The Battle of Okinawa

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attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which entered the U.S. into World War II (Esposito). In order to stop the Japanese advance through the Pacific the U.S. adopted an “island hopping” campaign that called for invasions of key islands throughout the Pacific Ocean that would cut off the Japanese supply lines and eventually take the war to the Japanese homeland. In April of 1945, it was determined that Okinawa would be the next island to be invaded.
The actual planning for Operation Iceberg began almost one year prior in May 1944. There were many considerations that had to be weighed before the decision was made on invading Okinawa. The decision for invasion was between Okinawa and the Formosa, an island 100 miles off the coast of China. Both options had their share of pro and cons, but Formosa was ultimately deemed too risky due to its’ large size and ability to be easily reinforced and it was agreed that Okinawa would be the next objective (Rottman). ...

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divisions. The primary combat units were the 62nd and 24th Divisions as well as the 44th Independent Mixed Brigade, all three units comprised the Japanese 32nd Army (Rottman).
There are two key roles in any armed conflict, that of the combatant and that of the commander. For the Allies the overall commander was Admiral Raymond Spruance, he was in charge of Task Force 50 also known as TF 50, which was a robust mixture of massive Navy, Marine and Army forces. Under TF 50 was Vice Admiral Richmond Turner who was in charge of all Allied ships within the Task Force, his sister commander was Lieutenant General Simon Buckner Jr, who commanded all land forces involved in the invasion and was ...

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