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On this day 75 years ago, one of the most intense conflicts of World War II—the Battle of Okinawa—concluded in a historic victory for the United States.  Today, we pause to remember the more than 12,000 American heroes who perished in that monumental struggle and pay tribute to thousands of service members who were instrumental in the forces of freedom emerging triumphant.The Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II.  Dubbed Operation Iceberg, a fleet of 1,300 American ships and 50 British ships descended on the island of Okinawa in April of 1945, with a...

“If you ever want to sleep with a blonde again, you had better shoot down these bastards as soon as they come up” - a destroyer captain motivates his exhausted crew shortly before a kamikaze attack. The sea-battle toll for Okinawa that ended on June 21st 1945 was 36 U.S. warships sunk and 368 damaged. Almost 5,000 sailors were KIA and another 5,000 wounded. War naturally conjures images of courageous soldiers. Flanders Fields, Charge of the Light Brigade, and not the Coral Sea or Leyte Gulf. Too often forgotten are the heroic Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine sailors felled...

A fire at Okinawa's Shuri Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular tourist attraction on the southern Japanese island, has destroyed a large portion of the historic compound. Television video showed firefighters on Thursday trying to contain the blaze at the wooden castle. The compound's main, north and south buildings were destroyed in the fire. "The cause of the fire has not been determined yet, but a security company alarm went off at around 2:30 in the morning," said Ryo Kochi, a spokesman with the Okinawa Prefectural Police. There were no reports of injuries, but about 30 residents...

YONAGUNI, OKINAWA PREF. - A team of Japanese and Taiwanese paddlers in a dugout canoe on Tuesday successfully replicated a hypothetical human migration between Taiwan and Okinawa about 30,000 years ago. During the two-day, 200-kilometer voyage from Taitung County, southeastern Taiwan, to Yonaguni Island, Okinawa Prefecture, the team of five paddlers — one Taiwanese, three Japanese men and one Japanese woman — relied solely on the stars, sun and wind for their bearings. They departed Taiwan on Sunday afternoon in their 7.6-meter-long, 70-centimeter-wide wooden canoe, crossing the Black Stream, which begins off the Philippines and flows northeastward past Japan. The...

“If you ever want to sleep with a blonde again, you had better shoot down these bastards as soon as they come up” - a destroyer captain motivates his exhausted crew shortly before a kamikaze attack. The sea-battle toll for Okinawa, which ended on June 21st 1945, was 36 U.S. warships sunk and 368 damaged. Almost 5,000 sailors were KIA and another 5,000 wounded. War naturally conjures images of brave infantrymen. Almost 200,000 soldiers and marines rest in cemeteries around the world. Too often forgotten are the Navy and merchant sailors felled at sea. It’s understandable; there are no battlefield...

The eyes of a visiting archaeologist lit up when he was shown the 10 tiny, tarnished discs that had sat unnoticed in storage for two and a half years at a dig on a southern Japan island. He had been to archaeological sites in Italy and Egypt, and recognized the “little round things” as old coins, including a few likely dating to the Roman Empire. “I was so excited I almost forgot what I was there for, and the coins were all we talked about,” said Toshio Tsukamoto of the Gangoji Institute for Research of Cultural Property in Nara, an...

The coins were excavated from the ruins of Katsuren Castle in Okinawa Prefecture, according to the Japan Times, noting that this is the country’s first discovery of its kind. Citing the Board of Education in the city of Uruma, the Japan Times reports that the four copper coins are believed to be from the third to fourth centuries. ... X-ray analysis of the coins has apparently revealed the image of Emperor Constantine I and a soldier carrying a spear. Each coin measures 0.6 inches to 0.8 inches in diameter, according to the report.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa, Japan – Search and rescue operations were underway for U.S. Marine aircraft that were involved in a ‘mishap’ off of the coast of Japan around 2:00 a.m. Dec. 6, military officials say. The aircraft involved in the mishap had launched from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and were conducting regularly scheduled training when the mishap occurred — reportedly a refueling exercise.

The United States and Canada have cut a last minute trade deal Sunday night ahead of the midnight deadline for Canada to join the United States and Mexico in a trilateral trade arrangement.... Today is Election Day in Canada's second most populous province, Quebec. Four political parties are expected to be dividing up the 125 seats in Quebec's National Assembly.... A political party committed to reducing US military presence has won the election in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.... There's a lot of political drama in the UK amidst the Conservative Party conference with many of the faithful dismayed by...

Hermit who escaped civilization to live naked on a desert island is forced to return to Japan by authorities after 29 YEARS 82-year-old Masafumi Nagasaki 'escaped' civilisation in 1989 for life of solitude He stayed on rarely visited Sotobanari island — even fishermen don't go there But Japanese authorities moved him back to mainland after he was found 'weak' Nagasaki can't return to the island and lives 60km away in a house in the cityJapanese authorities denied a man the chance his wish to die a castaway on an island he called home for three decades. Masafumi Nagasaki was the...

