Okinawa

On Sunday, April 1, 1945, two Army Infantry divisions and two Marine divisions landed on the western (East China Sea) coast of the island of Okinawa and began attacking a well entrenched Japanese force numbering about 100,000. They were backed up by two other Army divisions and another Marine division.

April 1st, which is always April Fools Day, was also Easter Sunday in the year 1945. The date of the landing was designated, not as D-day as in the Normandy invasion, but as L-day. In the phonetic alphabet used in those days (Able, Baker, Charlie, etc.) "L" was "Love." A bloody battle was begun on "Love Day." It was to last for 82 days. To the participants, it seemed to last much longer.

The battle of Okinawa was shunted off the main track of history by events which took place at about the same time. The Iwo Jima battle had ended a week before and President Roosevelt died a short time after the Okinawa battle began. The war in Europe ended in early May of 1945.

Okinawa was the largest battle in the Pacific Theater, the last great battle of World War II. The island was 350 miles from Japan. About 1500 ships were used to carry the assault force, more than were used in the Normandy landings on D-day in Europe. While the ships supporting the Normandy invasion traveled only hundreds, perhaps even dozens of miles; ships going to Okinawa had to sail from 4,000 to 6,000 miles.

Kamikazes

A relatively new tactic was used by the Japanese, one that had been encountered earlier on a smaller scale in the Philippines. Suicide aerial attacks, called Kamikaze, Japanese for "Divine Wind," were made on the ships in the assault armada. With as little as two hours of prior flight time, Japanese would fly south from Japan toward Okinawa in explosive laden aircraft.

Off shore surrounding Okinawa was a picket line of U. S. Navy ships. A Kamikaze pilot would attempt to dive onto one of those ships to damage or destroy it, giving up his life in the process. Kamikaze pilots weren't always successful, but enough of them did succeed that 36 ships were sunk and another 368 damaged, some so badly that they were later scuttled. More sailors were killed off Okinawa (4,907) than were lost on the island by either the Army (4,675) or the Marines (2,938). And, in a most unusual war time statistic, there were more sailors killed than were wounded.

Caves and Tunnels

On shore, the Japanese employed tactics that were similar in character. But, unlike the Kamikaze, they did not recklessly throw away their lives in hopes of inflicting damage on the enemy. They remained in their fortified emplacements, fighting until they were overrun. The strategy of the Japanese had changed as the war dragged on. In earlier island battles they had sought to destroy the invading forces at the landing sites. On Okinawa, they did little to oppose the landings on the beaches. Instead, they fortified the southern part of the island with strong defensive positions in hills honeycombed with manmade caves and tunnels. The Japanese fought almost to the last man, choosing to die in place rather than surrender. The same tactics had been used earlier on the islands of Pelelieu and Iwo Jima.

The Cost

Front line Marines and soldiers paid a high price, in men killed and wounded, for any ground gained. Casualty rates for United States forces had been rising the longer the war in the Pacific continued. The Marine Corps had more Marines killed and wounded in the first six months of 1945 than for the total of the previous three years of the war.

Nearly all of the 100,000 Japanese defenders died during the fighting on Okinawa. An estimated 150,000 Okinawans also died during the battle. The total number of people who died on or around the island, including combatants on both sides as well as the native Okinawans, was exceeded in World War II only by the number of Russians and Germans killed in the battle of Leningrad in the USSR, which lasted four years.

U.S. Forces

The Tenth Army was the force that landed on Okinawa. It was made up of the Army’s XXIV Army Corps and the Marine Corps Third Amphibious Corps.

The four Army divisions that made up the XXIV Army Corps were the 27th Infantry Division, the 77th Infantry Division, the 7th Infantry Division and the 96th Infantry Division. All had seen prior action.

Three Marine divisions made up the Third Amphibious Corps. These divisions were the First Marine Division, the Sixth Marine Division and the Second Marine Division, which made a fake landing on L-day in an attempt to trick the Japanese defenders. In June, the 8th Marines of the Second Marine Division landed and fought on the southern end of the island.

The First Marine Division and the Second Marine Division had each been proven in battle.

The Sixth Marine Division was new, formed only the previous September, but it was made up of veteran units. Seven of its nine rifle battalions had fought in at least two island battles. The remaining two battalions had a large number of Marines who had fought in earlier battles and were overseas for the second time. It was an outstanding fighting force. The Sixth Marine Division captured 65% of the land area of the island of Okinawa. Its men took part in some of the hardest fighting, killed more of the enemy and suffered more casualties than any of the other divisions on the island.

It may seem that I have a bias in favor of the Sixth Marine Division. If so, I freely admit to it.

The Sixth Marine Division was my division.


Band of Brothers

The United States Marine Corps made it possible that I own something that can never be taken from me. It was not a gift. The price was high. This possession is a lifetime membership in an exclusive fraternity. The requirements to belong have been met by only a comparatively few men.

Only a small number of Americans have experienced war up close. Even in time of war, fewer than two out of twenty members of our country's armed forces are ever close enough to an enemy that they hear the sounds of shots fired in anger. Only one in twenty soldiers or Marines has heard a bullet snap as it went by, has dug a fighting hole while under fire or spent a night in one in the rain. These men are front line fighters, riflemen, men who occupy stations of great peril, twenty four hours a day, sometimes for weeks at a time. Periodically, they may have to leave places of relative safety to advance against an armed enemy who is trying to kill them. These are the men who win wars.

No one who has not experienced it can comprehend the wretched conditions of ground combat: the grinding fear; the discomfort, exhaustion, lack of sleep and pain; the filth and stench; the wrenching sense of loss at the death of a comrade. Men who have endured these experiences together form a bond with each other.

Charles Reese, a journalist from Florida, describes that bond in these words:

"Combat creates a true brotherhood with the most exclusive membership rules in the world. There's no way to cheat on membership requirements. And the ones who are in can instantly sense someone who isn't."

That brotherhood has probably been around since time began.

Shakespeare ascribes these words to King Henry V, spoken in the year 1415, on the night before the battle of Agincourt:

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother ---- And gentlemen in England, now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here; and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

It might seem strange that I feel fortunate, although I was wounded during the battle, that I was one who fought as a Marine rifleman during the fighting for the island of Okinawa, who "saw the elephant" and became a member of the "band of brothers".

On patriotic occasions when the bands play and the Flag goes by, my head is held high. Whenever I see members of the armed forces, I get a feeling, not of smugness, but of satisfaction. My dues are paid. For it was my good fortune that I once had the opportunity to fight the good fight -- "on Saint Crispin's day."

James S. White
G Company, 29th Marines,
6th Marine Division, 1945

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