The Freeper Foxhole Revisits The Invasion of Okinawa (4/1/1945)- April 01, 2005

.......

Battle of Okinawa Survivor Remembers
By: Ruth Ann Keyso

"My father always warned me not to be captured by the Americans during the war," Junko Isa revealed as we sipped root beer at the A & W. Restaurant. "If they catch you, they'll do with you as they please, he used to tell me." Then she paused reflectively. "When I was eventually discovered by the Americans, do you know what they did?" She asked me, not waiting for an answer. "They took me to a field hospital up North where they fixed my ankle and fed me."

Junko Isa is a survivor of the Battle of Okinawa that ravaged the island half a century ago. When the village in which she was living was bombed, she and her family fled South toward Shuri. Along the way they sought shelter in natural caves and abandoned houses, surviving for weeks on imozuku, a mixture of potato starch, water, and sugar. Isa was eventually discovered by US troops while crouching in a water tank with her eleven year-old sister and 10 month-old brother. The other five members of her family, including her mother, father, and grandmother, had been killed in the fighting that devastated the island for 82 days in the spring of 1945.

Profoundly affected by the tragedy that claimed the lives of her loved ones, Isa decided to speak out against war and to encourage young people throughout the country to preserve peace in the future. She spends much of her current time lecturing students in Okinawa and on the mainland about the atrocity that she endured over fifty years ago. Repeatedly reliving the experience is painful, Isa admits, but "it is worth it if young people learn something about the history of the battle and the circumstances under which the islanders struggled."

Junko Isa was fourteen years old when the United States invaded Okinawa on Easter Sunday, Apr. 1, 1945. A young girl, she spent the following three months as a fugitive hurrying from place to place, with her worldly possessions on her back. She and her family rested only occasionally when they happened upon a natural cave or man-made subterranean hideaway. Traveling by night to avoid detection by the enemy, they stumbled silently along dark roads, sometimes not knowing in which direction they were heading.

"As we walked along, we didn't say a word to one another," Isa recalled. "Sometimes my mom would say something like, 'Watch out!' or 'Be quiet,' but we never had a conversation or anything. In fact, she smiled weakly, "I thought I'd forget how to talk because I never had a chance to do so at that time!"

Occasionally an enemy flare illuminated their trail, lighting up the region to reveal ghastly sights.

"I remember glancing over once to see an arm hanging from a tree branch. "Just below that was a decapitated body," Isa san said emotionlessly. "There were body parts absolutely everywhere. I think I became sort of numb to the sight. I never got sick or cried out when I saw such gruesome things," she insisted. Then she chuckled softly in spite of herself. "Despite witnessing all of this," she confessed, "I still believed wholeheartedly in Japan's ability to win that war."

Isa's war wounds, both physical and psychological, are indelible. She walks with a slight limp, the result of a shrapnel wound to her ankle. She is still haunted by ghoulish memories of the battle. She vividly recalls the piles of putrid corpses lining the roads, sickening stench of urine and feces in the caves, the dirt moist with blood and rain, and the unforgettable feel of earth beneath her feet.

Like all Okinawans who survived the battle, Isa endured a litany of hardships. By sharing those experiences with others, she is contributing to history and working to prevent a repeat of such a tragedy.

............

LST 794 at the Invasion of Okinawa

The sequence of events described below is roughly chronological

Preparation

The invasion of Okinawa, known as Operation Iceberg, had been in the planning stage since the fall of 1944. Okinawa was needed as an air base and staging area for the anticipated invasion of Japan. When the '794 was first sent to the Pacific in late 1944, she was equipped specifically for this operation. After training with amphibious troops of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regt. 6th Marine Division on Guadalcanal, she embarked with those same troops for the staging area at Ulithi atoll. On March 25th, she departed Ulithi, headed for Okinawa with the rest of the invasion fleet.

