Essay On Battle Of Okinawa

Iwo Jima was known for one of the most bloody battles in not just the Marine but American history too. The battle began on February 19, 1945 as part of the campaign of the Pacific theatre, and lasted for thirty-six days. Around twenty six-thousand Marines were wounded, which caused Union losses during the battle at Gettysburg. Near the beginning of summer of 1944, American B-29 bombers were ruining the islands. “Iwo Jima proved itself an indispensable asset to the Pacific command.” “Thousands of fighters took off from its runways, and this ‘stepping stone’ served as a staging ground for countless Allied advances.”

The Japanese had it made. They had all they needed in their caves. You would of thought that the Japanese would have paid a bunch of money to fortify the island but they really did not. The had many of the Empire's most gifted mining engineers to dig tunnels throughout the volcanic mountains. It took them no time to have miles of tunnels running through the mountains. These tunnels made it easy for the Japanese to move from one position to the other. But life was not to great in the caves because the United States Seventh Air Force bombers dropped bombs on them daily in hope to soften them up before the massive invasion. Another helpful aspect to the Japanese was the sand on the beaches. The sand wasn't like in paradise. It was black and loose making running across the beachhead very difficult. The only flaw to the island that did not help the Japanese was the surf. The surf was too rough to plant anti boat mines. "The entire island is flat except for the promontory of Mount Suribachi, and extinct volcano, which is 556 feet high in the southern portion of the island."(Siefring 117)

Conditions were perfect, sunshine with a little cloud cover the Americans were expecting strong opposition as soon as they touched down on the beaches but there was little opposition to meet them. Weather considerations were minimum, heavy rain was the only key factor in the battle which made the ground muddy and troop movement and resupply at times could become difficult. Okinawa is 60 miles long and 18 miles wide. The terrain in northern Okinawa is extremely mountainous with elevations of 1,000 feet or more usually with steep cliffs associated with them. With such uneven terrain troop movement in the north was very difficult. With poor road conditions vehicle movement was not much better. The southern part of Okinawa where the main part of the fighting took place had a number of different terrain obstacles. Rolling hills, with the majority of this half under cultivation and contained three fourths of the population of the island. The terrain gave the Japanese Army a slight advantage with natural caves and burial tombs that they turned into underground positions. There are more roads in the south due to the increased population but still not suitable for military vehicles.

War II. The battle of Midway began in June of 1942 and ended just 4 days later. Though it was a relatively short battle, it was still immensely important to the United States victory over Japan in World War II.

The fight for control of Iwo Jima lasted thirty eight days. Over that course of time the U.S. lost almost six thousand Marines with another eighteen thousand men wounded. The Japanese however lost around twenty one thousand men. This was the only battle during the war with Japan when the U.S. suffered more casualties than the Japanese. Being one of the bloodiest battles of the war, the taking of Iwo Jima served as a valuable lesson for the upcoming Okinawa campaign. In the weeks following, the battle fell under heavy scrutiny from the press and the public. Many viewed it as an unnecessary fight and loss of

The battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa were two of the most important American operations in the Pacific Theatre against the Empire of Japan during World War Two. The goal of the two operations was to secure strategically important islands close to Japan to use for bombing campaigns. The battles for Iwo Jima(February-March 1945) and Okinawa f(April-June 1945) killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians and helped to win the war for the United States.

What happened during this battle? The Japanese really practiced and prepared carefully for their attack on Pearl Harbor.

he Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest and fiercest battles of the Second World War in which the US Armed Forces captured the Iwo Jima Island from the Japanese. More than 6800 American servicemen lost their lives in the battle and thus the battle has come to known as the deadliest battle in Marine Corps history. Iwo Jima was an island strategically positioned and highly fortified as its three airfields were used to stage attacks on the US at the Pacific War. It was therefore Americas target to capture the island and use it to stage attacks on Japans mainland and use the airfields as emergency landing strips for the US Navy planes damaged during war. According to The Washington Post a small group gathered on Thursday February 18th

The purpose of this investigation is to go beyond the perceived thoughts and facts about Iwo Jima, but instead, looking at first person accounts and eyewitnesses. Iwo Jima is known as “Thirty Six Days of Hell” which takes place from the 19th of February in 1945 to the 26th of March, 1945. During these thirty six days the goal of this battle was to obtain the island because of the location and how they would be able to utilize it for a landing strip for damaged aircrafts and replenishment. The scope of the investigation will be understanding what life was like for the soldiers on both sides throughout the battle. The method of this investigation will be using interviews, secondary sources with eyewitness accounts,

There were 26,000 casualties and 6,800 dead Americans at Iwo Jima, with 20,000 casualties and 1083 dead Japanese. (1. "Battle for Iwo Jima, 1945." The Navy Department Library) At Okinawa there were 65,000 American casualties and 14,000 dead, while the Japanese lost 70,000 soldiers out of the 130,000 stationed on Okinawa. (2. "Battle of Okinawa." History.com) The bloodshed from these two battles gave the Americans a taste of the militaristic Japanese, and that a battle for the homeland of Japan would be astronomically worse. The Japanese were prepared to use any means necessary to stop the Americans because of “Yamato Damashii”, which was a virtue of the samurai that went hand in hand with the Bushido code, and it made the Japanese value the country and the emperor above all else, and that fighting to the death was greater than surrender. and it came in the form of Kamikaze attacks, suicide troops, and guerilla warfare. At Okinawa, 193 kamikaze attacks were launched at the Americans damaging 368 ships and destroying 36. (3. "The Battle of Okinawa." History Learning Site) The Japanese were prepared to sacrifice everything they had to destroy American ships and troops. The Japanese also used their own people to fight against the Americans.

3) Japanese strategy was for each Soldier to kill 10 Americans before they themselves are killed (The Battle – Japan’s Iwo Jima Strategy, n.d.). On top of that, Iwo Jima would have to be reinforced significantly if it were going to be held for any length of time, and preparations were made to send sizable numbers of men and quantities of materiel to that island.

Before their attack on Midway Island, the Japanese had to take over Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in early May of 1942. Yamamoto planned the Battle of the Coral Sea with hopes of gaining new islands in the Pacific Ocean that would aid the Japanese during its attack on Midway

Battle of Midway was a major naval battle, widely regarded as the most important one of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.[3] It took place from June 4 to 7, 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, five months after the Japanese capture of Wake Island, and exactly six months to the day after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States Navy decisively defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll.

Brown led the Army’s 7th Division of three regiments of infantry, four battalions of artillery, the 13th Combat Engineer Battalion, and the attachment of the 50th Combat Engineer Battalion.1 Nearly a year before the battle took place, June 3rd, 1942, the Japanese seized Attu with only natives living there. The Japanese reestablished a base on Attu on October 29, 1942 under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Hiroshi Yanekawa.1 The Japanese set up strong defensive positions with antiaircraft and numerous caches of arms, ammunition and food spread across different locations on the island. U.S. forces did not have such advantage and had a difficult time with logistics due to the unforgiving elements. The islands beaches consisted of muskeg which created very difficult circumstances for U.S. vehicles that the engineers were crucial in resolving. Although the harsh climate and terrain caused many problems for both sides, it was more impactful against the Japanese due to the long period of acclimation they endured.2

Even though the Japanese played a major role in the events of World War II, their involvement in world affairs began three decades earlier.