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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.

The super battleship Yamato explodes after persistent attacks from US aircraft.

The super battleship Yamato explodes after persistent attacks from US aircraft.

American aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill burns after being hit by two kamikaze planes within 30 seconds.

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

Rottman, Gordon (2002). Okinawa 1945: The last Battle. Osprey Publishing.  1841765465.

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

Zaloga, Steven (2007). Japanese Tanks 1939–45. Osprey Publishing.  978-1846030918.

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)"

Archived 26 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine

US military on the Battle of Okinawa

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 10 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine – slideshow by Life magazine

WWII: Battle of Okinawa

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

Oral history interview with Albert D'Amico, a Navy Veteran who was aboard LST 278 during the landing at Okinawa

Booknotes interview with Robert Leckie on Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II, September 3, 1995.