June 22, 1945, Okinawa: After 83 days, the largest combined air-land-sea battle in history was over. Losses were staggering - some 7,600 U.S. Army and Marine deaths, 5,000 Navy deaths, more than 100,000 Japanese soldiers, and more than 50,000 Okinawa civilians. Thirty-six Allied ships were sunk and 368 damaged, mostly by Japanese suicide planes, the Kamikazes. Some 763 American planes were lost. Add to this the thousands of Japanese sailors killed, 7,800 Japanese aircraft and 16 ships. American torpedoes and carrier-based aircraft sank the world's largest and most formidable super battleship, the Yamoto. Only 269 Japanese crewmen out of 3,000 survived that debacle.
Yet, this monumental battle is practically lost to the collective American memory - lost in the fog of history because of the dramatic history-making events that occurred so rapidly during, and immediately after, the battle.
Let's review some of the events that occurred from April through August of 1945.
April 1, 1945: Two Army and two Marine divisions hit the beaches of Okinawa.
April 12: A mere 11 days later, President Roosevelt died. He was first elected in 1932. The teenagers doing the fighting, born during the mid-1920s, never knew another president and Commander in Chief. FDR was replaced by the man from Missouri, Harry Truman, who first learned of the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb upon assuming the presidency. The Soviets already knew about it, thanks to Klaus Fuchs who was leaking secrets from Los Alamos while J. Edgar Hoover and his gumshoes were shadowing J. Robert Oppenheimer instead.
April 16: As the fighting raged on Okinawa, the Allied powers closed in on Berlin. The Battle of Berlin eclipsed the Army's 77th Division landing on Ie Shima, a small island adjacent to Okinawa on which war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gunner.
May 2: The battle for Berlin ends with an Allied victory.
May 8: VE Day, Victory in Europe, while the Battle of Okinawa was still raging.
May 20: The Japanese withdraw from China. Defense of their homeland has priority.
May 25: U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff approve Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan, scheduled for Nov.1.
June 9: Premier Suzuki announces that Japan will fight to the bitter end rather than accept unconditional surrender. This is an ominous message to the GIs who survived the European War and the troops who survived the bloody Pacific battles.
June 18: Japanese resistance ends on Mindanao of the Philippines.
June 22: After 83 days of fighting, Japanese resistance finally ends on Okinawa. The heavy Army, Navy, and Marine losses were seen as only a preamble to the impending invasion of Japan's mainland with an anticipated half million Allied casualties, at a minimum.
Between March 10 and the end of June, B-29s have been systematically bombing and destroying Japan's major cities. Over that period, some 2,000 B-29s had bombed Tokyo, much of it low altitude firebombing designed by Gen. Curtis Lemay. A single raid on March 10, dropping incendiaries, had destroyed nearly 25 percent of Tokyo, and killed more than 100,000 people,
June 26: A mere six days after Okinawa is secured, MacArthur announces the end of Japanese resistance in the Philippines.
July 5: Liberation of the Philippines is formally declared, enabling MacArthur to make good on his promise, "I shall return."
July 5: England holds its first general election since 1935. Results aren't immediately known.
July 14: The first naval bombardment of Japan's home islands.
July 16: The first atomic bomb is successfully tested at New Mexico's Trinity Site.
July 17: The Potsdam Conference commences. Truman, Stalin, and Churchill meet in Occupied Germany to discuss post-war order and treaty issues.
July 21: Components of the "Little Boy" are unloaded at Tinian in the Marianas.
July 26: In a surprising landslide victory, Clement Atlee replaces Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of England, and joins the Potsdam Conference.
Aug. 2: The Potsdam Conference ends.
Among the results of the Okinawan campaign is the reaffirmation of the tenacity with which the Japanese will fight to defend their home islands. Fierce Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima and Okinawa convinced President Truman that invasion of Japan would produce staggering, American casualties. It would be Truman's decision to drop the bomb in hope of bringing about Japanese surrender.
Aug. 6: The "Little Boy" is dropped on Hiroshima.
Aug. 8: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.
Aug. 9: The "Fat Man" is dropped on Nagasaki.
Aug. 14: Japan accepts unconditional surrender.
Sept. 2: VJ Day.
The most costly battle of the Pacific War lasted a bloody 83 days. Fifty-three days later, the war was dramatically and unexpectedly over. Tens of thousands of Marines and soldiers who faced near certain death would live, as would tens of thousands of Japanese combatants and civilians who would have been killed during invasion. In exchange, tens of thousands of others would die from the nuclear blasts.
The decision to drop the nuclear bombs is still debated. But one thing is sure - thousands of Marines and soldiers were exuberant. They would not die on Japanese beaches. It was fierce Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima, and finally on Okinawa, that factored into Truman's decision to use the bomb.
As one journalist in 1945 put it, "Before Hiroshima, there was Okinawa. Because of Okinawa, in considerable part, there was Hiroshima." One could add that because of Hiroshima, Okinawa lost its rightful place in history.
