The Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa
Few events have shaped the world in such violent and multitudinous ways as the events of World War II. Probably the most profound event was the use of atomic weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This decision was not made lightly and many factors led up to that ultimate outcome, one of those key factors was the Battle of Okinawa. During the Battle of Okinawa the Japanese fought so tenaciously down to almost the last man that it sealed their fate and convinced the President of the United States to use atomic weapons to end the war. The road leading to the invasion of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg (Rottman), began almost a decade earlier. In 1937 Japan, which already had troops stationed in Manchuria, invaded China in an attempt to control the entire eastern coast and seize vast amounts of resources and land. As Japan continued its march south, it also seized control of French Indochina and the islands of the Dutch East Indies. In an attempt to stop Japan the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, ordered an oil embargo and froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. This action was the prime contributor to the December 7th attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which entered the U.S. into World War II (Esposito). In order to stop the Japanese advance through the Pacific the U.S. adopted an “island hopping” campaign that called for invasions of key islands throughout the Pacific Ocean that would cut off the Japanese supply lines and eventually take the war to the Japanese homeland. In April of 1945, it was determined that Okinawa would be the next island to be invaded.
The actual planning for Operation Iceberg began almost one year prior in May
1944. There were many considerations that had to be weighed before the decision was made on invading Okinawa. The decision for invasion was between Okinawa and the Formosa, an island 100 miles off the coast of China. Both options had
Few events have shaped the world in such violent and multitudinous ways as the events of World War II. Probably the most profound event was the use of atomic weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This decision was not made lightly and many factors led up to that ultimate outcome, one of those key factors was the Battle of Okinawa. During the Battle of Okinawa the Japanese fought so tenaciously down to almost the last man that it sealed their fate and convinced the President of the United States to use atomic weapons to end the war. The road leading to the invasion of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg (Rottman), began almost a decade earlier. In 1937 Japan, which already had troops stationed in Manchuria, invaded China in an attempt to control the entire eastern coast and seize vast amounts of resources and land. As Japan continued its march south, it also seized control of French Indochina and the islands of the Dutch East Indies. In an attempt to stop Japan the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, ordered an oil embargo and froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. This action was the prime contributor to the December 7th attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which entered the U.S. into World War II (Esposito). In order to stop the Japanese advance through the Pacific the U.S. adopted an “island hopping” campaign that called for invasions of key islands throughout the Pacific Ocean that would cut off the Japanese supply lines and eventually take the war to the Japanese homeland. In April of 1945, it was determined that Okinawa would be the next island to be invaded.
The actual planning for Operation Iceberg began almost one year prior in May
1944. There were many considerations that had to be weighed before the decision was made on invading Okinawa. The decision for invasion was between Okinawa and the Formosa, an island 100 miles off the coast of China. Both options had
Cited: Esposito, Vincent. The West Point Atlas of War: World War II: The Pacific. New York: Tess Press, 1959. Print Hallas, James. Killing Ground on Okinawa: The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996. Print Lacey, Laura. Stay Off the Skyline: The Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa- An Oral History. Dulles: Potomac Books, Inc., 2005. Print. Reilly, Robin. Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships: Okinawa, 1945. Drexel Hill: Casemate, 2008. Print. Rottman, Gordon. Okinawa 1945: The Last Battle. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2002. Print Tzeng, Megan. “The Battle of Okinawa, 1945: Final Turning Point in the Pacific.” The History Teacher 34.1 (2000): 20 pars. Web. 27 Nov. 2010 . Yahara, Hiromichi, Colonel. The Battle for Okinawa: A Japanese Officer 's Eyewitness Account of the Last Great Campaign of World War II. Translated by Roger Pineau and Masatoshi Uehara. With an Introduction and Commentary by Frank B. Gibney. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.