Okinawa: Killing Ground on Kunishi Ridge (May, 2003)

The battle for Okinawa was a very costly one for US forces, and it gave the planners an idea of just what they would meet if they decided to invade the main islands of Japan.

This article is about one part of the battle, the battle for Kunishi Ridge. The article notes that o April 1, 1945, an Easter Sunday, US forces landed on Okinawa. They were facing a Japanese army of over 130,000 men who were well dug in. The Japanese did not choose to challenge the landings; they figured they would hit the US forces after they got onto the island.

The Japanese forces were under the command of Lt. General Mitsuru Ushijima. The Northern third of the island was captured relatively easily, but the lower third was made of of numerous implacements, tunnels, etc.

The article gives the read a very good idea of just how high a cost this battle was exacting from US forces. There are also some very interesting details:

Some Japanese soldiers embedded themselves in a group of civilians to fool the US forces.

Two women were shot and killed in the area, each carrying grenades.

US forces used night attacks which is something they apparently hardly ever did. This surprised the Japanese who had counted on US forces following their normal pattern of no night attacks.

7,400 Japanese surrendered, but more than 130,000 were killed in the campaign. Ushijima and his chief of staff committed suicide.

The Japanese had enough time to develop excellent fortifications and they had a lot of artillery guns in place, making their effective fire quite deadly to the US forces.

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