Posted on 06/21/2005 7:13:53 AM PDT by Irontank
The Japanese island of Okinawa has finally fallen to the Americans after a long and bloody battle. The island, situated 340 miles (550km) south of the Japanese mainland, will now provide the Americans with an invaluable air and naval base from which to launch a sustained and forceful attack on the mainland.
It is estimated more than 90,000 Japanese troops were killed in the 82-day conflict.
America also suffered heavy losses - at this stage 6,990 servicemen have been reported killed or missing and 25,598 wounded.
Mopping up
In a statement issued today Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W Nimitz, said: "After 82 days of fighting the battle of Okinawa has been won.
"Organised resistance ceased on June 21. Enemy garrisons in two small pockets are being mopped up."
The Japanese fought a desperate battle until the bitter end with many hiding out in caves on the southern-most tip of the island.
As the US forces closed in many threw themselves off 150ft (45.7m)cliffs or waded into the sea to drown rather than be taken prisoner.
More than 4,000 Japanese have so far been captured.
The conflict began on 1 April, when America's newly-formed 10th Army, led by Lieutenant-General Simon Bolivar Buckner, landed on Okinawa's western coast.
By 21 April most of the island had been taken by US troops but a stalemate developed in the south around Okinawa's capital city, Naha.
The Japanese were able to secure a strong defensive position in the rugged, cave-riddled terrain and it took several weeks to finally win the battle.
From the Holocaust Chronicle:
General Wilhelm Keitel presents terms of surrender to French leaders on June 21, 1940. Hitler demanded that the meeting be held in the historic Armistice railcar, where Germany's surrender after WWI took place
Okinawa was my daddy's first battle, as a 16-year-old Marine. He lasted two days there before a mortar shell ended that war for him. After that, it was on to post-war China, Korea, Viet Nam.
Can you just imagine the screaming furies of The American Left at such casualty figures today?
They're surrendering already for a fraction of the cost - "what a bargain..."
Wasn't Buckner in Alaska? If I remember correctly, he was killed in the Pacific theatre.
Neat story I'm sure! God Bless your dad.
My grandmother passed away last month, and when we were cleaning out her house, I discovered a journal she had kept from 1942-1947, when she was a young girl. It was neat. The first entry began "We are at war with Japan..." and then a footnote added "Manila fell at 1:00 a.m." It was cool and eerie at the same time. Another of my favories...May 7, 1945: "The war is over in Europe! But we still have the Japs to fight and whoop."
Priceless.
Damn, but I love that kind of stuff.
Please let him know I appreciate and honor his service and dedication to our nation!
My grandfather, also a Marine, lost his arm on Okinawa. One of my fondest memories is watching him spank my 3 uncles at pool with only one arm.
yeah, me too.
Here's something else that we found, pretty cool...a framed newspaper, dated November 22, 1918. Headline?
ARMISTICE SIGNED!
It says something about that generation...after I interview any of the old vets, I always thank them for fighting fascism and giving us our freedom. Their attitude is always "yeah, sure, whatever."
It's hilarious. These people genuinely don't seem to realize what they've accomplished.
Last year at this time I took a trip to Okinawa. One place I visited there was called Peace Prayer Park. It was extremely difficult to imagine that war had ever seen the tiny island.
Peace Prayer Park is easy to find. It's right next to the Suicide Cliffs just down the road a ways from the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters, the caves mentioned earllier in this post.
There I saw the names of 200,656 men women and children inscribed on black marble slabs who died on that tiny island in the last battle of World War II.
Japanese 188,136
From other prefectures (soldiers and civilian employees) 65,908
From Okinawa (soldiers and civilian employees) 28,228
From Okinawa (civilians fighting in battles) 56,861
From Okinawa (non-fighting civilians) 37,139
Americans 12,520
Following the battle there was not one thing on the island growing or man-made that was over 24 inches high. The entire population of the island was 574,368 and there were 4.72 artillery shells fired per person during the battle.
I also visited the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters. There is a room in there where the high command filed in with hand grenades and pulled the pins on themselves rather than surrender. Of course, this was only days after the Japanese soldiers there had bayoneted the babies of civilian employees to keep them from crying and giving away their position to the Americans.
I had the privlege of also seeing the museum set up by two former airmen who, when they left the Air Force were asked to vacate the building they had occupied on Kadena AFB, but were given ample space at Camp Kinser (Marine) for displaying artifacts they had found on the island.
The most moving exhibit they had was a rusty .30 caliber machine gun. A Marine was cut off on Sugar Loaf Hill and was surrounded by Japanese. He lifted the .30 of its tripod, as his field of fire was 360 degrees, and in a matter of minutes had Japanese bodies stacked up around him like cord wood. Wounded in both legs and unable to move from his position, he was certain to become another stastic once his ammunition ran out. Another Marine saw him and grabbed a tanker and told the tank commander to drag him strapped under the tank up to the stranded Marine and he would grab him and then the tank could drag them back to safety.
The tanker straddled the stranded Marine and was about to pull both him and his rescuer back to relative safety when the stranded Marine said he needed to spike the .30 so it could not be used against them. He spiked the gun and was dragged back to safety, a hospital, and a chest full of medals for him and his rescuers.
This was in June of 1945. 50 years later, the Marine who had been stranded was visiting the island and was in the museum. The curator, a young airman at the time asked him to take a trip to Sugar Loaf Hill and show him where the action had taken place. When they got there, he remembered everything as it had been on that day, and remembered the actual spot of where the events had taken place.
The curator, airman, returned to his car and brought out a metal detector. Within five minutes they had found the gun, spiked as it had been on that day, by the stranded Marine.
The casualty figures give you an idea why the US did not want to invade Japan, the casualties for that would have been in the millions. Dropping the bombs on Japan have gotten us spit on over the years by Japanese and other countries, but in the long run it save millions of lives.
I always trot out those and the stories and sights I saw on Okinawa and then end up with, "On top of all that we had to drop not one, but two atomic bombs before Japan surrendered."
I have sileneced many an anti-nuke, blame America First creep with them.
Lieutenant General Roy S. Geiger commanded the III Amphibious Corps in the battle for Okinawa. III Amphibious Corps was a component of the U.S. Tenth Army. Upon the death in action of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Commanding General of the Tenth Army, Lieutenant General Geiger, being the senior general officer present aboard, assumed command and led the Tenth Army to the successful conclusion of World War II's final campaign. He was the first Marine to ever lead an Army.
IIRC, Army General "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, enroute to the United States from the CBI Theater, was diverted by the Army to reassume command of the Tenth Army from Geiger.
Jeesh! I can't imagine someone would actually PAY to go to OKINAWA. I spent 3 1/2 years there in early 1960s and then another 18 months there starting in 1968.
Open sewers, smelly streets, terrible food, and the people there hated us and still do. They also weren't too bright.
They demonstrated about the B-52s leaving there with bombs about it being too dangerous, but never complained when they swapped the 52s (started bombing out of Guam) and Kadena got the KC-135s loaded to the gills with fuel (equally dangerous on take offs).
I got a real kick out of seeing the wax-on, wax-off movie that was supposed to have been shot in Okinawa....nothing like it.
Don't take this the wrong way, but what they're saying is that you don't realize what they accomplished.
I honestly get the impression (after over 150 interviews) that they simply remain umimpressed with themselves.
The unconcerned reaction is my way of telling them, in a nice way, that they have not earned the right to force their way into my memories. I suspect that they want to hear my stories for the entertainment value only. And until I decide that person is worthy of hearing my personal reminisces, there will be silence from me.
I suspect these older veterans are the same as me.
I might point out that 3 out of 4 of my interviewees came to me first. When I began started researching my dissertation, I put out a call through contacts that I wanted to talk to veterans of the Big One. I received over 2,000 replies, but was constrained by time, topic, and money in whom I could talk to. I ended up with less than 150 completions, in total.
Still, my 40 years of WWII research has left me honestly humbled and grateful for the service of all veterans.
(As a caveat, I should point out that I was turned down by the Navy at 19 because of a minor heart problem, which has given me no trouble at all. I feel kind of cheated, still.)
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