Battle of Okinawa
1945 major battle of the Pacific War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Okinawa was a great battle of World War II. It took place on Okinawa Island in the Ryukyu Islands (south of the four big islands of Japan). The battle was between the military forces of the Empire of Japan and the Allies. It was the second biggest amphibious battle (from sea to land) of World War II, after the Battle of Normandy. It was also one of the longest battles in history, from April to June 1945. The Allies won the battle and occupied Okinawa. Today, Okinawa is Japanese territory, but there are still American military bases there.
Battle of Okinawa | |||||||
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Part of World War II, the Pacific War | |||||||
A Marine from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines on Wana Ridge provides covering fire with his Thompson submachine gun, May, 1945 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States United Kingdom | Empire of Japan | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Simon Bolivar Buckner † Chester W. Nimitz |
Mitsuru Ushijima † Minoru Ota † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
183,000[1] | 117,000[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
12,513 killed 38,916 wounded, 33,096 non-combat losses |
About 95,000 killed 7,400–10,755 captured | ||||||
Estimated 42,000–150,000 civilians killed |
The Battle of Okinawa is considered to be the last major battle of World War II. The Americans were planning Operation Downfall, the invasion of the four great islands of Japan. This never happened, since the Japanese surrendered after the American use of the atomic bomb in August 1945 (first in Hiroshima, and a second time in Nagasaki) and the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan.
The battle has been called "Typhoon of Steel" in English, and "tetsu no ame," "tetsu no bōfū" by the people of Okinawa, which mean "rain of steel" and "violent wind of steel", because of the very heavy firing of guns and bombs at this battle.
Some battles, such as the Battle of Iwo Jima, had no civilians present, but Okinawa had a large civilian population. The civilians killed or injured in the battle were at least 150,000. American deaths were 18,900 killed or missing and 53,000 injured, more than double of the soldiers killed at Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal put together. Several thousand soldiers who died from wounds and other causes after the battle had finished, are not included. About a third of the civilian population of the island were killed.
There were about 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed and 7,000 captured. Some of the soldiers committed seppuku or simply blew themselves up with grenades. Some of the civilians, convinced by Japanese propaganda that the Americans were barbarians who did terrible things to prisoners, killed their families and themselves to avoid capture.
In 1945, Winston Churchill called the battle "among the most intense and famous in military history."'