Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa
Part of World War II, the Pacific War
U.S. Marines storm out of a landing craft to establish a beachhead on Okinawa.
Date April 1, 1945 - June 21, 1945 Location Okinawa, Japan Result Allied Victory
Belligerents
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Simon B. Buckner†, Joseph W. Stilwell, Ray Spruance	Mitsuru Ushijima† Isamu Cho†
Strength
548,000 soldiers, 1,300 ships,  ? aircraft	100,000 regulars and militia,  ? ships,  ? aircraft
Casualties and losses
12,513 dead or missing, 38,916 wounded, 33,096 non-combat losses, 79 ships sunk and scrapped, 763 aircraft destroyed	66,000 dead or missing, 17,000 wounded, 7,455 captured, 16 ships sunk and scrapped, 7,830 aircraft destroyed, 140,000 civilians dead or missing

The Battle of Okinawa, fought on the Japanese island of Okinawa, was the largest amphibious assault during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. It lasted from late March through June 1945.

The battle has been referred to as the "Typhoon of Steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of gunfire involved, and sheer numbers of Allied ships and armoured vehicles that assaulted the island. Okinawa had a large civilian population, of whom at least 150,000 were killed during the battle, while the Japanese army attempted to defend the island.

Neither side expected Okinawa to be the last major battle of the war, when it in fact was. The Allies were planning to use Okinawa as a staging ground for Operation Downfall, the invasion of the Japanese mainland. However, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 and the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan, Japan surrendered and World War II ended.

Background

Realizing that he could never defend the entire island, Ushijima centered his defense around the historical capital, Shuri Castle, a medieval fortress of the ancient Ryukyuan kings, 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 U.S., ensured that the Okinawa defenses would be the hardest that the U.S. faced during the war. Ushijima knew the Allies could not be stopped, but he wanted to make them pay for every yard of advance.

Order of battle

Land

The U.S. 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.

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 Taiwan prior to the invasion, resulting in shuffling of Japanese Defensive plans. Primary resistance was to be led in the south by General Mitsuru Ushijima, his second in command Gen. Isamu Cho and chief of staff Major Hiromichi Yahara. Yahara advocated a defensive strategy, whilst Cho advocated an offensive one. In the north, General Takehido Udo was in command.

Sea

U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy contributed the bulk of the ships and airplanes involved in the operation. Most of the air-to-air fighters and the small dive-bombers and strike aircraft were U.S. Navy carrier-based airplanes. The Japanese had used kamikaze tactics since the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but for the first time, they became a major part of the defense. Between the American landing on Easter Sunday and May 25, seven major kamikaze attacks were attempted, involving more than 1,500 planes. Almost a score of American ships were sunk, and twenty-five others damaged. The total strength of the Allied fleet at Okinawa was 1300 ships, including 40 carriers, 18 battleships, and 200 destroyers. The U.S. Navy sustained greater casualties in this operation than in any other battle of the war.

British Commonwealth

Although the land battle was an entirely U.S. operation, the British Pacific Fleet (BPF; known to the U.S. Navy as Task Force 57) provided about 20% of Allied naval air power. The fleet was a combined British Commonwealth carrier group with British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian ships and personnel. Their mission was to neutralize Japanese airfields at Sakishima Gunto.

Naval battle

USS Bunker Hill burns after being hit by two kamikaze in 30 seconds

The British Pacific Fleet was assigned the task of neutralizing the Japanese airfields, which worked very well indeed, in the Sakishima Islands, which it did from 26 March until 10 April. On 10 April, its attention was shifted to airfields on northern Formosa. 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 fleet of that size had been maintained at sea.

From 4 May 1945, BPF returned to action, subduing the airfields as before, this time with naval bombardment as well as aircraft. A number of kamikaze attacks caused significant damage, but due to the British use of armored flight decks on their aircraft carriers, they only experienced a brief interruption to their force's objective. In the two month battle for Okinawa, the Japanese flew 1,900 kamikaze missions, sinking dozens of allied ships and killing more than five thousand U.S. sailors.

