Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major Pacific War battle fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army and Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and the 82-day battle lasted until 22 June 1945. The Kerama Islands had been captured on 26 March 1945 by the U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division. The U.S. Tenth Army, a cross-branch force including the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th Infantry Divisions and the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Marine Divisions, secured the island against Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima's Thirty-Second Army, a mixed force of regular troops, naval infantry, and conscripted local Okinawans. About 100,000 Japanese troops were present at the onset. The battle was the bloodiest and fiercest in the Pacific Ocean Theatre, with some 50,000 Allied and around 100,000 Japanese casualties; at least 149,425 Okinawan people were killed, died by coerced suicide, or went missing. Naval operations saw considerable losses on both sides, including the Japanese battleship Yamato, and kamikaze attacks from Kyushu and Taiwan. After the battle, Okinawa provided the victorious Allies with a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields close to Japan for the planned invasion of the home islands. The battle was nicknamed the typhoon of steel.