Dylan Johnson & Jeremy Posey

History of Okinawa Island Okinawa was a very prosperous island,

because it was on the trade route between Japan and Northern China.

Okinawa gained its wealth from trading sulfur to China, which turned it into explosives.

In 1609 Okinawa was invaded and taken over by Japanese Samurai

If the Japanese didn’t open its port the US was going to annex Okinawa.

History Continued

In 1879 the Okinawa Kingdom was suppressed.

Inhabitants of the island were poor and many immigrated elsewhere.

Battle of Okinawa

Took place on April, 11945 and lasted till

June21, 1945.

The combatants included

The US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan.

Strengths

US, Great Britain, etc. Japanese Empire

548000 soldiers or regulars

1300 ships Unknown amount

of aircrafts

100000 regulars and militia

Unknown amount of ships

Unknown amount of aircrafts

Casualties

US, Great Britain, etc. Empire of Japan

12513 dead or missing regulars.

38916 regulars were wounded.

33096 were wounded out of combat.

79 ships sunk and scrapped.

763 aircrafts destroyed.

66000 dead or missing regulars.

17000 wounded 7455 captured 16 ships sunk and

scrapped. 7830 aircrafts

destroyed. 140000 civilians dead

or missing.

Naval Battle

The main job for the Navy was to control the Japanese aircraft aspect of the war.

The Japanese aircrafts withdrew from the war on the 25th of May.

On April 7th 1945 the Yamato was sunk, this was the worlds largest battleship.

The Japanese Navy withdrew from the war after this sinking.

Land Battle

The North The South

The US took the north part of the island with ease.

They encountered some strong enemy fire at Mount Yae-dake.

They then captured the Kadena and Yomitan airbases.

On April 20th the north fell.

Japanese soldiers hid in caves armed with machine guns.

Japanese would use Okinawa Citizens to go get food and water for the troops.

On June 24st 1945 the island fell, but some Japanese continued to fight.

Aftermath

Many Japanese civilians and soldiers had died during the battle.

1/3 of the population of Okinawa had died in the battle.

Many of the Japanese committed Seppuku(suicide) to avoid capture.

Most Japanese took Okinawan Clothing to also avoid capture.

The Okinawan’s helped the Americans uncover these Japanese people and they were then captured.

Aftermath Cont.

Near the end of the battle the US’s second highest ranked Officer died from a Japanese ricochet artillery shell.

His failure to realize Japanese retreat to their second line ended in a lot of civilian casualties.

US suffered it highest casualty rate (48%) for combat stress reaction.

Historians believe that the battle lead to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

References

Pike, J. (2010). Battle of okinawa. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/okinawa-battle.htm

History of okinawa island. (2003, May 17). Retrieved from http://www.hikyaku.com/summit/okhistg.html

Grube, F. (n.d.). Battle of okinawa. Retrieved from http://flgrube1.tripod.com/id182.html

Battle of okinawa. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.battle-fleet.com/pw/his/okinawa.htm