{ "slug": "okinawa", "title": "Battle of Okinawa", "status": "draft", "era": "WWII and later", "date_text": "1 April – 22 June 1945", "start": "1945-04-01", "end": "1945-06-22", "war": "World War II", "cdb90_war": "WORLD WAR II (OKINAWA)", "place": { "name": "Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, Japan", "lat": 26.483, "lon": 127.95, "wikidata": "Q600614" }, "lede": "From April to June 1945 the US Tenth Army ground through the fortified hills of southern Okinawa against Ushijima's 32nd Army: the costliest American campaign against Japan, fought amid a civilian population that suffered the heaviest losses of all.", "result": "Decisive American victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker win", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "United States (Tenth Army and Fifth Fleet)", "commanders": [ "Lt Gen Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr", "Maj Gen Roy S. Geiger", "Maj Gen John R. Hodge", "Adm Raymond A. Spruance" ], "strength": { "value": 183000, "low": 154000, "high": 183000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 49151, "low": 49151, "high": 75362, "source": "s1" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "Japanese 32nd Army (with naval base force)", "commanders": [ "Lt Gen Mitsuru Ushijima", "Lt Gen Isamu Cho", "Col Hiromichi Yahara", "Lt Gen Takeo Fujioka", "Lt Gen Tatsumi Amamiya", "Rear Adm Minoru Ota" ], "strength": { "value": 100000, "low": 77000, "high": 100000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 117400, "low": 101537, "high": 117400, "source": "s1" } } ], "sections": { "background": "By the spring of 1945 the American Central Pacific drive had taken the Marianas and, in February and March, Iwo Jima. The next step was Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands: some 60 miles long, about 350 miles from Kyushu, with room for airfields, staging areas and fleet anchorages for the invasion of Japan itself. Its southern third, rolling and terraced but broken by escarpments and ravines, held three-quarters of the island's 435,000 people (1940 figure) and the towns of Naha, Shuri, Itoman and Yonabaru. Okinawa had been annexed by Japan only in 1879, and its people were neither fully trusted by the Japanese army nor spared by it.\n\nOperation ICEBERG was a joint undertaking under Admiral Nimitz, with Spruance's Fifth Fleet carrying and covering Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner's Tenth Army. The 77th Division seized the Kerama Islands from 26 March to give the fleet an anchorage, and L-Day was set for 1 April.\n\nThe defender's plan had changed late. The veteran 9th Division left Okinawa for Formosa in December 1944 and was never replaced, so Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima's 32nd Army gave up any idea of fighting at the beaches. Instead, largely on the reasoning of his operations officer, Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, it concentrated in the south behind a belt of fortified ridges centred on Shuri Castle. The aim was attrition: to hold the Americans ashore as long as possible while kamikaze and conventional air attacks struck at the fleet offshore.", "forces": "Tenth Army had two corps. Major General John R. Hodge's XXIV Corps brought the 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions ashore, with the 27th and 77th following; Major General Roy Geiger's III Amphibious Corps landed the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, while the 2nd Marine Division feinted off the south-east coast. Appleman gives 183,000 troops for the assault phases. Behind them stood the fast carriers of Task Force 58, a British carrier force and a vast bombardment and support fleet.\n\nThe 32nd Army fielded the 62nd Division (Fujioka), veterans of China; the 24th Division (Amamiya), largely fresh; the 44th Independent Mixed Brigade; and Rear Admiral Ota's naval troops on the Oroku peninsula. Appleman puts the total at more than 100,000, including some 20,000 Okinawan Boeitai home guards. Its distinctive asset was artillery: for the first time in the Pacific war all non-divisional guns came under one headquarters, the 5th Artillery Command, and they were sited in caves to fire on pre-registered ground.\n\nThe Japanese fought from caves, tunnels and the island's massive stone family tombs, preferring reverse slopes where American fire could not reach. The American answer was tanks, the new armoured flame-thrower, massed artillery with VT fuzes and naval gunfire, and close infantry assault: Buckner's \"blowtorch and corkscrew\" method, flame and explosives.", "course": "**Landing and advance, 1–9 April.