L-Day

On April 1st, 1945, the '794 arrived at northern Hagushi beaches of Okinawa and launched her troops of the 1st Battalion., 4th Marine Regt., 6th Marine Division. First out of the hold were 13 amphibious tanks. Next out were the Marine troops in amphibious tractors (amphtracs). Fortunately, resistance on the beach was light and the 1st Battalion did not meet serious enemy resistance until their second day ashore, as they moved toward the town of Ishikawa on the Eastern coast.

Don McKay recalls a friendly fire incident which took place on that day:

Just after dawn on April 1st, a 'kingfisher' OS2U observation plane had been catapulted from one of the capital ships and was observing the effectivness of the heavy bombardment on the beach when it happened to swing over our LST task group. One of the ships started firing, and soon others joined in,sadly down went the plane. I'm certain that our guns did not fire. Commander Ageton who was in command of the group blasted out over the radio "Hope you dumb bastards are satisfied, you just shot down one of our own." Our guys were trained to wait for the order to commence firing. So the Commander's remarks from his capital ship, did not apply to us. Two or three minutes later we sailed right up to the spot where the crash took place. I looked down from the conn. No sign of the tiny mustard colored plane. No sign of the pilot. Just small bits of wreckage and an enlarging, blue, green oil slick.

JAPANESE KAMIKAZE ATTACKS were a constant menace to the American fleet. Here a Kamikaze plane, falling short of its target, plunges into the sea after being riddled by antiaircraft fire from an American cruiser.

Lt. Cain (the Captain) and Ensign Goodman (Gunnery officer) obviously trained the '794 gun crews well. They did not panic and kept their fingers off the triggers without a clear order to fire.

According to Morison (History of the United States Navy in World War II; Victory in the Pacific 1945, Vol. XIV, p173)

"LST's of Captain J.S. Laidlaw's Northern Tractor Flotilla were overloaded with cargo, amphtracs, land tanks, dukws, wheeled vehicles, engineer equipment and naval ammunition. Twenty-nine LST's carried pontoon barges or causeway sets secured alongside, 16 carried LCT's on their decks (note: the 794 carried BOTH!), and none of these could be unloaded promptly; vehicles stowed in an LCT, and naval ammunition stowed under them, had to be removed before the landing craft could be launched. LST stowage in this operation was something like those Chinese nests of boxes which must be unpacked in order, or not at all.

Although each LST in the transport area discharged her men and amphtracs in time to land on schedule, the LST's themselves were delayed coming into the northern beaches until L-day plus 1, when eleven slots were ready for them on Beaches Blue 1 and Yellow 2. Unloading continued all night from 2 April on, with the aid of lights."

According to the ship's log, after launching her Marines at 7:00 am, the ship moved several times during the day, and stood into the beach at 12:38 in the afternoon. That evening, the '794 was anchored one mile off of GREEN BEACH TWO and unloaded ammunition until there were no more vehicles available to carry it - around 9 pm. Watches were set overnight on the bow doors and the port and starboard pontoons to guard against possible underwater demolition.

The next day, the LCT 1392 was launched from the main deck. The pontoon bridging units that the ship had carried all the way from the States were also launched. The crew spent the next six days unloading priority cargo for the troops ashore.

For the invasion of Okinawa, the '794 was loaded with 5 inch ammunition, which was stored in shipping tubes on the tank deck. The ammo was then covered over with miscellaneous building lumber. Amphibious vehicles were driven in and parked on top of the stacked "floor" of ammunition. Good thing they didn't get hit! On the morning of April 3, the '794 offloaded her ammunition to the destroyer Heywood L. Edwards, DD-663, one of the antiaircraft picket ships that protected the landing areas.

As the first line of defense against incoming Kamikaze planes, the picket ships took a tremendous beating. Overall, in the Okinawa campaign, 30 Naval ships were sunk, mostly by Kamikaze attacks, and 368 were damaged. Over 49,000 sailors were killed or missing and 4824 were wounded. The Heywood L. Edwards survived this campaign and the war. In 1959 she was loaned to the Japanese Navy! where she served as the Ariake.

