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Battle of Okinawa - by Laura Lacey
Battle of Okinawa - Part 2 of 2
by Laura Lacey
This combination of the battle hardened and the untested created a new outfit,
the Sixth Marine Division. In addition to battle-hardened Marines, the Sixth
supplemented its ranks with Marines who had previously held stateside billets.
This became possible after 1943 when women Marines, the Women's Reserve, began
taking over clerical and other non-combat positions stateside. Their numbers
grew to 18,000, and this substantial expansion freed able-bodied men to go
overseas. The Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1944 to 1947, General
Alexander A. Vandegrift, said that the addition of women to the Corps accounted
for the ability to put 'the Sixth Marine Division in the field.'(47) The
Division was composed of four regiments: The 15th Marines, which was the
artillery regiment and was comprised of artillery units previously attached to
other units; the former Raider Battalions, which became the 4th Marine
Regiment; the 29th Marine Regiment, which was brought up from battalion to
regimental strength; the 22nd Marine Regiment, which was the first Marine
regiment organized for independent duty after the United States entered the
war, completed the Sixth Marine Division. After training as a unit on
Guadalcanal for five months, they felt ready for the challenges that were in
their future. The Sixth, although a new division, entered the Battle of Okinawa
with more combat experience than any of the other Marine Divisions in their
initial assaults.(48)
Although few marines other than Shepherd knew the destination, the division had
been planning and training for a landing for months before their departure from
Guadalcanal in March 1945. After a rest and rendezvous stop at the Ulithi
atoll, in the Carolines, the division's briefings and preparation began in
earnest.
The fleet began moving into place around the Ryukyu Island chain in March. The
first kamikaze assault of the Okinawan campaign occurred on March 18, 1945. The
navy began 'softening up' the island on March 21 with naval bombardment. The
'softening up' would make the landing easier for the assault troops when they
came ashore. Naval bombardments would remove walls, foliage, and other barriers
as well as kill troops. The Okinawan came to refer to the bombardment of
Okinawa as the 'Typhoon of Steel.' The Kerama Islands that were off the coast
of Okinawa were occupied March 25 through March 28 by members of the tenth
Army, which gave the Allies a place for fuel replenishment and pre-invasion
bases.(49)
The landing began early on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945. The first waves went
in at 8:30 am. The landings were to take place on the west coast of Okinawa on
the Hagushi beaches, known as Green Beach and Red Beach by the landing troops.
The plan called for U.S. forces to spread out and sever the island in two. The
Marines of the First and Sixth Divisions were to move west to east and then go
north. After landing, the Army headed south. On Love Day, the 2nd Marines were
to conduct a diversionary operation on the southern end of Okinawa. The
expected bloody landing never materialized. The Tenth Army strolled onto the
island with little opposition.
The left flank of the Tenth Army became the Sixth's zone of action. The 4th,
the 22nd, and the 15th regiments, the lead contingents for the Sixth, achieved
their first day's objective by 10:30 am. The Tenth Army controlled Yontan and
Kadena airfields. By that evening the 29th regiment, which had been held in
reserve and had not anticipated an Easter landing, were on land. Equipment and
60,000 troops were on shore by the end of the first day, which was beyond the
scheduled L-2 objective. By L-7, the Marines had secured Nago, Okinawa's second
largest city, and were headed further north. The division would run into
resistance on the Motobu Peninsula especially on the well-fortified positions
around Mount Yaedake in mid-April. Organized resistance on the northern
two-thirds of the island would end April 20. The Marine divisions thought their
job finished.
However, word began to filter back that events were not going smoothly in the
south. The Army had mired down. The Army first ran into stiff opposition north
of Naha at a hill known as Kakazu. One of the Army units, the 27th, already had
a reputation for having preformed poorly in previous island fighting. Now the
Marines felt they were being ordered to bail them out. The Marine divisions
headed out and the First eventually broke through at Kakazu.
In April General Alexander Vandergrift, Marine Corps Commandant, visited the
island and discussed an amphibious assault on the southern end of the island
rather than Bunkner's plan of continued frontal assault. This has become a
major point of debate in the battle's history. The debate revolves around the
contention that a southern assault would have been less costly. Bunkner
prevailed and at the end of April, the Marines began replacing the Army on the
front lines. They were about to run head on into the Shuri-Yonaburu Line.
