Remembering Okinawa

Marines from the 1st Marine Regiment on Wana Ridge, Okinawa.

Each year in June, we remember the brave troops who first directly challenged the Nazi juggernaut on continental Europe. Operation Overlord, the assault on Nazi-occupied western Europe, began with the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944.  The veterans of that action, if still alive, are 86 years or older.  This action, which over 60 days claimed the lives of over 20,000 American troops (and an additional 16,000 allied troops) has been memorialized by no less than John Wayne in “The Longest Day”, 1962, and Tom Hanks in “Saving Private Ryan”, 1998.  The enormous courage of these brave men broke the back of the Nazi war machine and directly led to victory in Europe in May of 1945.

While we should not, we must not, fail to recognize this enormous sacrifice, the month of June is somewhat unjustly overshadowed by D-Day.  Not as well known, one year later, on June 21, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa ended.

The war in the Pacific was viewed at the time as secondary to the war in Europe.  But the Japanese were fierce adversaries and had proven their battle mettle at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and China.  The threat of Japanese hegemony in the Pacific basin was very real. They were aggressively securing oil and mineral resources to fuel their formidable war machine. Not wishing to cede California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska (and Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) to Emperor Hirohito, we fought back. Hard.

There followed a series of swirling naval battles, such as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway, intermixed with grueling island campaigns like the battles for Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.  The Marine Corps, in particular, was the sharp end of the spear and suffered grievous losses.  But slowly the inexorable march to the Japanese homeland continued.

In April of 1945, Operation Iceberg was mounted. Okinawa, 340 miles from mainland Japan, was considered home Japanese territory.  This was the first Allied assault directly on Japanese native soil.  It was fiercely resisted.

Over 1,300 Navy ships and 183,000 troops (five Army and three Marine Corps divisions) were committed to Okinawa. Unlike the beaches of Normandy, the supply lines to Okinawa stretched across the Pacific, delivering over 750,000 tons of materiel.  The casualties were enormous: 72,000 Americans wounded, 12,500 dead, and 107,000 Japanese troops and over 100,000 civilians killed, more than the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined (estimated at over 150,000 killed).

As horrible as the atomic toll was, it paled in comparison to the projected loss of life if Operation Downfall, the invasion of mainland Japan, were undertaken.  Various estimates centered around a half million Americans killed and perhaps several million Japanese military and civilians. These estimates were largely based on the desperate battle for Okinawa, and informed President Harry Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons in a bid to cut short the war.

In the end, terrible as was the carnage at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is clear that many Japanese and American lives were saved by avoiding the ultimate land battle for Japan.  Okinawa, a key factor in this calculus, deserves to be remembered. The ghosts of our troops, our fathers and grandfathers’ brothers, demand it.