The Battle for Okinawa
The Joint Cheifs of Staff choose Okinawa as the next step in the Road to Tokyo.The island lies about 350 miles south of Japan in the Ryukyu Island chain and was very close to Kyushu, the southern Japanese Home Island.It would provide an excellent base for future operations in China and eventually Japanese herself.On Easter Sunday, April 1st, 1945, two corps of Army and Marine troops under the command of General Simon B. Buckner, Jr. invaded Okinawa.At first, the Marines met little resisitance, because they had dug in in the mountain chain that lies in the northern part of the island.Once the Allies reached it, they met fierce resistance.By the end of the campaign, kamikazes had sunk 36 vessels and damaged 200 others.Finally, on June 21st, organized Japanese resistance ended.During the fighting, General Buckner was killed, along with the other 49,000 Allied casualities.The Japanese lost over 109,000 men.But, this battle was the first battle where Japanese soldiers finally realized that they were fighting for a lost cause.Over 500 of them surrender.It may not sound like many, but considering the fact that during the entire war, only 500 surrender before this battle, it was good.Okinawa turned out to be the last major land campaign of World War 2.Germany surrendered on May 5th and the atomic bomb ended the war in the Pacific.
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