Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese: 沖縄戦, Hepburn: Okinawa-sen), codenamed Operation Iceberg,[24]: 17 was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army.[25][26] The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II.[27][28] The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March by the 77th Infantry Division. The 82-day battle lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945. 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.
For the film, see Battle of Okinawa (film).
The United States created the Tenth Army, a cross-branch force consisting of the U.S. Army 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions with the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Marine Divisions, to fight on the island. The Tenth Army was unique in that it had its own Tactical Air Force (joint Army-Marine command) and was supported by combined naval and amphibious forces. Opposing the Allied forces on the ground was the Japanese Thirty-Second Army. The Battle of Okinawa was the single longest sustained carrier campaign of the Second World War.[29]
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, known in Japanese as "tetsu no bōfū".[30][31] The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was the bloodiest and fiercest of the Pacific War, with some 50,000 Allied and around 100,000 Japanese casualties,[32][16]: 473–474 also including local Okinawans conscripted into the Japanese Army.[21] According to local authorities, at least 149,425 Okinawan people were killed, died by coerced suicide or went missing.[33]
In the naval operations surrounding the battle, both sides lost considerable numbers of ships and aircraft, including the Japanese battleship Yamato. After the battle, Okinawa provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in proximity to Japan for US forces in preparation for a planned invasion of the Japanese home islands.
American aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill burns after being hit by two kamikaze planes within 30 seconds.
– 13 April
Beauford T. Anderson
– 16 April
Richard E. Bush
– 2 May
Robert Eugene Bush
– 14–15 May
Henry A. Courtney Jr.
– 31 May
Clarence B. Craft
– 14–17 May
James L. Day
– 29 April – 21 May
Desmond Doss
– 7 May
John P. Fardy
– 2 May
William A. Foster
– 15 April
Harold Gonsalves
– 10 May
William D. Halyburton Jr.
– 7 May
Dale M. Hansen
– 14 May
Louis J. Hauge Jr.
– 4 May
Elbert L. Kinser
– 8 June
Fred F. Lester
– 19–21 April
Martin O. May
– 10–11 June
Richard M. McCool Jr.
– 7 June
Robert M. McTureous Jr.
– 19 June
John W. Meagher
– 9 April
Edward J. Moskala
– 15–16 May
Joseph E. Muller
– 28 April
Alejandro R. Ruiz
– 7 May
Albert E. Schwab
– 11 May
Seymour W. Terry
Himeyuri students
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
History of the Ryukyus
Josef R. Sheetz
Rape during the occupation of Japan
Suicide in Japan
Okinawa Memorial Day
Naval Base Okinawa
Marine Corps Air Station Futenma
Camp Hansen
Torii Station
Camp Schwab
Camp Foster
Camp Kinser
Giretsu Kuteitai
Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum
Alexander, Joseph (1995). (PDF). U.S. Marine Corps History Division. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
The Final Campaign: Marines in the Victory on Okinawa
Appleman, Roy; Burns, James; Gugeler, Russel; Stevens, John (1948). . United States Army Center of Military History. ISBN 1410222063. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
Okinawa: The Last Battle
Fisch, Arnold G. Jr. (2004). . World War II Campaign Brochures. Washington, DC: United States Army Center of Military History. ISBN 0160480329. CMH Pub 72-35. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
Ryukyus
Hobbs, David (2012). The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy's Most Powerful Strike Force. Seaforth Publishing. 978-1783469222.
ISBN
(2002) [1960]. Victory in the Pacific, 1945, vol. 14 of. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252070658. OCLC 1036894412.
Morison, Samuel Eliot
Nash, Douglas (2015). (PDF). U.S. Marine Corps History Division. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
Battle of Okinawa III MEF Staff Ride Battle Book
Nichols, Charles; Shaw, Henry (1955). (PDF). Government Printing Office. ASIN B00071UAT8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
Okinawa: Victory in the Pacific
Astor, Gerald (1996). . Dell. ISBN 0440221781.
Operation Iceberg: The Invasion and Conquest of Okinawa in World War II
Buckner, Simon; Stilwell, Joseph (2004). Nicholas Evan Sarantakes (ed.). Seven Stars: The Okinawa Battle Diaries of Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. and Joseph Stilwell.
Coski, John M. (2005). . United States of America: First Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674019830. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem
Feifer, George (2001). The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb. The Lyons Press. 1585742155.
ISBN
(1999). Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Random House. ISBN 978-0679414247.
Frank, Richard B.
Hallas, James H. (2006). Killing Ground on Okinawa: The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill. Potomac Books. 1597970638.
ISBN
Hastings, Max (2008) [2007]. . New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0307263513.
Retribution – The Battle for Japan, 1944–45
Lacey, Laura Homan (2005). . Potomac Books. ISBN 1574889524.
Stay Off The Skyline: The Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa – An Oral History
Manchester, William (1980). Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War. Boston; Toronto: Little, Brown and Co. 0316545015.
ISBN
Sledge, E. B.; Fussell, Paul (1990). . Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195067142., famous Marine memoir
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
Sloan, Bill (2007). The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945 – The Last Epic Struggle of World War II. Simon & Schuster. 978-0743292467.
ISBN
(2020). Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944–1945. New York: W.W. Norton.
Toll, Ian W.
Yahara, Hiromichi (2001). The Battle for Okinawa. John Wiley & Sons. 0471180807. – Firsthand account of the battle by a surviving Japanese officer.
ISBN
Dyer, George Carroll (1956). . United States Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
"The Amphibians Came to Conquer: The Story of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner"
Huber, Thomas M. (May 1990). . Leavenworth Papers. United States Army Command and General Staff College. Archived from the original on 16 December 2006. Retrieved 20 November 2006.
"Japan's Battle of Okinawa, April–June 1945"
A film clip is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
"footage from the National Archives.By Sgt. Rhodes"
A film clip is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
"Landings On Okinawa, 1945/04/09 (1945)"
A film clip is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
"Argentine Admitted To World Parley, 1945/05/03 (1945)"
A film clip is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
"Final Days of Struggle in Okinawa, 1945/07/05 (1945)"
New Zealand account with reference to Operation Iceberg
Cornerstone of Peace
Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum
The Peace Learning Archive in OKINAWA
A photographic record of aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, 1944–45, including Operation Iceberg, the attack on the Sakashimas
Archived 26 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS
Operation Iceberg Operational Documents
Archived 14 December 2012 at archive.today from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University
Oral history interview with Mike Busha, a member of the 6th Marine Division during the Battle of Okinawa
Archived 12 December 2012 at archive.today from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University