who won the battle of okinawa

Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Some military historians believe that the Okinawa campaign led directly to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a means of avoiding the planned ground invasion of the Japanese mainland. In these preliminary operations, the 77th Infantry Division suffered 27 dead and 81 wounded, while Japanese dead and captured numbered over 650. According to the account of the battle presented in Marine Corps Gazette: More mental health issues arose from the Battle of Okinawa than any other battle in the Pacific during World War II. The protracted length of the campaign under stressful conditions forced Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to take the unprecedented step of relieving the principal naval commanders to rest and recuperate. On April 1, 1945—Easter Sunday—the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops descended on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan. [83] He was sued by revisionists, including a wartime commander during the battle, who disputed this and wanted to stop publication of the booklet. [21] The initial invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. While US intelligence estimated there were 89 planes on Formosa, the Japanese actually had about 700, dismantled or well camouflaged and dispersed into scattered villages and towns; the US Fifth Air Force disputed Navy claims of kamikaze coming from Formosa. Kyushu-Okinawa Summit 2000: Okinawa G8 Summit Host Preparation Council, 2000. It was a brutal battle for both sides. The most famous American casualty was Lieutenant General Buckner, whose decision to attack the Japanese defenses head-on, although extremely costly in American lives, was ultimately successful. [31] It was planned that General Buckner would report to Turner until the amphibious phase was completed, after which he would report directly to Spruance. © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. On August 15, 1945, Admiral Matome Ugaki was killed while part of a kamikaze raid on Iheyajima island. Winning the Battle of Okinawa put Allied forces within striking distance of Japan. The air and sea attacks that preceded the invasion had begun as early as October 1944, and Allied air operations carried out in March 1945 by carrier Task Force 58 under Rear Adm. Marc Mitscher destroyed hundreds of Japanese planes. [18] The Allies destroyed 27 Japanese tanks and 743 artillery pieces (including mortars, anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns), some of them eliminated by the naval and air bombardments but most knocked out by American counter-battery fire. The American attack on the ridge began on April 26. As of 2010, the monument lists 240,931 names, including 149,193 Okinawan civilians, 77,166 Imperial Japanese soldiers, 14,009 American soldiers, and smaller numbers of people from South Korea (365), the United Kingdom (82), North Korea (82) and Taiwan (34).[16]. Troops lived on a field sodden by rain, part garbage dump and part graveyard. After obliterating Japanese troops in the brutal Battle of Iwo Jima, they set their sights on the isolated island of Okinawa, their last stop before reaching Japan. S. Nichols, Jr., USMC and Henry I. Shaw, Jr", "The United States Navy assembled an unprecedented armada in March and April 1945", "The American invasion of Okinawa was the largest amphibious invasion of all time", At 60th anniversary, Battle of Okinawa survivors recall 'Typhoon of Steel' – News – Stripes, "Japan's battle of Okinawa, April-June 1945", "The Cornerstone of Peace: Number of Names Inscribed", "Japan's Battle of Okinawa, March–June 1945", The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936–1945, "OKINAWA: THE LAST BATTLE, Chapter 4, Page 97", "OKINAWA: THE LAST BATTLE, Chapter 4, Page 102", "Action in the North, Chp 6 of Okinawa: Victory in the Pacific by Major Chas. The land battle took place over about 81 days beginning on April 1, 1945. The 96th Infantry Division began to encounter fierce resistance in west-central Okinawa from Japanese troops holding fortified positions east of Highway No. The next American objective was Kakazu Ridge, two hills with a connecting saddle that formed part of Shuri's outer defenses. General Buckner was killed in action on June 18, just days before the battle ended. The 98-day battle lasted from Ma… By the end of May, monsoon rains which had turned contested hills and roads into a morass exacerbated both the tactical and medical situations. Colonel Yahara had asked Ushijima for permission to commit suicide, but the general refused his request, saying: "If you die there will be no one left who knows the truth about the battle of Okinawa. Until April 20, British Task Force 57, with 4 large and 6 escort carriers, remained off the Sakishima Islands to protect the southern flank.