Battle of Okinawa
Part of World War II, the Pacific War
A Marine of the 1st Marine Division draws a bead on a Japanese sniper with his Thompson as his companion ducks for cover
Date April 1, 1945 - June 21, 1945 Location Okinawa, Japan Result American victory
Belligerents
United States	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Simon B. Buckner, Jr. † Joseph W. Stilwell	Mitsuru Ushijima†
Strength
548,000 regulars	107,000 regulars 24,000 militia
Casualties and losses
12,500 dead or missing 38,000 wounded 33,096 non-combat wounded 38 ships sunk 763 aircraft destroyed	110,000 dead 7,455 captured 16 ships sunk 7,800 aircraft destroyed

The Battle of Okinawa, fought on the island of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands (south of the four big islands of Japan), 26 30' 00N 127 56' 00E,was the largest amphibious assault during the Pacific campaign of World War II. ^[1] It was also the largest sea-land-air battle in history, running from late March through June 1945. After the battle, the U.S. occupied Okinawa, and set up the Government of the Ryukyu Islands.

Neither side expected it to be the last major battle of the war, although it was. The Americans were planning Operation Downfall, the invasion of the Home Islands of Japan, which never happened due to the Japanese surrender after the American use of the two atomic bombs in August 1945 (first in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and a second time in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945), and the Soviet Union’s declaration of war on Japan.

The battle has been referred to as "Typhoon of Steel" in English, and "tetsu no ame," "tetsu no bōfū" by Okinawans, which mean "rain of steel" and "violent wind of steel" respectively, referring to the intensity of gunfire that characterized this battle and sheer number of American boats and tanks that landed on the island.

At some battles, such as Iwo Jima, there had been no civilians involved, but Okinawa had a large indigenous civilian population, and the civilian losses in the battle were at least 150,000. American losses were over 72,000 casualties, of whom 12,500 were killed or missing, over twice the number killed at Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal combined. Several thousand soldiers who died indirectly (from wounds and other causes), at a later date, are not included. About a third of the civilian population of the island were killed in the Spring of 1945. There were about 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed and 7,000 captured. Some of the soldiers committed seppuku or simply blew themselves up with grenades. Some of the civilians, having been convinced by Japanese propaganda that the Americans were barbarians who committed horrible atrocities, killed their families and themselves to avoid capture.

Generals

The American land campaign was controlled by the Tenth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. The army had two corps under its command, III Amphibious Corps, consisting of 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, with 2nd Marine Division as an afloat reserve, and XXIV Corps, consisting of the 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions. At the very end of the campaign, Buckner was killed by ricocheting shell fragments, becoming the most senior U.S. casualty in the entire war.

Brigadier General Pedro del Valle was the commander of the 1st Marine Division which participated in one of the most important events which led to victory in Okinawa: the capture of the Shuri Castle.

The Japanese land campaign (mainly defensive) was conducted by the 100,000 strong 32nd Army. It initially consisted of the 9th, 24th, and 62nd Divisions, and the 44th Independent Brigade. The 9th Division was moved to Formosa prior to the invasion, resulting in shuffling of Japanese Defensive plans. Primary resistance was led in the south by General Mitsuru Ushijima, his second in command Gen. Cho and Major Hiromichi Yahara his chief of staff. Yahara advocated a defensive strategy, whilst Cho advocated an offensive one. Cho's urgings led to a disastrous land and sea attack that led to the near massacre of the attacking Japanese troops by the superior firepower of the U.S. soldiers and Marines. From then on, Ushijima adopted the more successful tactics advocated by Maj. Yahara. Ushijima and Cho committed suicide in their command headquarters on Hill 89 in the closing hours of the battle. Major Yahara was the most senior officer to surrender on the island, and authored the book The Battle for Okinawa. In the less-talked-about north of Okinawa, General Takehido Udo commanded.

Before April 1, 1945

United States submarines had, by late 1944, wreaked havoc upon Japanese shipping. The troop ship Toyama Maru was sunk, on its way to Okinawa by the submarine USS Sturgeon. This caused a loss of about 5,600 men. Since this sinking occurred nine months before the land campaign, these Japanese deaths are usually not figured in accounts of the battle losses. The Sturgeon escaped, despite being pummeled by depth charges.

Additionally, before the battle, the evacuation ship Tsushima Maru was sunk by USS Bowfin, and 1,484 women and children died.

On October 10, 1944, Okinawa gained a dubious shorthand for disaster — the numerals 10-10. Waves of bombers pummeled the nearly-defenseless island, causing untold wreckage on land; over 80% of Naha was destroyed, and more than 65 boats were sunk. Japanese anti-aircraft technology was not up to combating the nimble American planes.

Japanese preparation

Realizing that he could never defend the entire island, Ushijima centered his defense around the historical capital, Shuri Castle, and the steep ridges on which it was built. This provided the Japanese with a heavy defense line that could be flanked only from the sea. For the first time in the Pacific War, the Japanese not only had ample time to dig elaborate fortifications, much as they had on Iwo Jima, they also had large numbers of tanks and artillery pieces. This relative abundance of materiel, matched with thousands of troops and the knowledge of three years fighting the Americans, ensured that the Okinawa defenses would be the hardest that the US faced during the war. Ushijima knew the Americans could not be stopped, but he wanted to make them pay for every yard of advance.

The land battle

The land battle took place over about 82 days after April 1, 1945.

The north

The Americans swept across the thin part of the south-central part of the island, with relative ease by World War II standards, soon taking the lightly-held north, though there was fierce fighting at Yae-dake Mountain, and took the Kadena Air Base and the Yomitan Air Bases — as of 2005, Kadena remains the largest American air base in Asia, and its runways can handle big planes. The entire north fell on April 20.