The Japanese military had been unsure of where the Allies might land next and
had removed troops from Okinawa to Formosa. This condemned the Thirty-Second
Army to fight a defensive battle. Rather than meeting the Tenth Army at the
beachhead, as in previous encounters, they would move to the Shuri-Yonburu
line, a high ridge that essentially cut the island in two, just north of Naha
on the eastern side of the island and its center the pride of the Okinawans,
Shuri Castle. The Thirty-second Army's goal was to inflict as much damage from
that spot as possible. From the walls of Shuri Castle, the Thirty-Second Army's
headquarters, Ushijima and his staff watched the Americans land. They
positioned their many guns, the Japanese soldiers dug interconnecting tunnels,
and they waited.
A problem for the Tenth Army would be the rain, which by May 9 had begun in
earnest. Everything became muddy. Moving supplies and equipment proved almost
impossible and often had to be accomplished hand-over-hand. Asa Kawa River
seemed to be the biggest obstacle between the Sixth Marine Division and Naha,
the capital of Okinawa. The river would be breeched by the 22nd regiment a yard
at a time. Then all that stood between the division and Naha were three
'insignificant' hills, Half Moon, Horseshoe and Sugar Loaf.
May 12 through May 18 would be filled with some of the most savage fighting in
Marine Corps lore. The Shuri-line cut the island in half east to west. It
consisted of mutually supported defensive positions, which consisted of mortar,
artillery, machine guns, and interconnected tunnel complexes. These tunnels, an
estimated sixty miles of interconnected passages, made movement and flanking
maneuvers easy for the Japanese. In addition, the Marines ran into what they
referred to as 'spider holes.' Flush with the ground and covered with brush or
dirt, these hideaways kept the men constantly vigilant about what might be
behind them. The Marines had found the flank of Ushijima's Shuri-line of
defense and the Japanese were unwilling to give it up without a tremendous
payment. Finally, under the cover of darkness, during a rainstorm, the remnants
of the Thirty-Second Army would head further south. They would prepare for a
final stand on the southern tip of Okinawa. They left Sugar Loaf and the
Marines of the Sixth to recover their dead and wounded. The Sixth suffered over
2,000 casualties. Sugar Loaf would be assaulted eleven times; some companies
would be literally wiped out twice.(50)
Once again, the Marine command staff would attempt to convince Bunkner to make
an amphibious landing. Finally Bunkner concurred. The Marines would have their
amphibious assault on the Oroku Peninsula. They had less than thirty-six hours
to plan the landing. The Japanese naval forces had made the Oroku Peninsula
their base of operation. They were ordered south along with the Army. The naval
contingent, under Admiral Ota, chose to stay in their elaborate cave system on
the Oroku and fight to the last man. After two days, the Naha airfield fell
into American hands and Sixth secured the peninsula within ten more days. Very
few Japanese prisoners were taken.
Another aspect of the Okinawa campaign that must be addressed is the plight of
the civilian population. The Okinawans were a, docile people of small-stature
who were faced with an unenviable situation. Whether considered, 'like Go
pieces, in a game of Go,' as often referred to by former Okinawan Governor,
Masahide Ota, or as caught between the hammer and the anvil, their situation
during the war was miserable. At battle's end, one-third of the native
population had perished. The Japanese military had told the Okinawan civilians
to go south. They were thrown out of their hiding places as the Japanese
retreated and took those caves for themselves. Very little consideration was
offered these noncombatants by their Japanese overlords. A lone exception to
the normal disregard that the Japanese reserved for the Okinawans was exhibited
by Rear Admiral Minoru Ota, on June 6, 1945, shortly before Japanese naval
headquarters on the Oroku Peninsula was overrun and Ota and his staff committed
'seppuku.' No other description better reveals the Okinawan's plight:
Since the enemy attack began, our Army and Navy has been fighting defensive
battles and have not been able to tend to the people of the Prefecture.
Consequently, due to our negligence, these innocent people have lost their
homes and property to enemy assault. Every man has been conscribed to partake
in the defense, while women, children and elders are forced into hiding in the
small underground shelters which are not tactically important or are exposed to
shelling, air raids or the harsh elements of nature. Moreover, girls have
devoted themselves to running and cooking for the soldiers and have gone as far
as to volunteer in carrying ammunition, or joining in attacking the enemy.(51)
The fact that a Japanese officer would admit negligence makes this passage
especially important. Also significant is his comment that the men had been
conscripted. This is not to say, as Ota points out, that some Okinawans were
willing participants. Like all civilians who had been fed wartime propaganda,
the Okinawans had unwarranted fears that accounted for their initial resistance
and the large number of suicides. Many Okinawans made it clear that they felt
they were fighting for their lives against the barbarous Americans, who would
rape the women and eat the children. Once the civilians discovered the Allied
troops did not intend to harm them, they surrendered and again became extremely
docile. The Naval military detachment established to support the local
population commented on their passivity, attributing it to 'great shock and
fright,' but added that from that point on they were docile and
cooperative.(52) Rear Admiral Ota also described the particularly
horrific move south for the Okinawans: This leaves the village people
vulnerable to enemy attacks where they will surely be killed in desperation.
