Word: okinawa
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Premier Suzuki's Cabinet took control of the People's Volunteer Corps from the Army and Navy. War Minister Anami ordered his Kwantung troops to fight to the death (Moscow said they were surrendering in droves). A Jap torpedo hit a U.S. warship off Okinawa, and Admiral Nimitz ordered the hovering Third Fleet, silent for two days, back into action (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS...
When the first news came to the fighting fronts, G.I.s yelled wildly, pounded backs, fired guns, drank hoarded whiskey. On Okinawa the night was lighted by millions of tracer bullets as men fired rifles, machine guns, antiaircraft guns. Green and yellow flares glared in the darkness. Ships offshore, fearing a Kamikaze attack, laid down a smoke screen, opened up with antiaircraft guns. Veterans had seen nothing like it during the whole battle for the islands. The celebration had tragic consequences : six men were killed, 30 wounded...
Before the Tenth Army (under General MacArthur's command) on the island of Okinawa (supposedly under Admiral Nimitz' command), Lieut. General James H. Doolittle of the Eighth Air Force (under General Spaatz's command) made a brash speech. He said the naming of a single, overall commander for ground, sea & air forces in the Pacific was essential for victory over Japan. The confused command situation surrounding Doolittle gave his remarks added point...
...hours before Doolittle spoke, command of the U.S.-held islands in the Ryukyu chain, including Okinawa, had passed in part from Admiral Nimitz to General MacArthur. But no word of this change had come from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who made the decision. Not until week's end did MacArthur's headquarters proclaim: the Ryukyus, with the Philippines, "form a great semicircular base from which a mighty invasion force is being forged under the primary responsibility of General MacArthur for the final conquest of Japan...
...Fleet That Came to Stay (U.S. Navy-Paramount) is a shattering and dreadful record of the work of Japan's suicide flyers. The U.S. fleet which stood off Okinawa not only came to stay, it had to stay. The 6,000 to 7,000 of Japan's youngest men who flew Japan's oldest planes were quite as inextricably committed; they were locked into the mortal vortex of the divine tempest-Kamikaze...