** On Easter Sunday, 1 April, four divisions came ashore on the Hagushi beaches almost unopposed and took Kadena and Yontan airfields within hours. The 7th Division crossed to the east coast next day. In CDB90 this is *Advance from the Beachhead* (7th Division) and *Advance from the Beach* (96th Division), 2–5 April. While the Marines cleared the north, XXIV Corps turned south and met the outposts of the Shuri line: *Advance through the Outposts* and *Advance to Shuri Line Outposts* (5–9 April), including the 184th Infantry's fight for the Pinnacle and the 383rd's for Cactus Ridge. On 6–7 April the first mass kamikaze attacks struck the fleet, and the battleship *Yamato*, sent on a one-way sortie, was sunk by carrier aircraft.\n\n**The outer ring, 9–24 April.** The 96th Division's assault on Kakazu Ridge on 9 April was thrown back with heavy loss, and a Japanese night counter-offensive on 12–13 April failed in turn: CDB90 *Kakazu and Tombstone Ridges* (9–13 April, an attacker loss). On the east the 7th Division fought *Tomb Hill–Ouki* (9–12 April). After a pause to bring up ammunition, XXIV Corps attacked on 19 April behind the greatest artillery concentration of the Pacific war, 27 battalions and 324 guns firing 19,000 shells in 40 minutes. It barely dented the positions. Days of close fighting followed at *Skyline Ridge–Rocky Crags* (7th Division) and *Nishibaru Ridge–Tanabaru Escarpment* (96th) before the Japanese gave up the first ring on 23–24 April.\n\n**The second ring, 25 April–8 May.** The 96th attacked the Maeda Escarpment (\"Hacksaw Ridge\") from 26 April, handing it to the 77th Division on 29–30 April (CDB90 *Maeda Escarpment*). The 7th Division was held at Kochi Ridge and Onaga (*Kochi Ridge–Onaga I–III*, 25 April–4 May, all attacker losses). On 4–5 May the 24th Division, urged on by Cho against Yahara's advice, launched a general counter-offensive with seaborne landings behind the American flanks; it was destroyed, and with it much of the Japanese artillery that had exposed itself (*Japanese Counterattack*, where CDB90 makes the Japanese the attacker). The 7th took *Kochi Ridge IV* by 8 May.\n\n**Conical Hill and Shuri, 11 May–1 June.** Tenth Army's general attack of 11 May produced the Marine struggle for Sugar Loaf in the west and, on the east, the 96th Division's battle for Conical Hill: *Attack on Shuri Line's Eastern Flank I–III* (11–22 May). Its eastern face fell on 13 May. The 7th Division slipped through Yonabaru on the night of 22 May to envelop Shuri from the south: *Shuri Envelopment I–III* (22 May–1 June), punctuated by *Japanese Counterattacks* (24–26 May). Torrential rain turned the valley to mud. Ushijima, after a conference under Shuri Castle on 21 May, slipped most of his army south between 26 May and early June; the envelopment closed on an empty fortress.\n\n**The last line, 6–22 June.** The survivors stood on the Yaeju-Dake–Yuza-Dake escarpment. The 7th Division fought *Hill 95 I–II*, *Yaeju-Dake* and *Hills 153 and 115*; the 96th *Advance to*, *Attack on* and *Capture of Yuza-Dake/Yaeju-Dake Escarpment* (6–18 June), while the Marines took Kunishi Ridge to the west. Buckner was killed by a shell burst on 18 June. Ushijima and Cho killed themselves on Hill 89 near Mabuni, and organised resistance ended on 22 June; mopping up ran to 30 June.", "aftermath": "Appleman counts 49,151 American battle casualties, 12,520 of them killed or missing; navy losses alone exceeded 4,900 dead, with 36 ships sunk and 368 damaged, mostly by air attack. Buckner was the highest-ranking American officer killed by enemy fire in the war. The US estimate of Japanese losses was about 110,000 dead and 7,400 prisoners.\n\nThe heaviest loss fell on Okinawans. The Japanese government's figures, derived from comparing pre- and post-war population, put civilian deaths at about 94,000, with another 28,228 Okinawans killed in military or auxiliary service; the prefectural peace museum speaks of more than 100,000 civilians, and higher figures circulate. People died in the crossfire, of hunger and disease in the caves, at the hands of Japanese soldiers who expelled them from shelter or suspected them of spying, and in group suicides encouraged or compelled by the military. Whether and how Japanese school textbooks describe that compulsion has been a running political controversy.