During the Battle of Okinawa in mid-June 1945, a member of the Tekketsu-Kinko-tai, a group of teenage boys who had been injured and were close to death, was dragged out of a cave near Mabuni by the US Army during a mopping-up operation.

     During the Battle of Okinawa in mid-June 1945, a member of the Tekketsu-Kin'ōtai, a group of teenage boys who had been injured and were on the verge of death, was dragged out of a cave near Mabuni by American soldiers. A seriously injured member of the Tekketsu-Kin'ōtai was dragged out of a cave by American soldiers. The Tekketsu-Kin'ōtai was incorporated into a regular unit during the Battle of Okinawa, and actually participated in combat, resulting in many casualties.

  The Tekketsu-Kinko-tai was the first unit of young soldiers in Japanese military history, made up of students aged 14 to 16, who were mobilized for defense conscription in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, at the end of World War II. The defense conscription, which was different from the “wait for orders” system, was based on a revision of the Army Ministry Ordinance in October 1942, and during the wait for orders, they were engaged in civilian work and were only called up to defend the country when necessary. In Okinawa, where the arrival of the Allied forces was imminent, boys aged between 14 and 17 were called up for national defense as the Tekketsu Kin'o-tai. Students from the Okinawa Normal School were assigned to the 32nd Army Headquarters, and were divided into the Chihaya-tai, which was in charge of intelligence work, the Senjo Chikujotai, which was responsible for digging trenches and repairing roads and bridges that had been destroyed by bombing, and the Zankotai, which was in charge of guarding the headquarters bunker.

   The Iron Blood Loyalist Corps of Okinawa's teenage youth suffered tragic and enormous losses. During the war, there were 12 boys' junior high schools and 10 girls' schools in Okinawa. All of the students in these schools were mobilized to the front lines under close supervision by the Okinawa Defense Force, the prefectural authorities, and the school authorities, and the majority of them were killed. More than 1,786 male students were mobilized into the military, and more than 921 of them were killed in action. Of the 735 female students, 296 were killed. Teenage boys and girls were sent to the front without any legal basis. Teenage boys and girls in Okinawa were sent to the front without any legal basis. The “Volunteer Soldiers Act” was promulgated and came into force on the 23rd of June, the day after the leaders of the Okinawa Defense Force Headquarters committed suicide on the 22nd of June 1945. It became possible to send men from the Japanese mainland aged between 15 and 60, and women aged between 17 and 40, to the front as combatants.