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19451 April – 22 June 1945 · Itoman, southern Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

US Sherman tanks gathered on a grassy ridge on Okinawa during a pause in the 1945 fighting
Archival image: US Army Signal Corps. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The last great battle of the Pacific war began with American landings on 1 April 1945 and ended in late June among the caves of the island's south. More than 200,000 people died, including over 12,000 Americans and perhaps a quarter of Okinawa's civilians, many caught in crossfire or pressed into suicide. The island still hosts most of the US military's bases in Japan.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Park and the Cornerstone of PeaceGranite walls bearing the names of all who died, of every nation.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Former Japanese Navy Underground HeadquartersTunnels where Admiral Ōta and his staff died in June 1945.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Himeyuri Peace MuseumMemorial to the schoolgirls drafted as nurses who died in the caves.Map ↗

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More from the Second World War

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