The largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater, the Battle of Okinawa was the final major land battle before the planned invasion of Japan.
Key Facts
- Duration
- 82 days (1 April – 22 June 1945)
- Allied casualties
- ~50,000
- Japanese casualties
- ~100,000
- Okinawan civilian losses
- at least 149,425 killed, missing, or coerced suicide
- Allied assault force
- U.S. Tenth Army: 4 Army + 3 Marine divisions
- Japanese defenders
- ~100,000 troops, Thirty-Second Army
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following a prolonged island-hopping campaign across the Pacific, Allied planners required a staging base close to the Japanese home islands to launch Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan. Okinawa, roughly 340 miles from Kyushu, was selected for its airfields and harbors, making its capture a strategic necessity in mid-1945.
Operation Iceberg commenced on 1 April 1945 when U.S. Tenth Army forces landed on Okinawa in the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater. For 82 days, American Army and Marine divisions fought Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima's Japanese Thirty-Second Army across the island amid intense kamikaze attacks and brutal ground combat, earning the battle the name 'typhoon of steel.'
The Allied victory secured Okinawa as a fleet anchorage and air base positioned close to Japan, and the extraordinary scale of casualties on both sides reinforced U.S. estimates of the cost of invading the Japanese home islands. The battle influenced the decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. The Japanese battleship Yamato was also sunk during the accompanying naval campaign.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent
Mitsuru Ushijima.