Download December 2004 - Dr. Harold C. Deutsch WWII History Roundtable

January 2004
Volume 12 Number 5
Published by The WW II History Roundtable
Edited by Jim Gerber
Happy New Year and welcome to the January meeting of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War
Two History Roundtable. Tonight our topic concerns the war in the Pacific; the Battle of Okinawa.
Okinawa was the largest amphibious invasion of the Pacific Campaign and was the last major
campaign of the Pacific War. It also was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. More ships were
used, more troops put ashore, more supplies transported, more bombs dropped, and more naval
guns fired at shore targets than any other operation in the Pacific. 34 Allied ships and craft of all
types had been sunk, mostly by Kamikazes, and 368 ships and craft damaged. The fleet lost 763
aircraft. More people died during the Battle of Okinawa than all those killed in the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Casualties totaled more than 38,000 Americans wounded
and 12,000 killed or missing, more than 107,000 Japanese and Okinawan conscripts killed and
possibly 100,000 Okinawan civilians killed. Combat stress also accounted for large numbers of
psychiatric casualties. In the Battle of Okinawa, the rate of combat losses due to battle stress,
expressed as a percentage of those caused by combat wounds, was 48% (in the Korean war the
overall rate was 20% to 25% and in the Yom Kippur War it was about 30%). American losses at
Okinawa were so heavy that a Congressional investigation was called into the conduct of the
military commanders. Not surprisingly, the cost of this battle, in terms of lives, time and material,
weighed heavily in the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan just six weeks later.
By April, 1945, German resistance in the European Campaign was on the verge of collapse. The
Empire of Japan continued to resist American advances cross the Pacific. Okinawa, in the
Ryukyu Island chain, is located some 400 miles south of Japan and possession of this island
would enable the Allies to cut Japan’s sea lines of communication and isolate it from its vital
sources of raw materials in the south. If the invasion of Japan proved necessary, Okinawa’s
harbors, anchorages and airfields could be used to stage the ships, troops, aircraft and supplies
necessary for amphibious assault. The island had several Japanese air bases and the only two
substantial harbors between Formosa and Kyushu.
On October 10, 1944, nearly two hundred of Admiral Halsey’s planes struck Naha, Okinawa’s
capital and principal city, in five separate waves. The city was almost totally devastated. The
American war was coming closer to the Japanese homeland. In mid-March 1945, the American
fleet of over 1300 ships gathered off Okinawa for the naval bombardment. The first kamikaze
attacks of the Okinawan campaign began on March 18, 1945. On March 21st, the first baka or
piloted, suicide rocket bombs, were spotted below Japanese “Betty” bombers.
The invasion began on April 1, 1945 when 60,000 troops landed with little opposition. Although
Okinawa was strongly defended by more than 100,000 troops, the Japanese chose not to defend
the beaches. The uncontested landings of April 1 were part of the overall Japanese strategy to
avoid casualties on the beach against overwhelming Allied firepower. A system of defense in
depth would permit the 100,000-man-strong Japanese 32nd Army under General Ushijima to
fight a protracted battle that would put both the attacking amphibious forces and naval armada at
risk. The Japanese dug into caves and tunnels on the high ground away from the beaches in an
attempt to negate the Allies’ superior sea and air power. On April 6-7, the first use of massed
formations of hundreds of kamikaze aircraft called kikusui or “floating chrysanthemum”, began.
By the end of the Okinawan campaign, 1465 kamikaze flights were flown from Kyushu to sink 30
American ships and damage 164 others. The Japanese had devised a plan to load-up high-speed
motorboats with high explosives and have them attack the American fleet. The boats were hidden
in caves up rivers and inside along railroad tracks. The plan was never carried out.
By April 19th, the soldiers and marines of the US Tenth Army under General Buckner were
engaged in a fierce battle along a fortified front which represented the outer ring of the Shuri Line.
The Shuri defenses were deeply dug into the limestone cliffs and had mutually supporting
positions as well as a wealth of artillery of various calibers. As the battle dragged on, the
American casualties mounted. This delay in securing the island caused great concern among the
naval commanders since the fleet of almost 1600 ships was exposed to heavy enemy air attacks.
American losses mounted as soldiers and marines assaulted points on the Shuri line with the
deceptive names of Sugar Loaf, Chocolate Drop, Conical Hill, Strawberry Hill and Sugar Hill.
During the course of the battle American forces were informed of two pieces of dramatic news,
one tragic and the other joyous. The first was the death of President Franklin Roosevelt on April
12th and the latter the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8.
By the end of May, monsoon rains turned slopes and roads into a morass making both the
tactical and medical situations worse. Troops became mired in the mud and flooded roads greatly
inhibited evacuation of wounded to the rear. Troops lived on a field sodden by rain, part garbage
dump and part graveyard. Unburied Japanese bodies decayed, sank in the mud and became part
of a noxious stew. Anyone sliding down the greasy slopes could easily find their pockets full of
maggots at the end of the journey. By the first week of June, US forces had captured only 465
enemy troops while claiming 62,548 killed. It would take two more weeks of hard fighting and an
additional two weeks of “mopping up” operations pitting explosives and flamethrowers against
determined pockets of resistance before the battle would finally be over. The so called “mopping
up” fighting between June 23rd and 29th netted an additional 9000 enemy dead and 3800
captured. Among the Japanese, the incidence of suicide soared during the final days. An
examination of enemy dead revealed that, rather than surrender, many had held grenades
against their stomachs, ending their personal war in that manner. General Ushijima committed
ritual suicide on June 16, convinced that he had done his duty in service to the Emperor.
Further Reading on Tonight’s Topic:
Okinawa; Touchstone to Victory
by Benis M. Frank
Ballantine Books, Inc.
NewlYork 1969
Victory In The Pacific; 1945
by Samuel Eliot Morison
Little, Brown and Co., Inc.
New York 1960
With The Old Breed
by Eugene Sledge
Oxford University Press
1990
The Last Mission
by Malcolm McConnel
Broadway Pub. 2002
The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb
by George Feifer
Lyons Press 2001
The Battle For Okinawa
by Hiromichi Yahara
John Wiley and Sons, Pub.
1997
Operation Iceberg
by Gerald Aster
Donald Fine, Pub. 1999
Killing Ground on Okinawa
by James H. Halas
Praeger Pub. 1996
See You Next Month.