The Battle Of The Pacific War

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.

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.

The Battle of Okinawa was pretty brutal in itself. Soldiers were dying back and forth; it was "the most ghastly corner of hell..." Japanese soldiers' tactics were very hostile and had no mercy. The battle took place at one of Japan's islands, Okinawa. On the ground, it lasted 81 days beginning on April 1, 1945. The 77th Infantry division was the first division of Americans to land on the Kerama Islands(tiny islands on the west of Okinawa island). The Naval battle was a gruesome one, also. Kamikazes sunk many US aircraft carriers and killed many soldiers. "We watched each plunging kamikaze...we groped hopelessly for the thoughts of that other man up there."(Vice Admiral C.R. Brown, U.S. Navy)

Okinawa was known as the “longest and largest battle” (157). This time, causing more casualties than previously. As mentioned previously, Okinawa was Japanese territory and they knew the terrain perfectly. This time, not only was there constant rain, but constant shelling. Constant shelling made it very difficult for Americans. It was very difficult for them to get those men who were wounded and needed help. Taking such risk, would sometimes cause the casualties and stretcher-bearers to get hit. As a result, they would have to leave behind the marines who died on Okinawa unlike Peleliu. “From my experience, of all the hardships and hazards the troops had suffer, prolonged shell fire was more apt to break a man psychologically than anything else” (265). The Americans had to be vigilant at all times. “Most nights on Peleliu, we had to keep a sharp lookout in front, rear, right and left. But that night on Okinawa, we had to scan even the dark sky for parachutes” (220). The Japanase wanted to ensure by any means necessary that there was bloodshed, even if they had to literally put their own life on the line. To ensure that, the Japanese had kamikaze and suicide

I am Coral and I live about 5000 feet below sea level in the Coral Sea. During the week of May 4-8, 1942, the first air- sea battle in history took place as I watched from below. Japan was looking to control the Coral Sea by taking all of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to remove all of the Allied bases between Japan and Australia. They also wished to take over and destroy the American navy’s aircraft carriers since they were not able to do so in the Battle at Pearl Harbor. On the 3rd of May, the Japanese occupied Tulagi island and set up a seaplane base. The next day, the Allied forces, led by Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher, launched strikes against Tulagi. The attack eliminated the Japanese use of the base which sparked the beginning of this battle. The Yorktown sunk a Japanese destroyer and five merchant ships and join the Lexington later that day. May 6th, Australia spotted the Japanese but failed to shoot it down. They both continued to search for each other unsuccessfully due to partial visibility in the area of operations. Admiral Fletcher decided to separate his forces so that one was more susceptible to Japanese air attack without being under any coverage. Although, neither American force was successful in finding the Japanese forces, the Japanese aircraft was able to find and sink several U.S. ships and aircrafts. On May 8th, the Japanese and the Allies found each other and launched all accessible aircrafts. The Japanese shot down the Yorktown and the Lexington with bombs and torpedoes. At the same time, the Allied forces attacked a Japanese carrier but was unable to

Getting Japan to surrender was not an easy task for anyone. Japan’s military, more than two million strong, was not going to concede to allied forces under any circumstance at all. They were willing to fight until the last woman and child were dead. The United states had even warned Japan multiple times, stating “the United States had a new bomb beyond all present capabilities and would use it to end the war if Japan did not surrender,” but Japan had no response proving the only way to defeat imperial Japan was to make them militaristically hopeless forcing them give up their battle. The United States army and the allied forces were planning an operation to relentlessly invade Japan to force an unconditional surrender, known as “Operation Downfall.” At the time, this seemed to be the only feasible plan of attack for victory. With the very dense Japanese military, and Japan’s vehement motto of “fighting to the last man,” challenging their defences would be very problematic for the United States. This operation faced many challenges that were very apparent. An invasion called for an adequate landing site for the troops that was easily accessible, predominantly beaches. Both the allies and Japan knew that Japan lacked large beaches in the targeted landing areas. Japan made sure the beaches were secure in case of a possible attack,

On the Pacific front, however, American forces were still painstakingly conquering Japan’s Home Islands, one after another. After obliterating Japanese troops in the brutal Battle of Iwo Jima, they set their sights on the isolated island of Okinawa, their last stop before reaching Japan. The invasion was part of Operation Iceberg, a complex plan to invade and occupy the Ryukyu Islands. Planning of this operation began in September 1944. They had to draft and develop plans for Iceberg

During the battles of Okinawa, Guadalcanal, and Coral sea, the U.S. took major hits from the Japanese. The Japanese code was to fight on and never surrender to the extent of all costs. They would rather suicide than surrender to their enemies. Just in 81 days, at the battle of Okinawa, the U.S. lost over 12,500 American lives. It also proved to be the bloodiest battle in the entire war. In

By October 1944, the US had strung together a series of victories successfully pushing the Japanese troops further and further back. It was clear that the US had the upper hand Naval wise and it was apparent. Japan for the first time in the war, began using kamikaze suicide bombers in an attempt to destroy American support vessels. The last major campaigns of the Pacific war were Luzon and Okinawa. The battle at Luzon lasted a total of 7 months and was the army's longest land campaign of the Pacific War. MacArthur’s army took nearly 40,000 casualties before successfully subduing the Japanese troops there. The battle at Okinawa was headed up by Admiral Nimitz who was in charge of the POA. The battle began on April 1, 1945 and would last 3 months.

