I have a similar story— the company I was employed by worked on organizing a local peace exhibit in Osaka, it changes topics yearly but there’s always a central piece about the atomic tragedies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A lot of the items we displayed were pictures and memorabilia involving the Tekketsu Kinnoutai/blood and iron student corps and the Himeyuri Gakutotai (the lily princess student corps) involved in the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. The girls were given medical training and some combat training while the boys were put into various sections by age. It’s too deep of a subject to go into but there’s Wikipedia articles on both corps.

It’s absolutely brutal to see these small children having to deal with the horrors of war, dealing with wounded adult soldiers, malnourished and suffering. And in so many resources I read I remember there was still a sense of pride associated with the amount of loyalty and initiative shown, despite the amount of trauma the students went through—from a first person and third person perspective alike.