The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle was also killed by Japanese machine gun fire on Ie Shima, a small island just off of northwestern Okinawa. Among the 21 male and female secondary schools that made up these student corps, 2,000 students would die on the battlefield. Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. Page 45 of 48 - About 479 Essays The Bravery And Powerful Leader In The Movie Hacksaw Ridge. Due to the surrender, the next anticipated series of battles – an invasion of the Japanese homeland – never occurred. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, 340 mi (550 km) away. To avoid the mass number of fatality, Truman believed in order to save his military, the dropping of the atomic bomb was necessary. 300,000. Although flame tanks cleared many cave defenses, there was no breakthrough, and the XXIV Corps suffered 720 casualties. Local residents have protested against the size and presence of the base. By the time the Battle of Okinawa came to an end on 22 June, American forces had suffered more than 45,000 casualties, including 12,500 killed. Morale was dangerously low by the month of May and the state of discipline on a moral basis had a new low barometer for acceptable behavior. This includes stories of rape after trading sexual favors or even marrying Americans,[75] such as the alleged incident in the village of Katsuyama, where civilians said they had formed a vigilante group to ambush and kill three black American soldiers who they claimed would frequently rape the local girls there. 7,400–10,755 captured. In March 2007, the national Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) advised textbook publishers to reword descriptions that the embattled Imperial Japanese Army forced civilians to kill themselves in the war to avoid being taken prisoner. In addition, 142,058 civilians became casualties. No Marine regiment in the history of the Corps has ever suffered such high casualties in a single battle as the 29th Marines did on Okinawa. The invasion was supported by a fleet consisting of 18 battleships, 27 cruisers, 177 destroyers/destroyer escorts, 39 aircraft carriers (11 fleet carriers, 6 light carriers and 22 escort carriers) and various support and troop transport ships. Others died of starvation as the Japanese occupying forces stockpiled the island’s food supplies. Americans always had great compassion, especially for children. The land battle took place over about 81 days beginning on April 1, 1945. This mobilization was conducted by an ordinance of the Ministry of the Army, not by law. "[62], With the impending Japanese defeat, civilians often committed mass suicide, urged on by the Japanese soldiers who told locals that victorious American soldiers would go on a rampage of killing and raping. The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. [60] This was the first battle in the Pacific War in which thousands of Japanese soldiers surrendered or were captured. Here, the terrain was mountainous and wooded, with the Japanese defenses concentrated on Yae-Dake, a twisted mass of rocky ridges and ravines on the center of the peninsula. Now we fired indiscriminately. The 32nd Army initially consisted of the 9th, 24th, and 62nd Divisions, and the 44th Independent Mixed Brigade. During the 1945 battle, the Imperial Japanese Army showed indifference to Okinawans' safety, and its soldiers even used civilians as human shields or just outright murdered them. According to the account of the battle presented in Marine Corps Gazette: More mental health issues arose from the Battle of Okinawa than any other battle in the Pacific during World War II. While no major allied warships were lost, several fleet carriers were severely damaged. The losses might have been greater except for the fact that the Japanese had practically all of their infantry reserves tied up farther south, held there by another feint off the Minatoga beaches by the 2nd Marine Division that coincided with the attack. The result, whether voluntary or enforced by the Japanese, was mass suicides among the civilian population. The Japanese would hold each line of defence until the last possible moment, expending great manpower in the process, but when it became untenable they would retreat to the next line and begin the process again. [82], The Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburō Ōe wrote a booklet which states that the mass suicide order was given by the military during the battle. The effort led the 32nd Army's staff to conclude that the Americans were vulnerable to night infiltration tactics, but that their superior firepower made any offensive Japanese troop concentrations extremely dangerous, and they reverted to their defensive strategy. Japan surrendered in August 1945, after being bombed twice with atomic weapons . The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties on both sides: at least 50,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese,[27][28] including drafted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. "[77][78], On September 29, 2007, about 110,000 people held the biggest political rally in the history of Okinawa to demand that MEXT retract its order to textbook publishers regarding revising the account of the civilian suicides. More than one US commander died during the bloody Battle of Okinawa. It also resulted in the largest casualties with over 100,000 Japanese casualties and 50,000 casualties for the Allies. The Japanese lost 16 combat vessels, including the super battleship Yamato. Casualties and Deaths: Total: 84,570: Total: 105,755+ 12,513 killed 38,916 wounded, 33,096 non-combat losses: About 95,000+ killed 7,400–10,755 captured: Part of World War II: The Battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, formed a part of the Pacific War during World War II. By this point, the bulk of the Japanese forces in the north (codenamed Udo Force) were cornered on the Motobu Peninsula. Rape by Japanese troops reportedly "became common"[attribution needed] in June, after it became clear that the Imperial Japanese Army had been defeated. At the end of April, after Army forces had pushed through the Machinato defensive line,[44] the 1st Marine Division relieved the 27th Infantry Division, and the 77th Infantry Division relieved the 96th. At Okinawa, they came en masse.eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'historyhit_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_15',143,'0','0'])); Almost 1500 pilots hurled their aircraft at the warships of the US 5th and British Pacific Fleets, sinking or damaging about 30 vessels. This time, Ushijima attempted to make amphibious assaults on the coasts behind American lines. Some of the other islands that saw major battles in World War II, such as Iwo Jima, were uninhabited or had been evacuated. Colonel Yahara had asked Ushijima for permission 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. S. Nichols, Jr., USMC and Henry I. Shaw, Jr", "The Final Campaign: Marines in the Victory on Okinawa (Assault on Shuri)", "Battle of Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War", "The Cornerstone of Peace – names to be inscribed", "Okinawa marks 62nd anniversary of WWII battle", "Ernie Pyle, trail-blazing war correspondent—Brought home the tragedy of D-Day and the rest of WWII", United States Army Center of Military History, "Japan's Battle of Okinawa, April–June 1945", "The Basic Concept of the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum", "1945 suicide order still a trauma on Okinawa", "Japan's Textbooks Reflect Revised History", "EDITORIAL – Cornerstone of Peace: A Legacy of Bloodshed", "Military Intelligence Service Research Center: Okinawa", Defiant soldier saved lives of hundreds of civilians during Okinawa battle, "Pressure to prove loyalty paved way for mass suicides in Battle of Okinawa – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun", "3 Dead Marines and a Secret of Wartime Okinawa", "JAPAN Okinawa against Tokyo's attempts to rewrite history – Asia News", "110,000 protest history text revision order", Japan to amend textbook accounts of Okinawa suicides, Texts reinstate army's role in mass suicides: Okinawa prevails in history row, Oe testifies military behind Okinawa mass suicides, Director humanizes tragedy of Okinawan mass suicides, New high school texts say Japanese Imperial Army ordered WWII Okinawa suicides, "Second battle of Okinawa looms as China's naval ambition grows". The 10th Army swept across the south-central part of the island with relative ease, capturing the Kadena and the Yomitan airbases within hours of the landing. Total aircraft in the American Navy, Marine, and Army Air Force exceeded 3000 over the course of the battle, including fighters, attack aircraft, scout planes, bombers and dive-bombers. Four days from the closing of the campaign, Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire, which blew lethal slivers of coral into his body, while inspecting his troops at the front line. The U.S. Navy lost 36 ships with over 360 damaged. The Tenth was unique in that it had its own Tactical Air Force (joint Army-Marine command), and was also supported by combined naval and amphibious forces. 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