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The Fleet that Brought Them Home
U.S. Naval Institute ^ | October 2025 | Ed Offley

Posted on 09/02/2025 1:42:59 PM PDT by Retain Mike

On that Monday, 6 August, Americans who had survived the Battle of Okinawa were not celebrating the final rout of the Japanese defenders seven weeks earlier. They were still stunned at the carnage they had both unleashed and endured. For 82 days without letup, Okinawa—one-third the size of Rhode Island—had been shredded by a maelstrom of bombs, artillery shells, and small-arms fire. The casualties on both sides were horrific. In all, nearly 250,000 people died in the battle, including 12,520 American servicemen, 110,000 Japanese and conscripted Okinawan defenders, and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians caught in the crossfire. The American battle losses were the country’s heaviest in any theater of the war to date, but now they would be going home.

While the task group started operations with the Saratoga and 18 escort carriers, Operation Magic Carpet steadily expanded as more vessels were added. By 15 December 1945, Kendall had 369 warships and auxiliaries under his command. The primary challenge in organizing and carrying out the operation was the sheer “tyranny of distance” in the vast Pacific operating area. After three years of deployment and dozens of major battles, more than 3.1 million U.S. servicemen were scattered from the Aleutians to Australia and from Midway to the Marianas.

During the first four weeks of Magic Carpet, Kendall’s ships brought 259,856 servicemen and civilians home from the Pacific. The volume steadily increased over the next six months as more ships were added to the operation: 446,715 in October; 574,069 in November; and peaking at 695,486 in December. The numbers gradually shrank during the first three months of 1946, with 601,561 servicemen returned in January: 401,753 in February, and 143,954 in March.

(Excerpt) Read more at usni.org ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: atomic; bomb; japan; ww2; wwii
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To: Retain Mike

my dad survived the battle for Okinawa and thankfully didn’t have to invade the main islands, for which i’m personally grateful—because i probably wouldn’t be here if that invasion had happened.

instead my dad was returned to Japan, and married my Japanese mother some 10 years later. so he well understood the Japanese national ‘soul’ and had made his peace with it, despite the heavy costs he incurred with his family and with his military command structure. he had his own mind in the matter, and wouldn’t be gainsay-ed by higher authority. suffice it to say, Japanese would have looked at it very differently. but my mom’s side of the family accepted him immediately. if you’re Japanese, you understand why. if you’re American, you’re probably clueless.

it was a different story in America, i didn’t understand the hatred for us as a little kid when my dad brought us back, but now i well understand it, and count it justified given what the people of America lost in that no-quarter given war, against the pitiless, warrior Japanese elites.

suffice it to say, knowing the Japanese people intimately as he did, and without the A-bomb, my dad was not confident he and his marine buddies could successfully conquer Japan. after Okinawa, it was very much still an open question in his mind.


21 posted on 09/02/2025 2:52:52 PM PDT by dadfly
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To: packrat35

Mind boggling.


22 posted on 09/02/2025 2:53:40 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: dadfly

We pacified the Japs real good.


23 posted on 09/02/2025 2:58:00 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

Japan? pacified? never.

liberated is a far better word for it. we (my farm boy dad from Ohio among them). he liberated the enslaved masses of Japan from which he plucked out my mom.


24 posted on 09/02/2025 3:07:07 PM PDT by dadfly
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To: DarrellZero

Sneaky bastards.


25 posted on 09/02/2025 3:12:08 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Equine1952

Yep. I have read his book. One thing The Pacific could not convey was the smell.


26 posted on 09/02/2025 3:15:32 PM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Nervous Tick

Thank you.


27 posted on 09/02/2025 3:16:19 PM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Reddy

Thank you.


28 posted on 09/02/2025 3:17:30 PM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: dadfly

How dare they tariff our goods. Screw the Japs.