As we celebrate Easter Sunday and the Jewish Passover, we should keep in our prayers and remembrances the many Americans who fought and sacrificed during that same time 73 years ago in the Battle of Okinawa. The event was Operation Iceberg. It was the bloodiest battle and the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet under Admiral Raymond Spruance attacked the Japanese-held island. They were joined by a British, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian naval task force and more than 180,000 Army soldiers and Marines. This...

Japan's Coast Guard says 4 Chinese patrol ships temporarily entered Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Friday. Coast Guard officials said the ships breached the territorial waters off Uotsuri Island in Okinawa Prefecture shortly after 10 AM. Foreign Ministry officials lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. They said intrusions into Japan's waters are an infringement of its sovereignty, and demanded that the vessels leave the area at once. The 4 ships stayed in Japan's waters for about 90 minutes before moving away. Japan controls the Senkaku Islands. The Japanese government...

Fidel Castro claims US sank South Korean warship Posted: 05 June 2010 0201 hrs HAVANA: US navy commandos sank a South Korean warship in March in order to blame North Korea, raise tensions and convince Japan to keep US forces in Okinawa, Cuban former president Fidel Castro wrote in an editorial on Friday. Castro, who based his information on press reports, blasted Washington's "cynicism" and "lack of scruples" in the incident. According to Castro, US Navy SEALS torpedoed South Korea's Cheonan corvette in a bid by Washington to sway Japan to allow a US military base to remain on Okinawa...

Japanese archaeologists said Wednesday they have for the first time unearthed ancient Roman coins at the ruins of an old castle. The discovery of 10 bronze and copper coins -- the oldest dating from about 300-400 AD -- in southern Okinawa caught researchers by surprise. It was the first time Roman Empire coins have been discovered in Japan, thousands of kilometres from where they were likely minted. "At first I thought they were one cent coins dropped by US soldiers," archaeologist Hiroki Miyagi told AFP. "But after washing them in water I realised they were much older. I was really...

A U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced Friday to two-and-a-half years hard labor for raping a Japanese tourist in Okinawa. Justin Castellanos, 24, who was based in the district's Camp Schwab, pleaded guilty in May to raping the 40-year-old victim in his hotel room in Naha, south Japan on March 13. The serviceman had found the woman, who was drunk and asleep in the hotel lobby, and taken her up to his room where he assaulted her. 'I am sorry for what I have done,' he told the court. 'My heart is filled with regret,' Stars and Stripes reports.

YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) – Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet (C7F) and Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Japan (CNFJ) announced temporary liberty curtailment and restrictions on alcohol consumption for all Sailors in Japan as a response to a recent trend of alcohol-related incidents detrimental to the U.S.-Japan Alliance. Effective immediately, Sailors are prohibited from drinking alcohol, on and off base. Additionally, all off-base liberty will be curtailed. Sailors who live off base will be permitted to travel to and from work and engage in official actions such as childcare drop-off and pickup, trips to the grocery store, gas stations or the gym. The...

Japanese leaders reacted with outrage after a U.S. Marine veteran was arrested Thursday in connection with the death of a Japanese woman near a U.S. air base on the island of Okinawa. Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a 32-year-old civilian contractor at Kadena Air Base, admitted to strangling the woman, his defense attorney told Stars and Stripes — though the attorney questioned the condition under the which the admission was made. Rina Shimabukuro had been missing since last month. The 20-year-old’s body was discovered in a wooded location Thursday after Gadson told investigators where to look, according to the Associated Press.

It’s hard to believe the resolve the United States once showed in defeating enemies. One wonders if in a 24/7 news cycle of “living room wars” whether this nation could have ever mounted the sustained effort it took to join the Allies in stopping Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Americans today would find such will to win at any cost difficult to comprehend. Perhaps with Easter just passed, it is fitting to remember Easter of 1945 when the invasion of Okinawa, the last battle of World War II and the largest sea-air-land operation in history, began. It would also be...

Video at link shows the apology yesterday made by the senior Marine Corps brass in Okinawa, Japan over a increasingly hot situation in the form of an alleged rape of a Japanese woman in a hotel room by a Marine stationed in the island. I believe the alleged perp has been remanded to Japanese custody where he will face the Jaoanwse justice system.

A controversial plan to move a U.S. Marine Corps base within Okinawa in southern Japan has been pushed back by two years, America's top military official in the Pacific said. Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said Tuesday that the shift of the Futenma air station to a less congested part of Okinawa island would not happen until 2025 because work on a new facility has been delayed. "It's slowed," he told a congressional committee in Washington. "It's a little over two years late. ... Now we're looking at 2025 before that's done." The project faces stiff...