The Battle Of Okinawa As Operation Iceberg

Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign (April 1—June 22, 1945) involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan ("Battle of Okinawa," 1996). The Battle of Okinawa remembered more for its iconic photograph of US Marines raising the US flag on Okinawa more so than any other war or battle ever fought. Okinawa the largest of the Ryukus islands played a major role in the American forces overall strategic efforts to advance to the mainland’s of Japan. Because it was the last major battle of WWII, the battle of Okinawa used lessons learned and TTP’s from all previous

The war in Europe was finished and America was still fighting Japan in the Pacific. The American people’s will to continue the war effort was falling and the government had to think of a way to end the war. They needed to take some of the Pacific to be able to get close enough to Japan to finish the war. They started by taking islands but ran into heavy Japanese resistance; soldier’s that were almost all willing to die for their emperor. That included fake surrendering, making and then hiding in elaborate cave systems, and killing other Japanese who were trying to surrender. This weighed heavily on the soldiers and made fighting incredibly hard. Even when they had an island there were Japanese who had hidden and still tried to kill the

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.

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

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.

Q5. The Japanese were attacking everything in their path when it came to the war in the Pacific. First, they had made the mistake in bombing the United States of America at Pearl Harbor. After such a bloody attack, the United States would surely declare war on Japan. However, this did not faze the Japanese as they continued attacking in Asia and the Pacific. The Japanese drive for a Pacific Empire was surely beginning. After many Japanese raids, the Allies would eventually fight back using a specific strategy created by General Douglas MacArthur, called island hopping. This strategy would prove to be extremely effective on the Japanese.

This battle started because the japanese were had been formulating a plan to sneak up on the US forces. They hoped to trap a number of the US aircraft

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

American forces occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima and were intensely fire bombing Japanese cities. But Japan had an army of 2 million strong stationed in the home islands guarding against invasion.” The United States seemed to show no progression in the war. President Truman knew that there was no progress being made during the war and that we were decreasing in supplies and troops to keep this fight going like this. He then had to look at his remaining option and hope that his decision was the best decision for the

When war broke out in the Pacific following the bombing of the US naval fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the battle-hardened Japanese armed forces quickly took control of the much of Asia and the Pacific region. Over the next few years, American and Allied forces slowly pushed the Japanese back towards their homeland. Each island battle a war of attrition with high losses of life on both sides. A US naval blockade was put in place to stop the supply of raw materials into Japan by ship and a programme of continual firebombing of Japanese cities was implemented. By July 1945, the Allies preparations for a mainland invasion of Japan were well advanced, but they were dealing with a very fanatical enemy who were extremely loyal to their Emperor and were willing to fight to the death for him.

Okinawa, the site of a major military base10. Thus by July 1945, Japan had few ships and planes to

The reason behind this crucial battle was that as the Americans were pushed back in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese developed a plan to sneak up on the US forces. This was deliberately done to trap the Americans aircraft carriers so they can destroy them. If the plan turned to be successful, this would give the Japanese a

The Japanese forces opposing the U.S. were led by General Mitsuru Ushijima. While originally he commanded only 60,000 to 70,000 men, he had several thousands of men who were stationed in China previously, these were experienced and battle-hardened soldiers (Sanchez 11). Because the Imperial Army and Navy joint command headquarters in Tokyo saw that Okinawa’s defenses consisted of artillery, they sent no additional armored units other than an armored tank division, as an additional aid before the fighting began. Once the fighting started, the joint command sent several heavy weapons, artillery, and men, which were too few and too late. Many of the Japanese troops felt they had been abandoned by the joint command beforehand. The Japanese forces, however, had been dwindling as the war in the Pacific progressed, since the first Allied landing on the Island of Guadalcanal, in 1942. The Japanese were now looking to protect and preserve mainland Japan with what remained of their military.

This battle was used to support the case for bringing the war to an end by means other than invading mainland Japan (Willbanks). If the original invasion of Okinawa by the Allies did not go as planned, the war would have dragged on for years and both sides would eventually lose supplies and men to fight with. The extended time period of the war would have brought further damage to Okinawan citizens. Okinawa also influenced the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan after the nation refused to surrender (Willbanks). After the end of the war, the Allies had a continuous presence on the island, which the battle exemplified greatly, for the Japanese could have invaded the island once more, despite the surrender (Padden). The presence of Allied forces on the island created Japanese efforts to reinvigorate its defeated army (Padden). The Battle of Okinawa was by far the costliest battle for the Americans of the Pacific war