Operation Ten-Go

Main article: Operation Ten-Go

Battleship Yamato explodes

Perhaps the most dramatic action of this campaign occurred far from Okinawa itself: the attempted kamikaze attack by a strike force of Japanese surface vessels led by the battleship Yamato. The Yamato and other vessels in Operation Ten-Go were intercepted shortly after leaving Japanese home waters.

Under attack from more than 300 carrier aircraft over a two day span, the world's largest battleship sank on 7 April 1945, long before she could reach Okinawa, where the battleship had been ordered to fight her way through enemy naval forces, then beach herself and fight from shore; using her guns as artillery and her crewmen as naval infantry. US Torpedo bombers were instructed to only aim for one side to prevent effective counter flooding by the battleship's crew, and hitting preferably the bow or stern, where armor was believed to be the thinnest. Part of the Yamato's screening force, which included one cruiser, were also sunk. After the sinking, the Japanese Navy ceased operations and was not a participant in the remainder of the war.

Land battle

A map of U.S. Operations during the battle of Okinawa.

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

The north

A Marine of the 1st Marine Division fires on a Japanese sniper with his Thompson as his companion ducks for cover

The U.S. 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 Mount Yae-dake, and took the Kadena and the Yomitan airbases.

Few U.S. soldiers encountered the feared Habu snake, and soon discarded the cumbersome leggings designed to protect them from snakebite.

The entire north fell on April 20.

The south

Marines pass through a small village where a Japanese soldier lays dead

Cho's offensive strategy led to a disastrous land and sea attack that caused the near massacre of the attacking Japanese troops by the superior firepower of the U.S. soldiers. From then on, Ushijima adopted the more successful tactics advocated by Major Yahara.

Fighting in the south was hardest: the Japanese soldiers hid in caves armed with hidden machine guns and explosives; U.S. forces often lost many men before clearing the Japanese out from each cave or other hiding place. The Japanese would send the Okinawans at gunpoint out to acquire water and supplies for them, which induced casualties among civilians. The U.S. advance was inexorable but resulted in massive casualties sustained by both sides.

U.S. flag raised over Shuri Castle

On May 29, Brig. Gen. Pedro del Valle, commanding the 1st Marine Division, ordered Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines to capture Shuri Castle. Seizure of the castle represented both strategic and psychological blows for the Japanese and was a milestone in the campaign. Del Valle was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for his leadership in the fight and the subsequent occupation and reorganization of Okinawa.

The island fell on about June 21 1945, though some Japanese continued fighting, including the future governor of Okinawa prefecture, Masahide Ota.

Ushijima and Cho committed suicide by seppuku in their command headquarters on Hill 89 in the closing hours of the battle. Major Yahara had asked Ushijima for permission to commit suicide, but the general refused his request, saying, "If you die there will be no one left who knows the truth about the battle of Okinawa. Bear the temporary shame but endure it. This is an order from your army Commander."

Yahara was the most senior officer to have survived the battle on the island, and later authored a book entitled The Battle for Okinawa.

Casualties

U.S. losses were over 72,000 casualties, of whom 12,513 were killed or missing, over twice the number killed at Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal combined. Several thousand servicemen who died indirectly (from wounds and other causes), at a later date, are not included in the total. The most famous U.S. casualty was the war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was killed by Japanese machine gun fire on Ie Shima, just off the northwest coast of Okinawa. U.S. forces suffered their highest ever casualty rate for combat stress reaction during the entire battle, at 48% (compared to 30% in the Korean War).

A group of Japanese prisoners who preferred capture to suicide

There were about 66,000 Japanese combatants killed and 7,000 captured. Some of the soldiers committed seppuku or simply blew themselves up with grenades. Ironically, this was also the first (and only) battle in the war in which the Japanese surrendered by the thousands. When the American forces occupied the island, the Japanese took Okinawan clothing to avoid capture. The Okinawans came to the Americans' aid by offering a simple way to detect Japanese in hiding. Okinawan dialect differs greatly from standard Japanese; with Americans at their sides, Okinawans would give directions to people in the local dialect, and those who didn't understand were obviously Japanese in hiding who were then captured.

The last picture of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.