29 posted on 09/02/2025 3:33:01 PM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: DarrellZero

Indeed. Less than 15 years after the war’s end, we had military bases in Japan, with personnel AND families stationed there. Mine was one of them (I was 5-6 at the time.). I’ve always found that to be quite remarkable. The Japanese welcomed and embraced Americans with wide open arms. We were there again some 10-11 years later. By then I was a teenager and loved every bit of it. We could go anywhere we wanted, on and off base, and never worry about our safety. We would take trains into Tokyo, go all over to different places in peace and comfort. Occasionally, we’d come across someone who spoke English when we needed help with directions. I always remember the people as being very kind, considerate, and in awe of Americans.


30 posted on 09/02/2025 4:25:08 PM PDT by nfldgirl ( )
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To: Retain Mike

I knew a man who was a Marine aviator from the time of Guadalcanal. He flew the Corsair in time. Not long before he died quietly of cancer he told me a lot about the war. A lot about air support missions in the airstrip pattern at Peleliu. He stopped talking then. I let it sit for a bit and as gently as I could asked where he went next. Tears rolled down his face as he gathered his strength and he said, “They sent me home. Told me I was through. I was spent, no good. I had to leave my squadron, let them down. I never got over it. He was a very old, proud and successful man. I sat next to him and he cried softly. I had always admired and respected him but then he took a piece of my heart.


31 posted on 09/02/2025 4:31:32 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
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To: Retain Mike

Excellent! Really enjoyed it-thank you!


32 posted on 09/02/2025 5:31:31 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: Verginius Rufus

The pastor of the church I grew up in was an army photographer. He said that all the Japanese he interacted with were friendly and helpful. Even the military, for the most part.

He was among the first Americans to visit Hiroshima. Some of the photos from there in the history books are his. Unfortunately, he died of leukemia in 1968. Likely caused by his early visit to Hiroshima.


33 posted on 09/02/2025 6:31:17 PM PDT by jimtorr
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To: dadfly
My Dad was in the 1st Cavalry Division. He wasn’t on the front lines, he was a Technical Sergeant and worked in support of the combat troops. He was in the occupation force after the war, and one story he told was how the Japanese civilians would turn away to “save face” as the US forces drove past them.

One of my Uncles was on Iwo Jima, and made it home.

Another uncle saw fierce fighting on Guadalcanal. His buddy next to him was killed , and he was wounded himself. After he recovered he was sent to fight at Bougainville. He made it home and lived to be 101.

34 posted on 09/02/2025 7:24:57 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: dadfly

What a great story.


35 posted on 09/02/2025 7:25:56 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: dadfly

What I meant to say was it was a great story about how your Mom and your Dad got together.


36 posted on 09/02/2025 7:30:25 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: Equine1952

Yep, war was Hell in both theaters but the grunts in Europe had some slight advantages over those in the Pacific islands.

Wehrmacht was formidable but not suicidal

Europe had rudimentary or better infrastructure of civilization in proximity (buildings, fresh water sources, roads, etc)

No poisonous reptiles and bugs to go along with tropical diseases, although frostbite was as bad as malaria, dysentery etc.

Better chance of civilians being non-hostile

Again I’m not saying the men on the ground in Europe had a cakewalk but their conditions and situation had some slight advantages.


37 posted on 09/02/2025 8:13:11 PM PDT by pburiak (You really think we can vote our way out of this? That's so cute...)
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To: pburiak

Very true. Plus the culture gap US/German was way smaller than US/ Japanese. I’ve got a Springfield Armory Gerand built by ladies in 1943. It’s still my favorite range weapon, I don’t have to shoot it. I just sit and shoot the bull with everyone there. 😊 regards


38 posted on 09/02/2025 8:27:00 PM PDT by Equine1952 (MM1SS )
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To: central_va

Good grief.

I doubt you would ever call someone from Japan a “Jap” to their face.

It’s a pejorative term. Grow up and stop posting ethnic slurs. We won the war.


39 posted on 09/02/2025 8:39:35 PM PDT by Fury
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To: Fury

Nothing wrong with using the term to refer to the ones from that era. I would never use it to refer a modern-day person from Japan, though.


40 posted on 09/02/2025 8:44:26 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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