Battle of OkinawaBattle of Okinawa

Today, April 1, marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, Empire of Japan, which was the last major battle of World War II.

The campaign involved all the major services of the armed forces, including the Army, Marines and Navy.

The battle lasted from April 1 to June 22, 1945. American forces included 103,00 soldiers, 88,000 Marines and 18,000 Navy personnel on land, plus many more at sea and in the air.

The casualties for the United States were horrendous. U.S. casualties numbered 82,000 (including non-battle casualties). Direct battle deaths were 4,907 Navy, 4,675 Army and 2,938 Marines. Men who died later from wounds and other causes are not included.

The high Navy casualties were mainly the result of attacks by 1,465 Japanese kamikaze suicide planes on the U.S. fleet, which resulted in 36 U.S. ships being sunk and another 368 damaged. Navy hospital corpsmen were serving with Marine rifle companies and Navy Seabees were also serving on land. The British Pacific fleet supplemented the U.S. fleet.

Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, commander of the Tenth Army, was killed in action on June 18, 1945. He was the highest-ranking officer killed in battle during the war. A day later, Brigadier General Claudius Miller Easley was killed by Japanese machine gunfire.

There were also 23 Medals of Honors awarded from the Okinawa campaign, many of which were awarded posthumously.

Japanese losses were much worse. The U.S. estimate 110,071 Japanese soldiers killed in battle. The total includes Okinawan conscripts. Another 16,346 Japanese and Okinawan holdouts were captured the next several months after the battle.

Making the battle even more horrifying was the Japanese military coerced Okinawan civilians to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans, including women and children. There were 149,425 Okinawan civilians killed, committed suicide or were missing.

The appalling casualties that occurred on both Okinawa and Iwo Jima gave Americans a preview of just how costly in human lives the pending invasion of the main Japanese Islands would be.

This is a good time to remember those who served in the Battle of Okinawa, which did much to bring an end to the war in the Pacific.