimming. You cannot land on the islet.
Marpi peace memorials
Beyond the two cliffs, the whole Marpi area is scattered with monuments: Japanese prefectural and veterans’ memorials, the Okinawan and Korean memorials, and markers to those of every side who died. Together they make the district a single landscape of remembrance within the National Historic Landmark.
ℹ️ All free and open. Offerings of flowers, incense and paper cranes are often left — do not disturb them. Dress modestly, keep voices low and ask before photographing people at prayer.
Pau Pau & Wing beaches
Pau Pau Beach, at San Roque, is a calm, sandy stretch inside the reef with good snorkelling and a popular weekend picnic spot for local families. Wing Beach, a little further north, is wilder: a long strip of sand and rock backed by forest, where sea turtles nest.
ℹ️ Both free. Pau Pau has a small park area; Wing Beach has no facilities and strong currents — treat it as a beach for walking, not swimming. Leave nothing in your car and keep off any marked turtle nests.
