The Americans bore over 49, casualties including 12, killed. General Buckner was killed in action on June 18, just days before the battle ended. Japanese losses were even greater—about , Japanese soldiers lost their lives. Winning the Battle of Okinawa put Allied forces within striking distance of Japan. But wanting to bring the war to a swift end, and knowing over 2 million Japanese troops were awaiting battle-weary American soldiers, Harry S.
Truman chose to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6. Finally, Japan had had enough. Hellish Prelude at Okinawa. Naval Institute. Marine Corps Gazette. History of War. The Decision to Drop the Bomb. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
On September 15, , U. Over the next several weeks, ferocious Japanese resistance inflicted heavy casualties on U. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of gaining a crucial air base from which the U.
In late January , a combined force of U. Marine and Army troops launched an amphibious assault on three islets in the Kwajalein Atoll, a ring-shaped coral formation in the Marshall Islands where the Japanese had established their outermost defensive perimeter in World War The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.
The U. The 18, U. Marines sent to In June , Japan had seized the remote, sparsely inhabited islands of Attu General Douglas In the spring of , U. Though the campaign was proving Live TV. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the moment on film. After a largely unopposed initial advance, US forces soon encountered a network of Japanese inland defenses.
Heavy rains and rugged terrain impeded easy movement, and natural defense positions covered the island. A vicious land, sea, and air battle raged for nearly three months. While US Marines overcame Japanese defenses in northern Okinawa by April 18, opposition in the south proved formidable. The Japanese anchored their defenses at historic Shuri Castle, supported by a series of well-defended high ridges.
These defenses, and sporadic Japanese counterattacks, held up the American advance. The US aircraft carrier Bunker Hill burns after being hit by two kamikaze planes within 30 seconds during the Battle of Okinawa, May 11, Suicide plane attacks began during preliminary operations on March Five days after the initial landing on April 1, a wave of Japanese army and navy kamikaze aircraft struck the armada of Allied ships supporting the invasion, and further attacks continued into June.
By the end of the campaign, Japan would launch almost 2, suicide attacks against the invasion fleet, including manned rocket-powered Ohka flying bombs. The attacks tested the nerves of even veteran sailors as 26 ships were sunk and another damaged. Victory at Okinawa cost more than 49, American casualties, including about 12, deaths.
Sprawled bodies of American soldiers on the beach of Tarawa atoll testify to the ferocity of the battle for this stretch of sand during the U. During the 3-day Battle of Tarawa, some 1, U. Marines died, and another U. Marines are seen as they advance against Japanese positions during the invasion at Tarawa atoll, Gilbert Islands, in this late November photo. Of the nearly 5, Japanese soldiers and workers on the island, only were captured, the rest were killed. Two of twelve U. A Havoc light bombers on a mission against Kokas, Indonesia in July of The lower bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire after dropping its bombs, and plunged into the sea, killing both crew members.
Two U. On the left is Pvt. A member of a U. Marine patrol discovers this Japanese family hiding in a hillside cave, June 21, , on Saipan. The mother, four children and a dog took shelter in the cave from the fierce fighting in the area during the U.
Dead Japanese soldiers cover the beach at Tanapag, on Saipan Island, in the Marianas, on July 14, , after their last desperate attack on the U. Marines who invaded the Japanese stronghold in the Pacific.
An estimated 1, Japanese were killed by the Marines in this operation. With its gunner visible in the back cockpit, this Japanese dive bomber, smoke streaming from the cowling, is headed for destruction in the water below after being shot down near Truk, Japanese stronghold in the Carolines, by a Navy PB4Y on July 2, Lieutenant Commander William Janeshek, pilot of the American plane, said the gunner acted as though he was about to bail out and then suddenly sat down and was still in the plane when it hit the water and exploded.
The amphibious tanks with turret-housed cannons went in in after heavy air and sea bombardment. Army and Marine assault units stormed ashore on Peleliu on September 15, and it was announced that organized resistance was almost entirely ended on September Marines of the first Marine Division stand by the corpses of two of their comrades, who were killed by Japanese soldiers on a beach on Peleliu island, Republic of Palau, in September of After the end of the invasion, 10, of the 11, Japanese soldiers stationed on the island had been killed, only some captured.
A few seconds after this picture was taken the aircraft was engulfed in flames. The design of the para-frag bomb enabled low flying bombing attacks to be carried out with higher accuracy.
Douglas MacArthur, center, is accompanied by his officers and Sergio Osmena, president of the Philippines in exile, extreme left, as he wades ashore during landing operations at Leyte, Philippines, on October 20, , after U. The bodies of Japanese soldiers lie strewn across a hillside after being shot by U. Smoke billows up from the Kowloon Docks and railroad yards after a surprise bombing attack on Hong Kong harbor by the U.
Army 14th Air Force October 16, A Japanese fighter plane left center turns in a climb to attack the bombers. Between the Royal Navy yard, left, enemy vessels spout flames, and just outside the boat basin, foreground, another ship has been hit. A Japanese torpedo bomber goes down in flames after a direct hit by 5-inch shells from the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, on October 25, Landing barges loaded with U.
The men aboard the crafts watch the dramatic battle in the sky as they approach the shore. This photo provided by former Kamikaze pilot Toshio Yoshitake, shows Yoshitake, right, and his fellow pilots, from left, Tetsuya Ueno, Koshiro Hayashi, Naoki Okagami and Takao Oi, as they pose together in front of a Zero fighter plane before taking off from the Imperial Army airstrip in Choshi, just east of Tokyo, on November 8, None of the 17 other pilots and flight instructors who flew with Yoshitake on that day survived.
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