Just 4 days from the closing of the campaign, General Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire while inspecting his troops at the front line. He was the highest-ranking U.S. officer to be killed by enemy fire during the war.

Buckner's 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, although proving to be extremely costly in U.S. lives, the attack was ultimately successful. Either by design or the "fog of war", LTG Buckner did not detect the Japanese retreat to their second line of defense, which ultimately led to the greatest slaughter on Okinawa in the latter stages of the battle, including the deaths of uncounted thousands of civilians.

Civilian casualties

Overcoming the resistance on Okinawa was aided by propaganda leaflets, one of which is being read by a prisoner awaiting transportation to the rear

At some battles, such as Iwo Jima, there had been no civilians involved, but Okinawa had a large indigenous guerrilla population. Okinawan civilian losses in the campaign were in excess of 140,000; in addition, it is estimated that more than a third of the surviving civilian population were wounded. About a third of the civilian population of the island were killed in the spring of 1945.

During World War II, when many Okinawans still spoke a different dialect, Japanese troops treated the locals brutally. In its history of the war, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum presents Okinawa as being caught in the fighting between America and Japan. During the 1945 battle, during which one quarter of the civilian population was killed, the Japanese Army showed indifference to Okinawa's defense and safety, and the Japanese soldiers used civilians as human shields against the Americans.

With the impending victory of American troops, civilians often committed mass suicide, urged on by fanatical Japanese soldiers. They persuaded locals that victorious American soldiers would go on a rampage of killing and raping. Ryukyu Shimpo, one of the two major Okinawan newspapers, wrote:

There are many Okinawans who have testified that the Japanese Army directed them to commit suicide. There are also people who have testified that they were handed grenades by Japanese soldiers (to blow up themselves) [1]

Some of the civilians, having been induced by Japanese propaganda to believe that U.S. soldiers were barbarians who committed horrible atrocities, killed their families and themselves to avoid capture. It is believed many Okinawans threw themselves and their family members from the cliffs where the Peace Museum now resides. Other Okinawans were murdered by Japanese to prevent their capture or to steal their food and supplies.

Aftermath

American Sherman tanks knocked out by Japanese artillery

Some military historians believe that Okinawa led directly to U.S. 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:

...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 American 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."

After the battle, the U.S. occupied Okinawa, and set up the Government of the Ryukyu Islands. Significant U.S. forces remain garrisoned there and Kadena remains the largest U.S. air base in Asia.

In 1995 the Okinawa government erected a memorial named Cornerstone of Peace in Mabuni, the site of the last fighting in southeastern Okinawa. The memorial lists all the known names of those who died in the battle, civilian and military, Japanese and foreign. At present there are 237,318 names listed including 148,136 Okinawans (mostly civilians) and 14,005 Americans.

References

Books

• Astor, Gerald (1996). Operation Iceberg: The Invasion and Conquest of Okinawa in World War II. Dell. ISBN 0-440-22178-1.
• Feifer, George (2001). The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-215-5.
• Hallas, James H. (2006). Killing Ground on Okinawa: The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill. Potomac Books. ISBN 1-59797-063-8.
• Lacey, Laura Homan (2005). Stay Off The Skyline: The Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa - An Oral History. Potomac Books. ISBN 1-57488-952-4.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (2002 (reissue)). Victory in the Pacific, 1945, vol. 14 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Champaign, Illinois, USA: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-07065-8. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
• Rottman, Gordon (2002). Okinawa 1945: The last Battle. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-546-5.
• Sledge, E. B. (1990). With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506714-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Yahara (2001). Okinawa P. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-18080-7.-Firsthand account of the battle by a surviving Japanese officer.

Web

• Battle of Okinawa, GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved January 8, 2006.
• 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
• Animated History of The Battle for Okinawa
• Soldiers of the 184th Infantry, 7th ID in the Pacific, 1943-1945
• Huber, Thomas M. (1990). "Japan's Battle of Okinawa, April-June 1945". Leavenworth Papers. United States Army Command and General Staff College. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)- Article about the battle from the Japanese perspective.
• Cornerstone of Peace