The battle of Okinawa was the deadliest battle fought in the Pacific during world war 2. There were 287,000 troops in the US tenth army and 130,000 in the Japanese thirty-second army. By the end of the fierce 82 days of all in warfare, the Allies ended up with Okinawa. Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies lost more than 14,000. Japanese forces ordered mass air attacks by planes on a one way “suicide mission”, These missions are called Kamikaze attacks. These attacks were super effective and sunk 47 American ships, and damaged more than 300 others. More than 3,000 Japanese soldiers volunteered.

Facing such stubborn resistance, Truman’s next option to force for an unconditional surrender was to send in an amphibious invasion force to defeat the Japanese military. While the projected death toll varied, both sides knew of the possible consequences of an amphibious invasion. To maximize the damage the Japanese could inflict on the invading Allied forces, the Japanese Army issued a decisive operations plan Ketsu-Go which called for the all-out defense of the Japanese homeland. To prepare for the invasion, the Japanese Army moved 16 divisions from Manchuria to beef up the 2 million soldier station back at the main island. The military planners proposed a full-scale mobilization of the population through any weapons or means possible, totaling at 32 million conscripts. The raw determination of the Japanese to put up a resistance was noted by the military planners on the Allied sides as the three-to-one combat force advantage in Okinawa saw the loss of 18,000 soldiers. Noting how the Japanese would rather commit suicidal charge than surrender and had to be forced out of the caves with flamethrowers, the American understood the raw determination of the Japanese. Entering the Japanese homeland with a two-to-one numerical advantage, Admiral Leady projected a 200,000 casualty while General Marshall estimated a minimum of a quarter million casualties on the American sides. Truman’s decision against the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland was shaped by his two key

Robert Leckie’s book, Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II, is entirely about one of World War II’s most brutally fought battles. On April 1, 1945, the U.S. invaded Japan, attacking the island of Okinawa with 540,000 U.S. Army and Marines, and 1,600 ships. “ L Day” was the official name for this day. The L stood for “Landing,” but the Americans who invaded the Hagushi Beaches that day without any trouble from the Japanese, called it “Love Day.” This battle was the last battle of World War II and lasted a whopping eighty-three days. This invasion greatly outnumbered D-Day in weapons and in men.

In the 1945 Pacific theatre the allies were using a strategy of island hopping. This comprised of the Allies taking strategic islands from the Japanese letting them advance on the Japanese mainland. The last major battle of World War II occurred in the pacific theatre with the Allies taking the island of Okinawa. Taking Okinawa was part of a strategy developed by General Douglas Macarthur to cut off Japan’s oil supply lines. Okinawa would also be used as the jumping point for the proposed Allied invasion of Japan. The Allies began their land invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. The invasion lasted 82 days and contained over 50,000 casualties for the Allies and 100,000 Casualties for the Japanese. This was due to the determination of the Japanese and numerous Kamikaze attacks to

At the finish of the fight, the island of Okinawa had, essentially, been decreased to a no man's land. The battling that had gone on for around eighty-four days and had devastated 90% of the structures, and a dominant part of the island had been deforested. As the American military powers started to involve Okinawa, it soon wound up plainly obvious that not the greater part of the Japanese powers had pulled back. Some Japanese warriors procured nearby Okinawan apparel trying to mix in and keep away from being captured. Be that as it may, the general population of Okinawa supported the American military by offering a basic approach to identify the adversary that had gone underground. As the Okinawan lingo of the Japanese dialect contrasted extraordinarily from standard Japanese, local people would give directions while Americans remained by. Those that did not comprehend the directions were clearly the foe in camouflage and were promptly caught. One might say, the island local people increased

The total strength of the Japanese army was an estimated five million men mid july in 1945, and it was seen in every major battle preceding this that in order to win the U.S. would not only have to match that number but double it in order to win. Not only would those ten million plus men most likely die, but while the fighting that would take place on Japan’s mainland commenced there would have been massive civilian casualties, and major destruction of the island itself. Given the fact that the battle was estimated to last until the latter part of 1946, so six months, and was to consist of an intensified sea and air blockade, then massive amounts of air bombing, and that was to be followed by the invasion of the island, the damage that the fighting could have done to the civilian population of