Haemida Beach

     This is a beach located at southern coast of the island, where the end of the circumference road, extending about 2km.  It takes about 70 minutes from Kanpira-so by car.  At the southern coast, such a long beach well develops, the whole neighborhood of Haemida Beach is originally called "Nainu". 
     Here, there is a billboard to notice no swimming.  Actually it might not very risky to swim within a lagoon, however at the reef edge, there are very strong waves toward the offshore, so if you were carried away, you can never come back.  Also I myself was once carried away at this reef edge and was about to die.  Therefore, if you want to swim here, I recommend you to stay within the lagoon. 
Monument of Wasurunakareishi     Far away from the beach, we can see Hateruma Island. During the World War 2, all of the inhabitants of Hateruma Island were forcibly evacuated to Iriomote by an order of the Japanese military, many of them were killed by malaria.  Mr. Shinsho Shikina who was the principal of Hateruma national elementary school at that time engraved "Wasurunakareishi Hateruma Shikina" on a rock in one corner of this beach not to forget the historical fact.  Now a fine monument is placed at the western edge of Haemida Beach, where he engraved that words.  Not only enjoying a leisure, we should visit the Wasurunakareishi monument to have a recognition for the past history. 
     On the forcible evacuation of the inhabitants of Hateruma, a book of "Hateruma Shikina" written by Mr. Nobuo Sakurai is published by Kado Sobo, if you are interested in that and also you are good at Japanese, it would be recommended to read.  

Hateruma Shikina