It was finally over - Okinawa, and the entire war. It was time for the troops to return home to a normal life - wives, kids, homes, mortgages, and all the rest of it - in the post-war world that would bear little resemblance to the world of a mere four years earlier.
Okinawa - the bloodiest and most forgotten battle, lost in the very history it created - ironic, and somehow it doesn't seem right.
But then in war, very little is.
- John Waelti's column appears every Friday in the Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
Yet, this monumental battle is practically lost to the collective American memory - lost in the fog of history because of the dramatic history-making events that occurred so rapidly during, and immediately after, the battle.
Let's review some of the events that occurred from April through August of 1945.
April 1, 1945: Two Army and two Marine divisions hit the beaches of Okinawa.
April 12: A mere 11 days later, President Roosevelt died. He was first elected in 1932. The teenagers doing the fighting, born during the mid-1920s, never knew another president and Commander in Chief. FDR was replaced by the man from Missouri, Harry Truman, who first learned of the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb upon assuming the presidency. The Soviets already knew about it, thanks to Klaus Fuchs who was leaking secrets from Los Alamos while J. Edgar Hoover and his gumshoes were shadowing J. Robert Oppenheimer instead.
April 16: As the fighting raged on Okinawa, the Allied powers closed in on Berlin. The Battle of Berlin eclipsed the Army's 77th Division landing on Ie Shima, a small island adjacent to Okinawa on which war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gunner.
May 2: The battle for Berlin ends with an Allied victory.
May 8: VE Day, Victory in Europe, while the Battle of Okinawa was still raging.
May 20: The Japanese withdraw from China. Defense of their homeland has priority.
May 25: U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff approve Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan, scheduled for Nov.1.
June 9: Premier Suzuki announces that Japan will fight to the bitter end rather than accept unconditional surrender. This is an ominous message to the GIs who survived the European War and the troops who survived the bloody Pacific battles.
June 18: Japanese resistance ends on Mindanao of the Philippines.
June 22: After 83 days of fighting, Japanese resistance finally ends on Okinawa. The heavy Army, Navy, and Marine losses were seen as only a preamble to the impending invasion of Japan's mainland with an anticipated half million Allied casualties, at a minimum.
Between March 10 and the end of June, B-29s have been systematically bombing and destroying Japan's major cities. Over that period, some 2,000 B-29s had bombed Tokyo, much of it low altitude firebombing designed by Gen. Curtis Lemay. A single raid on March 10, dropping incendiaries, had destroyed nearly 25 percent of Tokyo, and killed more than 100,000 people,
June 26: A mere six days after Okinawa is secured, MacArthur announces the end of Japanese resistance in the Philippines.
July 5: Liberation of the Philippines is formally declared, enabling MacArthur to make good on his promise, "I shall return."
July 5: England holds its first general election since 1935. Results aren't immediately known.
July 14: The first naval bombardment of Japan's home islands.
July 16: The first atomic bomb is successfully tested at New Mexico's Trinity Site.
July 17: The Potsdam Conference commences. Truman, Stalin, and Churchill meet in Occupied Germany to discuss post-war order and treaty issues.
July 21: Components of the "Little Boy" are unloaded at Tinian in the Marianas.
July 26: In a surprising landslide victory, Clement Atlee replaces Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of England, and joins the Potsdam Conference.
Aug. 2: The Potsdam Conference ends.
Among the results of the Okinawan campaign is the reaffirmation of the tenacity with which the Japanese will fight to defend their home islands. Fierce Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima and Okinawa convinced President Truman that invasion of Japan would produce staggering, American casualties. It would be Truman's decision to drop the bomb in hope of bringing about Japanese surrender.
Aug. 6: The "Little Boy" is dropped on Hiroshima.
Aug. 8: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.
Aug. 9: The "Fat Man" is dropped on Nagasaki.
Aug. 14: Japan accepts unconditional surrender.
Sept. 2: VJ Day.
The most costly battle of the Pacific War lasted a bloody 83 days. Fifty-three days later, the war was dramatically and unexpectedly over. Tens of thousands of Marines and soldiers who faced near certain death would live, as would tens of thousands of Japanese combatants and civilians who would have been killed during invasion. In exchange, tens of thousands of others would die from the nuclear blasts.
The decision to drop the nuclear bombs is still debated. But one thing is sure - thousands of Marines and soldiers were exuberant. They would not die on Japanese beaches. It was fierce Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima, and finally on Okinawa, that factored into Truman's decision to use the bomb.
As one journalist in 1945 put it, "Before Hiroshima, there was Okinawa. Because of Okinawa, in considerable part, there was Hiroshima." One could add that because of Hiroshima, Okinawa lost its rightful place in history.
It was finally over - Okinawa, and the entire war. It was time for the troops to return home to a normal life - wives, kids, homes, mortgages, and all the rest of it - in the post-war world that would bear little resemblance to the world of a mere four years earlier.
Okinawa - the bloodiest and most forgotten battle, lost in the very history it created - ironic, and somehow it doesn't seem right.
But then in war, very little is.
- John Waelti's column appears every Friday in the Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