[37]. It became common for them to shoot at Okinawan houses, as one infantryman wrote: There was some return fire from a few of the houses, but the others were probably occupied by civilians – and we didn't care. Rape by Japanese troops reportedly "became common"[attribution needed] in June, after it became clear that the Imperial Japanese Army had been defeated. In the naval operations surrounding the battle, both sides lost considerable numbers of ships and aircraft, including the Japanese battleship Yamato. At the end of April, after Army forces had pushed through the Machinato defensive line,[44] the 1st Marine Division relieved the 27th Infantry Division, and the 77th Infantry Division relieved the 96th. By this point, the bulk of the Japanese forces in the north (codenamed Udo Force) were cornered on the Motobu Peninsula. All Rights Reserved. On April 7, Japan’s mighty battleship Yamato was sent to launch a surprise attack on the Fifth Fleet and then annihilate American troops pinned down near the Shuri Line. Baka claimed its first victim, the destroyer USS Abele, in the seas off Okinawa on April 12. He was the highest-ranking US officer to be killed by enemy fire during the Second World War. On June 18, General Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire while monitoring the progress of his troops from a forward observation post. Buckner was replaced by Roy Geiger. According to various estimates, between a tenth and a third of them died during the battle,[45] or between 30,000 and 100,000 people. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... U.S. Marines battling for control of a ridge near Naha, Okinawa, May 1945. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The force withdrew to San Pedro Bay on April 23. During the Battle of Okinawa, the Fifth Fleet suffered: The Maeda Escarpment, also known as Hacksaw Ridge, was located atop a 400-foot vertical cliff. The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese: 沖縄戦, Hepburn: Okinawa-sen), codenamed Operation Iceberg,[20] was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. [98] The memorial lists all the known names of those who died in the battle, civilian and military, Japanese and foreign. The first major Japanese counterattack came on April 6–7 in the form of suicidal raids by more than 350 kamikaze planes and the battleship Yamato. Naval Institute. [90], Because the next major event following the Battle of Okinawa was "the total surrender of Japan," the "effect" of this battle is more difficult to consider. The day after Buckner was killed, Brigadier General Easley was killed by Japanese machine gun fire. In addition to conventional hazards, the 77th Infantry Division encountered kamikaze attacks, and even local women armed with spears. This total includes conscripted Okinawan civilians. As the American assault against Kakazu Ridge stalled, Lieutenant General Ushijima – influenced by General Chō — decided to take the offensive. Okinawa Prefecture's estimate is over 100,000 losses,[62]. During the period March 26 – April 30, twenty American ships were sunk and 157 damaged by enemy action. This includes stories of rape after trading sexual favors or even marrying Americans,[75] such as the alleged incident in the village of Katsuyama, where civilians said they had formed a vigilante group to ambush and kill three black American soldiers who they claimed would frequently rape the local girls there. Elements of the 10th Army drove cautiously to the north and had pacified the entire northern two-thirds of the island by April 22. The ordinances mobilized the students as volunteer soldiers for form's sake; in reality, the military authorities ordered schools to force almost all students to "volunteer" as soldiers; sometimes they counterfeited the necessary documents. Hodge launched a new offensive of April 19 with a barrage of 324 guns, the largest ever in the Pacific Ocean Theater. For their part, by April 30, the Japanese had lost more than 1,100 planes to Allied naval forces alone. At sea, 368 Allied ships—including 120 amphibious craft—were damaged while another 36—including 15 amphibious ships and 12 destroyers—were sunk during the Okinawa campaign. "[84] In March 2008, the Osaka Prefecture Court ruled in favor of Ōe, stating, "It can be said the military was deeply involved in the mass suicides." Personnel:14,009[6] to 20,195 dead[7][8][9]. The Japanese retreat, although harassed by artillery fire, was conducted with great skill at night and aided by the monsoon storms. During the battle, American forces found it difficult to distinguish civilians from soldiers. The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese: 沖縄戦, Hepburn: Okinawa-sen), codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The ruthless atrocities by the Japanese throughout the war had already brought on an altered behavior (deemed so by traditional standards) by many Americans resulting in the desecration of Japanese remains, but the Japanese tactic of using the Okinawan people as human shields brought about a new aspect of terror and torment to the psychological capacity of the Americans.[17]. Retrieved December 9, 2012. Over the next several weeks, ferocious Japanese resistance inflicted heavy casualties on U.S. troops before the Americans were finally able ...read more, On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45), U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its new long-range B-29 bombers ...read more, In late January 1944, a combined force of U.S. Marine and Army troops launched an amphibious assault on three islets in the Kwajalein Atoll, a ring-shaped coral formation in the Marshall Islands where the Japanese had established their outermost defensive perimeter in World War ...read more, The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy that played out six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. "The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won" p. 302.

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