Word: okinawa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...From Okinawa this week TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod, veteran observer of the battles of Attu, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, radioed...
Nothing stranger has occurred in the Pacific war than the Tenth Army landings on Okinawa. Soldiers and marines stepped ashore with slightly more opposition than they would have had in maneuvers off the coast of California. To say merely that they were bewildered is to gild the lily of understatement. Where was the withering machine-gun fire? Where were the murderous 320-mm. mortars, the gin. rockets? Where were the fanatic Japs? They were not defending the west coast of Okinawa from north of Kadena southward half way to Naha...
Within three hours after the shock of invading against negligible opposition, a famed Marine regiment walked across Yontan airfield, one of the biggest in Okinawa Gunto, less than 400 miles from Kyushu. Casualties (from halfhearted snipers): very light. Planes could make emergency landings on the airfield now. A few hours of Seabee sweating would make it an excellent take-off point for medium bombers to fly to China, to Japan, to Formosa-all approximately 400 miles distant-and to knock out whatever chance the Japs might have left of shipping anything from the south or southwest to the homeland...
...general attitude of the Americans was reflected by Lieutenant Lawrence Bangser, veteran Marine raider: "Either this Jap general is the world's greatest tactician or the world's most stupid man." Before noon on L-day (Loveday in the voice signal alphabet), the Jap general had lost Okinawa beyond reprieve. The tanks had arrived, the artillery was arriving to augment the planes and naval gunfire. The fleet's big guns had not been necessary in the immediate sense of killing Japs, but they had perhaps discouraged the halfhearted Jap general...
...attack narrowed down to the main objective: poverty-stricken, malaria-ridden, snake-infested Okinawa, largest and staunchest rung in the Ryukyu ladder. Once firmly established on Okinawa, Americans could climb up the 370 miles to Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island, or climb down 365 miles to Formosa, potential springboard for landings in China...