Sorry for the double USMC post, but I forgot about this.
On April 1st, 1945, The 1st, 2nd, and 5th Marine Divisions landed on the Island of Okinawa, Ryuku Islands: 340 miles from the Japanese Home Islands. Along with the Marines, in other locations 5 divisions of the United States 10th Army also landed. In the ensuing combat, 25% of the island's civilian population perished, many by suicide---convinced by the Japanese Army that the Americans would torture and murder them.
Approximately 12,000 US KIA's were sustained on land as well at sea, where the US Navy lost more sailors than in any other engagement of the war due to Kamikaze suicide attacks. Overall Allied casualties were 50,000. The Japanese Army lost over 100,000 troops, nearly all fighting to the death or committing suicide when resistance was deemed to be futile.
Will you find accounts of this battle in modern high school history books? Likely not. But from what I saw on Fox News last week, you can see a big picture of Cindy Sheehan.
Lest we forget......
Thanks Hank for shedding the light. Those are staggering numbers.
The real sad thing is that there will be wars in the future that will surpass WWII's carnage. And why? Because most of us are ignorant of history and are doomed to repeat the mistakes born by human folly.
Posted by: Paul | April 01, 2009 at 07:55 PM