Battle of Okinawa

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Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign
Iwo Jima – Okinawa – Ten-Go

The Battle of Okinawa, fought on the island of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands (south of the four big islands of Japan), was the largest amphibious assault during the Pacific campaign of World War IIThe planning for the amphibious assault and ensuing battle was codenamed Operation Iceberg by the Allies. It was also the largest sea-land-air battle in history, running from late March through June 1945. After the battle, US occupied Okinawa, and set up the Government of the Ryukyu Islands.

Neither side expected it to be the last major battle of the war, which it was. The Americans were planning Operation Downfall, the invasion of the main 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 6th 1945), and a second time in Nagasaki (August 9th 1945) and the Soviet Union declaring 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, 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 US casualty in the entire war.

Brigadier General Pedro del Valle, commander of the 1st Marine Division who 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 consisted of the 9th, 24th, and 62d Divisions, and the 44th Independent Brigade. Primary resistance was led in the south by General Mitsuru Ushijima. He committed suicide at the end. In the less-talked-about north of Okinawa, General Takehido Udo commanded.

A Corsair fighter fires rocket projectiles on a run against a Japanese stronghold on Okinawa

Before

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 USS Sturgeon (SS-187). 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 the USS Bowfin (SS-287) 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

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 Brigadier General Pedro del Valle ordered Company A of the 1st Battalion 5th Marines to capture the 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

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." [link]

• "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." [link]

• "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...." [link]

Allied involvement

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

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