The Battle of Okinawa was the final and most costly battle up until the Japanese mainland invasion, ending World War II. Eventually, the United States won the Battle of Okinawa, but after a long, hard fight. According to the diary of Donald W. Panek, there were constant explosions and gun fires lighting up the sky. Out of the 60,000 US soldiers that first entered the island, only 11,000 escaped unharmed.
Even worse than that, over 150,000 Okinawans were killed from being caught up in the fighting. Civilians were mistreated, as the Japanese army used the innocent people as war shields , and sometimes attached dynamite to them so they could be used as human bombs. Soldiers raided shelters for supplies, often harming non-cooperating civilians. Okinawan men were forced to join the Japanese army, while most women were forced to be nurses.
After 3 months of bloody fighting and seemingly endless fighting, destroying over 240,000 lives and the once peaceful island of Okinawa, the battle ended on June 22, 1945. The American forces had won due to their overwhelming force on Okinawa, and the remaining Japanese forces surrendered.
"All we could see was the fore and a few explosions. Didn't get any word as to the casualties. They must have been heavy because the explosion could be seen at a great distance."
~ Diary of Donald W. Panek (US Soldier)
"Even though we are alive we figure we will only live 2-3 days. All of us put the muzzle of the gun to our throats several times but however eventually we will die so why not just stick it out to the finish?
~ Diary of a Japanese soldier
Japanese soldiers wading out to surrender to a US boat - image courtesy of National WWII Museum
Proclamation by the Heads of Governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and China for Japan's Surrender - image courtesy of docsteach.org
The Proclamation for Japan's Surrender (pictured above) basically states that if Japan surrenders, America will bring peace to them and stop the fighting. If they don't, it will result in much more violence and destruction. It is giving the Japanese a chance to end the war while avoiding complete disaster.
Some historians may say that the Battle of Iwo Jima was more important than the Battle of Okinawa, but in Iwo Jima, there were only 7,000 American deaths, and in Okinawa, there were 5,000 more (12,000 deaths), therefore making Okinawa much more of a deciding factor in the decision to use the atomic bomb to invade Japan. It was also a lot more important and remembered because of the excessively violent fighting and attacks and also because of the brutality of the way the native Okinawans were treated.
The Okinawans were opposed to the invasion of their home island because they were being treated like disposable weapons. They were being unfairly discrminated against, and some Okinawans took action and left the island to reach safety.
Photo of America's "preferred plan" for attack - image courtesy of National WWII Museum
Photo of America's "alternate plan" for attack in case anything went wrong - image courtesy of National WWII Museum