Kamikaze Attacks: Operation Ten-Go

The Japanese plan for defending Okinawa called for massive Kamikaze attacks to destroy the U.S. Naval forces. The Kamikaze plan, Operation Ten-Go, commenced on April sixth with assaults by 699 Japanese aircraft. 355 of them were Kamikazes.

On the April sixth, the flotilla was attacked several times by Kamikazes. In one incident, three planes were shot down about two miles from the ship. In the second incident, one plane came in very close. With every ship in the area firing, the attack was defeated. The plane crashed into the water between the '794 and the ship to starboard. On impact, the propeller popped off and landed on the aft deck of the neighboring ship. During this attack, four of the crew (Felix Mangin, Marcus Holmes, Arnold Lucas, and Charles Murphy) were wounded by 20mm shell fragments fired from from neighboring ships! They later recieved Purple Heart medals.

April 7th, another attack. On the '794, Raymond H. Charitat of the Navy 58th construction battalion was injured in the head by flying shrapnel.

Departure for Resupply

On April 11, the '794 left Okinawa for the Saipan to load reinforcements and supplies. By May 14, the ship was back at Okinawa unloading once again. On May 20, 1945 the LST 794 left Okinawa for other assignments in the Phillipines.

Okinawa is Taken

For over two months, the Marines on Okinawa faced some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, but finally, on June 21, the island was declared taken:

The ship returned to Okinawa late in September and had to leave the Hagushi anchorage in early October to avoid a severe typhoon. They weathered it at sea.

Additional Sources:

www.japanupdate.com
members.global2000.net
www.ritsumei.ac.jp
www.army.mil
memory.loc.gov
www.archives.pref.okinawa.jp
www.gate39.com
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Invasion of Okinawa (4/1/1945)- Apr. 01, 2003

'Okinawa was the site of the only land battle in Japan during the War. American forces landed on the Kerama Islands in Okinawa on March 26, 1945, then moved onto the main island of Okinawa on April 1st. Pitched battles continued on the ground until the Japanese army's last stand in the south of the island in June. Unable to rely only on the strength of its soldiers, the Japanese side drafted civilians into a "volunteer corps" and sent them into battle. As a result, a vast number of citizens in the prefecture, including both elderly residents and children, fell victim to the war. In fact, the number of civilian deaths surpassed the loss of military personnel in this battle. While the residents were fighting for their homes and lives, the Japanese authorities were using the Battle of Okinawa to buy time for what they thought would be the decisive battle of the war: the impending battle for mainland Japan.'

-- Kyoto Museum for World Peace,
Ritsumeikan University

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Fallin' in, Snippy...MUD

Good morning

April 1, 2005

Broken Things

Read:
Psalm 31:9-24

I am like a broken vessel. -Psalm 31:12

Bible In One Year: 1 Samuel 21-24

cover Few unbroken lives in this world are useful to God. Few men and women can fulfill their hopes and plans without some interruption and disappointment along the way.

But man's disappointments are often God's appointments, and the things we believe are tragedies may be the very opportunities through which God chooses to exhibit His love and grace. We have but to follow these lives to the end to see that people who have been broken become better and more effective Christians than if they had carried out all their own plans and purposes.

Are you, my friend, being broken today? Has the dearest thing in your life been torn away? Then remember that if you could see the purpose of it all from God's standpoint, you would praise the Lord.

The best things that come to us are not those that accrue from having our way, but by letting God have His way. Though the way of testing and trial and sorrow often seems hard and cruel, it is the way of God's love and in the end will be the best for us.

Remember, we have the Lord's promise: "No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). -M. R. De Haan, M.D.

Then trust in God through all thy days;
Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;
Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,
Sometime, sometime, we'll understand. -Cornelius

For a Christian, wholeness always comes after brokenness.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Why Would A Good God Allow Suffering?
Knowing God Through Job

First in! Good morning Mud.

Good morning Gail.

Good message. Good morning Mayor.