Few Americans encountered the feared Habu snake, soon discarding their cumbersome leggings. Far worse awaited them in the south, the north was only a "warm-up" for what was to come in the south.

The south

Fighting in the south was hardest: the Japanese soldiers hid in caves armed with hidden machine guns and explosives; American forces often lost many men before clearing the Japanese out from each cave or other hiding place. The American advance was inexorable but resulted in massive casualties sustained by both sides.

On May 29, 1945, after five weeks of fighting, General del Valle ordered Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines to capture Shuri Castle, a medieval fortress of the ancient Ryukyuan kings. Seizure of the Shuri Castle represented a moral blow for the Japanese and was an undeniable milestone in the Okinawa campaign. The island fell on about June 21, though some Japanese continued fighting, including the future governor of Okinawa prefecture, Masahide Ota.

Combat fatigue

U.S. forces suffered their highest ever casualty rate for combat stress reaction during the entire battle, at 48% above other casualties compared to 30% in the Korean War.

Quotes

• "7,613 were killed and missing in action, and the remaining sixty-four-odd thousand were almost equally divided between those wounded seriously enough to be out of action more than a week and non-battle casualties, chiefly victims of battle fatigue." (Feifer)
• "Ninety percent of the buildings on the island were completely destroyed, and the lush tropical landscape was turned into a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots." [1]
• "By the end of May monsoon rains which turned contested slopes and roads into a morass exacerbated both the tactical and medical situations. The ground advance began to resemble a World War I battlefield as troops became mired in mud and flooded roads greatly inhibited evacuation of wounded to the rear. Troops lived on a field sodden by rain, part garbage dump and part graveyard. Unburied Japanese bodies decayed, sank in the mud, and became part of a noxious stew. Anyone sliding down the greasy slopes could easily find their pockets full of maggots at the end of the journey." [2]
• "While on Okinawa, the marines and soldiers were going through their crucible of hell brought on by rain, heat, poison snakes, mosquitoes...the stench of human feces and rotting human flesh filled with maggots...." [3]

Allied involvement

Although the land battle was entirely a US campaign, Allied naval ships added to the air bombardment principally supplied by the U.S. Navy. Task Force 57, a carrier group with British, Australian and New Zealand ships and personnel provided about 20% of the available naval air power.

Task Force 57 was assigned the task of neutralising the Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Gunto, which it did from 26 March until 10 April. On 10 April, its attentions were transferred to airfields on northern Taiwan. The force withdrew to San Pedro Bay on 23 April. Although by then a commonplace event for the U.S. Navy, this was the longest time that a Royal Naval force of that size had been maintained at sea.

From 4 May 1945, Task Force 57 returned to action, subduing the airfields as before, this time with naval bombardment as well as aircraft. A number of Kami-kaze suicide attacks caused significant damage but only a brief interruption to the force's work. They finally withdrew to Guam and Manus Island on 25 May.

Aftermath

The most famous American casualty was the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was killed by Japanese sniper fire on Ie Shima, just off the northwest coast of Okinawa. ^[2]

U.S. General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. was killed by a Japanese ricocheting artillery shell while inspecting his troops at the front line, just 4 days before the end of the battle. He was the highest-ranking American to die during the war. His death, so near the end of the battle and the war, was ironic, for it was Buckner's decision to attack the Japanese defenses head-on, which proved to be extremely costly in American lives although the attack was ultimately successful. It was also his failure to detect the Japanese retreat to their second line of defense that led to the greatest slaughter on Okinawa in the latter stages of the battle, including the deaths of uncounted thousands of civilians.

General del Valle was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for his leadership in the fight to take Okinawa and the subsequent occupation and reorganization of Okinawa.

Many military historians believe that Okinawa led directly to American use of the atomic bomb, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A prominent holder of this view is Victor Davis Hanson, who states it explicitly in his book Ripples of Battle. The theory goes: because the Japanese on Okinawa, including native Okinawans, were so fierce in their defense (even when cut off, and without supplies), and because casualties were so appalling, many American strategists looked for an alternative means to subdue mainland Japan, other than a direct invasion. This means presented itself, with the advent of atomic bombs, which worked admirably in convincing the Japanese to sue for peace, without American casualties. Ironically, the American conventional fire-bombing of major Japanese cities (which had been going on for months before Okinawa) was far more effective at killing civilians than the atomic bombs and, had the Americans simply continued, or expanded this, the Japanese would likely have surrendered anyway. Nevertheless, the bombs were a powerful symbolic display of American power, and the Japanese capitulated, obviating the need for an invasion of the home islands.

In 1945, Winston Churchill called the battle "among the most intense and famous in military history."

References

• Feifer, George (1992), Tennozan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb ISBN 0-395-70066-3
• Keegan, John, The Second World War ISBN 0-7126-7384-2
• Battle of Okinawa, GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved January 8, 2006.

Further reading

• US military on the Battle of Okinawa
• New Zealand account with reference to Operation Iceberg
• The battle of Okinawa
• USS Gilbert Islands CVE 107. 1945 {at Okinawa}
• United States Army in World War II The War in the Pacific Okinawa: The Last Battle
• Global Security history of Battle of Okinawa particular combat fatigue figures
• History Online about Battle of Okinawa particular force strengths and casualties on both sides
• With the Old Breed At Pelelui and Okinawa, by E. B. Sledge (1981) ISBN 1-55750-747-3
• Animated History of The Battle for Okinawa
• Soldiers of the 184th Infantry, 7th ID in the Pacific, 1943-1945