
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 11, 1991                   TAG: 9102110347
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

VMI TO GIVE BACK BELL SEIZED IN WW II

An ancient bronze bell, seized by Marines on Okinawa in World War II, should be returned to that Japanese island, said an official of the military school where the war spoil has resided for 46 years.

Cast in 1465, the bell originally hung at the Daiseiji Buddhist temple on Okinawa. When the 6th Marine Division claimed it as a trophy of war in June 1945, the bell was mounted at the entrance to Nago Harbor. It evidently was being used as a ship warning gong.

The late Maj. Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., who commanded the division, presented the bell to Virginia Military Institute, his alma mater.

"The bell is a national symbol to the Okinawan people, in much the same way as the Liberty Bell is a symbol," said Col. John Ripley, commanding officer of VMI's Naval Marine Unit. "It's the only known manmade religious artifact to survive the Battle of Okinawa."

In September, a Japanese legislator wrote to VMI superintendent Maj. Gen. John W. Knapp asking for the bell's return to its "rightful place" in Okinawa's capital of Naha.

Knapp discussed the request with Shepherd's family and agreed to the bell's return.

by CNB