"One Sleazy Rider"
(To be sung to Charlie Daniels Band's "Uneasy Rider")

Bill was takin' a trip back to A-R-K,
Toolin' along in his Cabriolet,
Tokin' on a number and diggin' on the radio.
Just as he crossed that ol' Virginny line,
He heard that highway start to whine,
And he knew that left rear tire was about to go!
Well, the spare was flat and he got uptight,
Becuz there wasn't a fillin' station in sight,
So he just limped on down the shoulder on the rim.
He went as far as he could and when he stopped the car...
It was right in front of my little bar,
Kind of a pool-hall-lookin' joint called "The Libertarian".

Well, Slick stuffed his hair up under his hat,
And arrogantly announced that he had a flat,
And would I accept some weed in exchange for a new one?
Well, there was one thing I was sure glad to see,
Wasn't a soul in the place 'cept fer him and me,
And he looked so disgustin', I just pointed towards the telephone.
He called up dead's station down the road aways,
And dead said he wasn't very busy today,
And he could be there in about ten minutes or so.
Slick said, "My names Bill the New DemocRAT!!"
And I didn't bother to tell the durn fool that
I sure as Hell don't care fer Left-wing politicos.

He just ordered up a spritzer and sat down at my bar,
When some guy walks in and says, "Who owns this car...
With the peace sign, freak wheels, and astroturf floor?"
Well, we looked at Bill and he damned near cried,
And decided that he'd just wait outside,
So he laid a dollar on the bar and headed for the door.
Just when he thought he'd get outta there with his skin,
These five REAL MEN come strollin' in,
With this Angelique chick and a young fella named Gingrich!!
And he was almost to the door when stand watie said,
"You tip your hat to this lady, son!"
But when he did all that hair fell out from underneath.

Now the last thing Bill wanted was to get in a fight,
Anywhere, anytime, as he quivered in fright,
'Specially since he's a yella punk and fightin' made him pee!
But they all started laughin' and he felt kinda sick,
And he knew he better think of something pretty quick,
So he just reached out and kicked Newt Gingrich right in the knee!!
Newt let out a yell that'd curl your hair,
But before Slick could move, I grabbed me a chair...
And said, "Watch him folks, becuz he's a thoroughly dangerous man!
Well, you may not know it, but this man's a spy,
He's a Soviet mole and awfully sly,
And he's been sent down here to denigrate ol' Uncle Sam!"

Newt was still bent over holdin' onto his knee,
But all them FReepers wuz lookin' and listenin' to me,
And I told how Bill was drafted and never ever went!
I said, "Would you believe that this man has gone so far...
As puttin' Stalin stickers on the bumpers of cars,
And he voted for George McGovern for President!!
Well, he's one of them long-haired, pretty-boy Left-wing nags,
I betcha he's even got a Commie flag,
Tacked up on his wall! To him, FReedom's just a mirage!
He's a snake in the grass, I'll tell ya guys,
He make look dumb, but that's just a disguise,
'Cuz he's a mastermind in the ways of espionage!"
They all started lookin' real suspicious at Billy,
And he jumped up and said, "Now wait a minute, Sillies,
You know he's lyin', I been Conservative all of my life!
SO WHAT if I left my Country in a lurch?
I belong to the Little Rock Baptist Church,
Oh sure, I sleep with a lotta broads, but so'd you once you met my wife!"
Then Bill started whinin' 'bout the way he was stressed,
But I didn't wait for him to explain the rest,
I held off dirtboy while bouncin' Billy outta there on his butt!
And when he hit the ground he didn't relax...
'Cuz they was just takin' his car down off the jacks...
So he threw ol' dead a dime bag and fired that muthah up!!
Ol' Oprah Winfrey woulda sure got HOT...
At the way Bill was fussin' as he left my lot,
With AuntB hollerin' and chasin' him in a trot!
Now, lookin' back I shoulda let 'em have their fun,
Reckon that's I'm "The Compassionate One",
But I did join all them FReepers fer many a Tequila shot!!