Some parents have asked the military to protect their daughters against rape by
the enemy, prepared that they may never see them again. Nurses, with wounded
soldiers, wander the battlefield aimlessly because the medical team had moved
and left them behind. The military has changed its operation, ordering people
to move to far residential areas, however, those without means of
transportation trudge along on foot in the dark and rain, all the while looking
for food to stay alive.(53)
Other accounts regarding civilians support Ota's claims. The naval personnel
responsible for their relocation during the battle explained that the Okinawans
had been living in caves and were terrified to come out. Even at the battle's
beginning, 'seventy-five percent of their homes were found destroyed,
two-thirds having been burned. They were covered in lice and unclean, starved
and injured from bombing, shelling and bullets.'(54) One of the most
riveting stories regarding the civilians of Okinawa is the story of the
Himeyuri Student Corps, composed of schoolgirls. Schools in Japan, including
Okinawa, had been militarized early in the forties. Conscription, activation
and intensive nurses training began late in 1944 in all female schools. The
First Okinawan Prefectural Girls School and the Women's Division of the
national Okinawa Normal School made up the Himeyuri Students Corps. These were
the most well thought of girls on Okinawa.(55) When the battle began, the
Himeyuri girls, numbering roughly 225 and ranging in age from fifteen to
nineteen, were used as nurses aides in the Japanese military hospital.(56)
These privileged young ladies usually did the most menial and often the most
dangerous work. Thoroughly indoctrinated, most would have had it no other way.
By May 30, 1945, the Japanese had already lost seventy percent of the forces
stationed on Okinawa.(57) At this point, they abandoned the
Shuri/Yonabaru line and headed south. The military also abandoned these young
women. Medical units were deactivated and the girls were left to their own
devices. Pushed out of the caves, they moved south, unprepared and unprotected,
which exacerbated their losses as they tried to find family and safety. By the
end of June, just twenty-one remained alive. They have become a symbol on
Okinawa of what the Okinawan's endured. Explained Setsuko Ishikiwa, 'My
classmates died one after another.' (58) Admiral Ota's conclusion to his
telegram to Tokyo exhibits unique understanding of what the Okinawans had
endured. He expressed his concern for a people that the Japanese had done
little to protect: Ever since our Army and Navy occupied Okinawa, the
inhabitants of the prefecture have been forced into military service and hard
labor while sacrificing everything they own as well as the lives of their loved
ones. They have served with loyalty. Now we are nearing the end of the battle,
but they will go unrecognized, unrewarded. Seeing this I feel deeply depressed
and lament a loss of words for them. Every tree, every plant is gone. Even the
weeds are burnt. By the end of June, there will be no more food. This is how
the Okinawan people have fought the war. And for this reason I ask you to give
the Okinawan people special consideration this day forward.(59)
The Americans who landed on Okinawa had been briefed regarding the Okinawans,
but they quickly surmised for themselves the pitiful situation that they were
in. U.S. troops tried to look out for them as best they could. In The Last
Chapter, Ernie Pyle wrote that the Okinawans were 'obviously scared to death,
shocked by the bombardment, and that after a few days when they realized that
they would not be hurt, they came out in droves to give themselves up.'(60)
He concluded that the real befuddlement occurred when they realized not
only that the propaganda concerning the horrors of the Americans was incorrect
but also that part of the intricate invasion plan included enough supplies to
feed them.(61) This is not to suggest that all encounters with the
Okinawans were benign. Many would be caught in the crossfire of war and, as in
any war, some men were not always compassionate to others when assessing their
own chances of survival.
The battle ranged on often with the Okinawan civilians caught in the middle. As
the men pressed on to the south the land flattened. Cane fields, terrified
civilians desperate Japanese, as well as small hills, almost always fortified,
made the fighting treacherous and chaotic. The last battle for the Sixth on
Okinawa, Mezado Ridge, occurred on June 17. On June 21, 1945, George company,
22nd regiment, Sixth Marine Diviison, the same outfit that raised the flag on
the northern end, did the honors on the southern end. The Battle for Okinawa
was over.
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Copyright © 2003 Laura Lacey
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