This battle started during the end of the Pacific War and took place around Okinawa Island, and it's known as the last battle between the U.S. and Japan.
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor (1941), the U.S. entered World War 2. Okinawa's geographic location was an ideal position for strategic warfare in the Pacific - it was located between Kyushu and Formosa (Taiwan). Japan was an incredible force during World War 2 and the Allied forces wanted to attack Japan and stop Japan's aggressions. The Allied forces (including U.S.) viewed Okinawa as a perfect point from which they could invade/strike Japan. The invasion was code named "Operation Iceberg." This was the reason why this battle occurred.
The number of people who died in the Battle of Okinawa
American Soldiers - almost 12,520 people
Soldiers from Mainland - almost 65,908 people
Soldiers from Okinawa - almost 28, 228 people
General Inhabitant - almost 94,000 people
Total
200,656 people
From this, we could say that this battle is different from other battles in which did not involve general inhabitants
Now, we want to show you part of the E-mail letter we got from Bob Doktor about his experiences in the Battle of Okinawa.
Since you know that I was in the Battle for Okinawa you can realize that I may be older than some of your Grandparents. However I try to keep my mind abreast of things that are happening for example computers and Internet.
I will try to tell you as much as I can remember of the Battle of Okinawa. We arrived almost a week before the landing and were sheltered by some islands off the coast of Okinawa until April 1, 1945. During this period the large naval vessels such as the Battleship Missouri shelled Okinawa to prepare for the landing. Although we were sheltered off shore the ship had to move about as there were Japanese midget submarines stalking us part of the time and then we had the Kamikaze aircraft coming in.
One evening, I believe it was the second or third a Kamikaze was able to sneak through and hit a ship next to us. There were no fatalities fortunately other than the Japanese pilot. There were a few injuries, the ship was run aground so that it would not sink. The unit that was on this LST (this is the designation of Landing Ship Tank) was in our group and we knew quite a few of the men. We did not find out until the next morning that no one was killed, but we were worried as there was such a large explosion that we had assumed there were casualties and that some had died, but as I said before luck was with them and no one was killed other than the pilot.
When we landed we were sort of in shock since we met no resistance from the island and we had been briefed that there was a large force of Japanese soldiers there and to expect heavy gunfire with heavy resistance. Having been in battle prior to this landing, resistance is what we had expected. The only thing was Japanese aircraft was all over and they strafed the beaches and dropped a few bombs, but I think that this was so minimal and caused very few casualties. The Navy and Marines had many aircraft flying off the aircraft carriers and did give us outstanding air support. As we were on the beach and the Japanese aircraft dove at us, the American aircraft were right behind them and shot most of them down.
I do remember one incident in particular was that as a Japanese Zero dove and flew along the beach strafing, a U.S. Navy pane which was an F6F was right behind him, the Navy plane shot him down approximately 300 yards from us. At this same time the gunfire off the ships in the firing line and the LST & iacute's was as heavy and could be. Just when the Navy plane was almost abeam of us it shook all over as if it had been hit by friendly gunfire. The plane was maybe at 25 feet altitude at that time; the pilot set the plane down on the beach. He had got into the line of fire and was shot down. When there was no more fire the pilot got out of the plane and raised is arms in anger and yelling at the American ships for shooting him down. We rushed over to him and checked to see if he was all right and then took him down to the area where the smaller landing craft were so that they could get him back out to his carrier. I felt sorry for him and at the same time it seemed a little humorous that he had waved his arms in angry in a gesture of threatening the firepower.
We found out a little later on that a couple of other aircraft had been shot down and the pilots were lost. It turned out that in this case that the pilots were told not to go down that low with all of the firing from all of vessels. It was in the heat of battle that these orders were forgotten as the pilots were following the Japanese aircraft so intensely that they were oblivious to the outside world.
As the fighting continued the Marines headed northerly and started to get some ground fire around Kadena and around the village of Kadena, which was destroyed and demolished.
The as we moved to the north we met with more resistance, and ran into little pockets of Japanese soldiers who fought bravely, but either they surrendered or were killed. It seemed as if the firepower they had was limited and possibly did not have the training they should have had. We did manage to take many prisoners. Eventually we made it up to beyond Nago-Wan and we were moving rather swiftly now.
The Army to the south was running into much more resistance and came to a standstill more or less and they removed one Army division and sent them to the north to do the mopping up and the Marines were sent to the south. The fighting was fierce and again the Japanese soldiers put up a good fight. I think that we had the spirit and a good supply of ammunition and although we suffered many casualties we just persevered and pushed on until we got to the Naha - Shuri and the fighting really got heavy. I do not know if we would have made it after this point until we brought our heavy tanks in and started to push and push and push some more. I think that this broke the spirit of some of the Japanese soldiers and they started to move to the rear more and more as each day went by. I say spirit as if you do not feel that you can do anything regardless if it is war or not, just anything on a normal day, you have lost.
What I really felt bad about after the fighting had ceased I visited the final fighting area and saw the amount of Japanese soldiers who jumped off the cliffs and killed themselves. At the time I could not understand why these soldiers had jumped. I did have at the time respect for them in their loyalty, but did not understand it. As time went by I learned more of the Japanese people and of their culture and then realized why these honorable men had did what they had done.
I do not know if you had spoken to anyone in Group 6, but I was a career Marine and retired after 27 years. I had been to Okinawa many times and this is where I met my wife and married her in 1967. I used to joke about it that she was probably one of the young kids that I and other men used to give them the chocolate that came in our rations.
Sincerely,
Bob Doktor
In this E-mail, he told us many things about this battle. However the most interesting thing that he wrote usdescribing how he really felt bad about after the fighting had ceased. He visited the final fighting area and saw the bodies of Japanese soldiers who jumped off the cliffs and committed suicide. At the time he could not understand why these soldiers had killed themselves. As the time passed by, he learned more about the Japanese people and of their culture, and then realized why.
Children in Okinawa
Most of the teachers and students had to go to the army and help digging and moving earth and sand for making a new position for the army. Furthermore, some students were made to go into the army and be a soldier. They made the children take military training. Even the girls had to go to the army as a "Himeyuri" unit. This unit was to take care of the injured soldiers all day.
How the Japanese Prisoner was treated
U.S. Army didn't hurt the few Japanese prisoners that were taken, but they asked about Japanese army and it's conditions.
They gave some food such as candies, chewing gums and cigarettes to Okinawans and didn't force to do something. However they won't treat Japanese army like that so Japanese soldiers hid their own recognition card and every thing that says he is soldier of Japan.
Our teacher told us that there were cases of surrender Japanese soldiers being killed by Americans. Also, soon after the battle ended many Okinawans were put work for road repair, construction and other jobs.