Well, since that day, o'er twenty years had past,
When I realized ol' Bill's still smokin' that grass.
He was doin' the Sting as few men can...Hell! He even cut his hair!
Folks, he's had ya'll slavin' while he's spendin' and taxin',
As if Bill was our King and all loot's his for the cashin'...
Then Bill figured he oughtta split before the LAW got there.
'Cuz in his campaigns, he was caught dirty-dealin',
Influence sellin' and bimbos a'squeelin'...
But he didn't RESIGN 'til he was RE-IMPEACHED by Congress!
Folks, I think we're gonna rewrite Bill's script,
Instead of goin' workin' for that DreamWorks/Lippo Clique,
Let's sentence Bill to Leavenworth, post-President!!

FReegards...MUD (09/29/2000)

Good morning everyone.

"We are fighting. But the Marines keep coming. We are shooting, but the Marines won't stop." ^

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1375382/posts

The highest ranking American officer killed in WWII was General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr; KIA on Okinawa. His father was the Confederate General Buckner who surrendered Fort Donelson to General Ulysses Simpson Grant; giving rise to Grant's "Unconditional Surrender" nickname.

General Buckner, Jr. is also the the author of the most descriptive recipe ever for an alcoholic drink-the Mint Julep; reprinted below as he wrote it:

March 30, 1937

My dear General Connor,

Your letter requesting my formula for mixing mint juleps leaves me in the same position in which Captain Barber found himself when asked how he was able to carve the image of an elephant from a block of wood. He replied that it was a simple process consisting merely of whittling off the part that didn't look like an elephant.

The preparation of the quintessence of gentlemanly beverages can be described only in like terms. A mint julep is not the product of a FORMULA. It is a CEREMONY and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician, nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the old South, an emblem of hospitality and a vehicle in which noble minds can travel together upon the flower-strewn paths of happy and congenial thought.

So far as the mere mechanics of the operation are concerned, the procedure, stripped of its ceremonial embellishments, can be described as follows:

Go to a spring where cool, crystal-clear water bubbles from under a bank of dew-washed ferns. In a consecrated vessel, dip up a little water at the source. Follow the stream through its banks of green moss and wildflowers until it broadens and trickles through beds of mint growing in aromatic profusion and waving softly in the summer breezes. Gather the sweetest and tenderest shoots and gently carry them home. Go to the sideboard and select a decanter of Kentucky Bourbon, distilled by a master hand, mellowed with age yet still vigorous and inspiring. An ancestral sugar bowl, a row of silver goblets, some spoons and some ice and you are ready to start.

In a canvas bag, pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow, keep it dry and do not allow it to degenerate into slush.

In each goblet, put a slightly heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar, barely cover this with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Then pour elixir from the decanter until the goblets are about one-fourth full. Fill the goblets with snowy ice, sprinkling in a small amount of sugar as you fill. Wipe the outsides of the goblets dry and embellish copiously with mint.

Then comes the important and delicate operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until Nature, wishing to take a further hand and add another of its beautiful phenomena, encrusts the whole in a glittering coat of white frost. Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.

When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden, where the aroma of the juleps will rise Heavenward and make the birds sing. Propose a worthy toast, raise the goblet to your lips, bury your nose in the mint, inhale a deep breath of its fragrance and sip the nectar of the gods.

Being overcome by thirst, I can write no further.

Sincerely,

S.B. Buckner, Jr.

Thanks for the link. I was just over there leaving a link to today's thread.

Good morning feather.

It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician, nor a Yankee.

LOL. This is wonderful, thanks Mark for the information on General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr and the Mint Julep 'recipe'.

Ping to you sw.

Good morning all, hope all is well in your corner of this great country.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

It's a bit chilly here. In the 40's. Had a cold front move through. Forecast to reach into the 70's this weekend.

Broken Things

Read:Psalm 31:9-24

I am like a broken vessel. -Psalm 31:12

Bible In One Year: 1 Samuel 21-24

Read:
Psalm 31:9-24