\n\nThe cost shaped American estimates for the invasion of Kyushu and so the argument over the atomic bombs, though how far is disputed. Okinawa became the base it was taken to be, and remained under US administration until 1972; the American bases there are still contested. The Cornerstone of Peace at Mabuni lists the dead of every nation by name.", "wargaming": "Okinawa is attritional infantry fighting on a small, densely fortified board, and that is its appeal and its problem. At divisional or corps level (battalions or regiments as units, a day or two per turn) it becomes a logistics and rotation game: the American player has overwhelming fire, armour and naval guns but must keep tired regiments moving against an enemy who cannot be seen; the Japanese player wins by making the clock and the casualty count hurt rather than by holding ground. Victory conditions need care, since a historical result is a certain US win.\n\nThe richer material is lower down. CDB90's 28 XXIV Corps engagements suit company or battalion games on 1:1 or 1:5 figure scales: Kakazu Ridge on 9 April, the Maeda Escarpment, the Kochi Ridge knobs, Conical Hill on 13 May, the final escarpment. Key terrain is three-dimensional: reverse slopes, cave mouths that link underground, tombs, and fields of fire from neighbouring ridges, so line of sight and hidden deployment matter more than movement. Flame tanks, satchel charges and spotting for artillery are central.\n\nThe decisions are good ones. Should Ushijima have fought at the beaches, or held Shuri to the end instead of withdrawing? Was the 4 May counter-offensive folly? Should Buckner have accepted a second landing behind the Shuri line, as some Marine officers urged, rather than frontal assault? Rain from late May can be modelled as a random event that halts tanks and supply." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Battle of Okinawa Japanese Dispositions.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "Japanese dispositions on southern Okinawa at the time of the landings.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Battle_of_Okinawa_Japanese_Dispositions.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Battle_of_Okinawa_Japanese_Dispositions.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Okinawa_Japanese_Dispositions.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Unknown author Unknown author", "credit": "https://historicalresources.wordpress.com/category/ww-ii-second-world-war/ww-ii-maps/", "width": 597 }, { "file": "File:Battle of Okinawa 1945 April 1-5.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "The landings and advance across the island, 1–5 April 1945.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Battle_of_Okinawa_1945_April_1-5.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Battle_of_Okinawa_1945_April_1-5.png/960px-Battle_of_Okinawa_1945_April_1-5.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Okinawa_1945_April_1-5.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "U.S. Marine Corps", "credit": "Major Chas. 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(51361121824).jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "A 7th Infantry Division flame-thrower tank at work on Hill 178 while infantry wait to clear the caves.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/SC_208302_-_Flame_throwing_tank_of_7th_Infantry_Division_burns_out_enemy_defenses_on_hill_178%2C_Okinawa%2C_while_infantrymen_crouch_low_awaiting_the_order_to_clean_up_the_caves._%2851361121824%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/SC_208302_-_Flame_throwing_tank_of_7th_Infantry_Division_burns_out_enemy_defenses_on_hill_178%2C_Okinawa%2C_while_infantrymen_crouch_low_awaiting_the_order_to_clean_up_the_caves._%2851361121824%29.jpg/960px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SC_208302_-_Flame_throwing_tank_of_7th_Infantry_Division_burns_out_enemy_defenses_on_hill_178,_Okinawa,_while_infantrymen_crouch_low_awaiting_the_order_to_clean_up_the_caves._(51361121824).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Signal Corps Archive from Ireland and United States", "credit": "SC 208302 - Flame throwing tank of 7th Infantry Division burns out enemy defenses on hill 178, Okinawa, while infantrymen crouch low awaiting the order to clean up the caves.", "width": 11186 }, { "file": "File:111-SC-337969 - Riflemen of the 2nd Bn., 381st Regiment of the Tenth Army's 96th Div. peer cautiously ahead as they advance across the summit of Yaeju-Dake escarpment (Big Apple Ridge) on Okinawa. 14 June 1945.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "Riflemen of the 2nd Battalion, 381st Infantry, 96th Division, cross the summit of the Yaeju-Dake escarpment, 14 June 1945.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/111-SC-337969_-_Riflemen_of_the_2nd_Bn.