Remembering the Battle of Okinawa; Lessons Learned for Future Fights (80 years ago today)

The Battle of Okinawa, code named Operation Iceberg, was World War II's largest and bloodiest battle in the Pacific Theater. The landings on the Japanese island by joint U.S. and Allied forces took place 80 years ago, April 1, 1945, lasting until June 22, 1945. It was the last major battle of the war.

Army Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who commanded the Tenth Army, led the invasion. The Tenth Army was a composite unit comprising the Army's 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th infantry divisions, the 1st, 2nd and 6th Marine divisions, as well as a joint Army/Marine Corps tactical air force.

Soldiers numbered approximately 102,000, Marines 88,000 and Navy 18,000, the latter of which were mostly medical personnel and Seabees. The Navy supported the landings by bombarding enemy positions and providing aircraft, landing ships and landing craft. The Coast Guard also provided maritime support.

The joint force was supported by partner nations, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Opposing the Allied troops on the ground was Japanese Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima's 32nd Army — a mixed force consisting of regular soldiers, airmen, naval infantry and conscripted Okinawans. The total Japanese troop strength on the island was about 100,000 as of the landing date, April 1, 1945.

The landings were relatively unopposed because the Japanese refused to fight on the beaches. Instead, they withdrew into caves in the rocky hills to force a battle of attrition.

That strategy worked, as U.S. casualties were staggering. More than 12,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines died during the battle.

In the waters around Okinawa, the Japanese launched the largest kamikaze, or suicide, attack of the war. Japanese planes rammed into Allied ships, sinking 26 and severely damaging 168. Almost 40% of the U.S. casualties during the battle were sailors lost in these attacks.

The Japanese military suffered even more, losing almost their entire force, including many who committed suicide. Around the same number of Okinawan civilians were killed or committed suicide.

On May 29, 1945, a Confederate flag was raised over Shuri Castle before being removed and replaced by an American flag three days later, on Buckner's orders.

What makes this flag story interesting is that Buckner's father, Simon Bolivar Buckner, was a Confederate Army brigadier general and later governor of Kentucky.

Buckner was among the Americans killed on Okinawa. He was hit by Japanese artillery fire, June 18, 1945, while checking on the progress of his troops at the front. He was the highest-ranking U.S. military officer killed during World War II.

Buckner was replaced by Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Roy Geiger, making him the only Marine to ever command such a large outfit on the battlefield.

Army Brig. Gen. Claudius Miller Easley, commander of the 96th Infantry Division, was also killed. He died by Japanese machine-gun fire June 19, 1945, while checking on the progress of his troops.

On April 18, 1945, war correspondent Ernie Pyle was also killed by Japanese machine gun fire on Ie Shima, a small island just off the Okinawan coast. He was among the best-known war correspondents, remembered for his stories about junior soldiers in both the European and Pacific theaters.

The Battle of Okinawa was a series of separate battles fought throughout the island, mostly in the south, including the battle for Hacksaw Ridge. Army medic Cpl. Desmond T. Doss rescued 75 of his wounded comrades during that battle. For his valor, he received the Medal of Honor, Oct. 12, 1945. Doss was a conscientious objector who refused to carry a weapon or kill the enemy. The 2016 movie, "Hacksaw Ridge," portrays his story.

Although the battle was declared over June 22, 1945, some Japanese continued hiding in caves, including the future governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Masahide Ōta.

Ushijima committed suicide in his command headquarters in the closing hours of the battle. His chief of staff, Col. Hiromichi Yahara, asked Ushijima for permission also 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."

Yahara was the most senior Japanese officer to survive the battle, and he later authored the book, "The Battle for Okinawa."

Although the Allies planned to use Okinawa as a base to attack mainland Japan, dubbed Operation Downfall, Japan surrendered unconditionally Aug. 15, 1945.

In 1972, the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japanese control. Today, Japan is a valued ally of the United States.

Author Christopher L. Kolakowski describes many of the lessons learned from the battle in his May 8, 2024, article, "Okinawa 1945 and Lessons for Island Battles," which was printed in the Air Force's "Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs."

"All three services — land, sea, and air — had to synchronize their efforts to secure victory," he wrote. "The success of any single service was contingent upon the cooperation and effectiveness of the others. This principle applied equally to both American and Japanese forces, underscoring the indispensability of joint operations."

Kolakowski noted that some of the lessons learned from the battle can be applied to a possible future battle over Taiwan.

The article states that fighting around Taiwan, encompassing the region of the Taiwan Strait, would likely mirror the patterns observed on Okinawa. It would involve assaults on surface vessels from both aircraft and missiles and a contest to establish and maintain air dominance.

In a potential conflict, the proximity of bases will be a critical factor, as having them closer to the theater of operations conserves resources and strengthens operational efficiency. Kolakowski said this consideration raises inquiries about the roles of various locations, including the South China Sea islands, the coastal islands of Quemoy and Matsu, and the Penghu archipelago, in any prospective invasion scenario for Taiwan.

With modern weaponry, such an operation would necessitate covering a battlespace at least as expansive as Operation Iceberg's, if not greater. Kolakowski writes that the expanded battlespace would undoubtedly impact U.S. bases in the Indo-Pacific region, including Okinawa, Guam, South Korea, the Philippines and Japan itself.

My father told us a number of stories when we were young but later mostly talked about Sugar Loaf. That he stayed in the Marines after the war may have meant his attitude was different from those whose service was only during the war. (He had already served 4 years from 1936 to 1940 when there was no draft...he became an officer during the war.)

The man who wrote Flags of Our Fathers said his father never talked about the war--his father was supposedly one of the flag-raisers in the famous photo from Iwo Jima (although some have questioned whether he is actually in the photo).

A former professor at my university (now deceased) was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and spent the rest of the war as a POW. Truly horrendous experiences. He finally wrote a book about his experiences and that seemed to help him.

Flags of Our Fathers was very well done. The story of Ira Hayes was so sad.

Mom's family tree had a member who was stationed with the Army in the Philippines during 1941. His family lived there also. As the war clouds were gathering he sent them back to the U.S. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines he was captured and thought to have perished during the Bataan Death March. Decades later his son, who as a small child was in the Philippines before Pearl Harbor, went back and tried to determine the fate of his father. It turns out not only did he survive the Bataan Death March and imprisonment in the Philippines, but he also survived the voyage from the Philippines to Japan on 1 of those horribly crowded prison ships that managed to dodge being sunk by U.S. Navy submarines. He later perished in a POW camp in Japan. His remains, along with many other American POWs, were later recovered and interred in a mass grave at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

The Japanese believed that you should never surrender so they treated prisoners of war very poorly (worse than the Germans). The professor I knew believed that all the POWs would have been killed if the US had invaded Japan.

My father would have been in the invasion force so he was always convinced that using the atomic bombs was the right thing to do. Even if he had survived that, his life over the next few years would have been different and he would never have met my mother so I would not be alive.

Yes, the story of Ira Hayes is very sad. The US government made heroes of the men captured in the photo and had them tour the US (to get people to buy war bonds), and they did not think they deserved any special recognition beyond what all the other military men were doing.

I recall in With the Old Breed that Eugene Sledge was in a rest & recovery camp on Okinawa when the A-bombs were dropped. He wrote that the surrounding camps, which were not R&R, erupted in cheering and celebrating. The men in his camp showed little reaction because they were all so mentally spent from the Battle for Okinawa. Sledge agreed that dropping the A-bombs was the correct strategy. We have seen in recent years the casualty estimates for American forces ranged from 220,000 to several million, and estimates of Japanese military and civilian casualties ran from the millions to the tens of millions. Casualty estimates did not include potential losses from radiation poisoning resulting from the tactical use of nuclear weapons or from Allied POWs who would have been executed by the Japanese.

Seems like the Trump administration is readying for a possible Taiwan defense by homeporting America's newest amphibious ship to Sasebo, Japan where I served for four years about 40 years ago.

Here's the story: Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship relocating to Japan

Source - Stars and Stripes

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