%2C_381st_Regiment_of_the_Tenth_Army%27s_96th_Div._peer_cautiously_ahead_as_they_advance_across_the_summit_of_Yaeju-Dake_escarpment_%28Big_Apple_Ridge%29_on_Okinawa._14_June_1945.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/111-SC-337969_-_Riflemen_of_the_2nd_Bn.%2C_381st_Regiment_of_the_Tenth_Army%27s_96th_Div._peer_cautiously_ahead_as_they_advance_across_the_summit_of_Yaeju-Dake_escarpment_%28Big_Apple_Ridge%29_on_Okinawa._14_June_1945.jpg/960px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:111-SC-337969_-_Riflemen_of_the_2nd_Bn.,_381st_Regiment_of_the_Tenth_Army%27s_96th_Div._peer_cautiously_ahead_as_they_advance_across_the_summit_of_Yaeju-Dake_escarpment_(Big_Apple_Ridge)_on_Okinawa._14_June_1945.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "U.S. Signal Corps", "credit": "U.S. National Archives", "width": 3598 }, { "file": "File:Japanese Commanders on Okinawa.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Japanese commanders on Okinawa, February 1945: among them Ota, Ushijima, Cho and Yahara.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Japanese_Commanders_on_Okinawa.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Japanese_Commanders_on_Okinawa.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_Commanders_on_Okinawa.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Post-Work: User:W.wolny", "credit": "www.army.mil", "width": 680 }, { "file": "File:LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIMON B. BUCKNER in Okinawa.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr on Okinawa.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/LIEUTENANT_GENERAL_SIMON_B._BUCKNER_in_Okinawa.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/LIEUTENANT_GENERAL_SIMON_B._BUCKNER_in_Okinawa.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LIEUTENANT_GENERAL_SIMON_B._BUCKNER_in_Okinawa.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "US Army Photograph", "credit": "http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-M-Okinawa/img/USMC-M-Okinawa-p18.jpg", "width": 480 }, { "file": "File:Okinawan civilians being gathered together by the Allied Military Government.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "Okinawan civilians gathered by the American military government.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Okinawan_civilians_being_gathered_together_by_the_Allied_Military_Government.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Okinawan_civilians_being_gathered_together_by_the_Allied_Military_Government.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Okinawan_civilians_being_gathered_together_by_the_Allied_Military_Government.jpg", "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0", "artist": "U.S. Army", "credit": "Okinawa Prefectural Archives", "width": 800 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Roy E. Appleman, James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler and John Stevens, Okinawa: The Last Battle (US Army in World War II; Washington: Historical Division, Department of the Army, 1948)", "url": "https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-Okinawa/", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "HERO for US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, CAA-SR-84-6, Analysis of Factors That Have Influenced Outcomes of Battles and Wars, Vol. VI (1984), engagement narratives pp. 97–113 (7th Division) and 126–138 (96th Division)", "url": "https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADB087722", "kind": "primary" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan), 沖縄県における戦災の状況 (war damage in Okinawa Prefecture), table of war dead", "url": "https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/daijinkanbou/sensai/situation/state/okinawa_04.html", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, English site", "url": "https://peace-museum.okinawa.jp/english/index.html", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "Naval History and Heritage Command, H-Gram 044: \"Floating Chrysanthemums\" – The Naval Battle of Okinawa", "url": "https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-044.html", "kind": "web" } ], "cdb90": [ 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 544, 545, 546, 547, 548 ], "order": 217, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/okinawa/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": { "title": "Okinawa 1945: XXIV Corps engagements", "file": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/orbat/okinawa-1945.json", "app": "https://orbat.georgewyrd.com/?loadScenarioURL=https://battles.georgewyrd.com/orbat/okinawa-1945.json" }, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }