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Action of 8 June 1945: Japanese cruiser Ashigara was torpedoed and sunk in the Bangka Strait by the British submarine Trenchant with the loss of about 1,300 lives. U.S. Undersecretary of State Joseph Grew denied reports that Russia would be given Korea among other states in exchange for its entry into the Pacific war. [13]
[28] [29] The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. [30] [31] The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March by the 77th Infantry Division. The 82-day battle on Okinawa itself lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945.
Landing beaches on Okinawa. The American invasion of the island of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, took place 1 April 1945. The Japanese military was determined to inflict a casualty rate so high that the U.S. government would choose not to invade the Japanese home islands.
On 6 April 1945, the Japanese military commenced Operation Kikusui I (referred to by the Army as the 1st total air assault), with 391 Navy planes and 133 Army planes (of which 215 Navy planes and 82 Army planes were kamikazes) taking part. US Navy anti-air radar picket destroyers deployed in the waters off Okinawa bore the brunt of the attack.
The two main land battles in the campaign were the Battle of Iwo Jima (16 February to 26 March 1945) and the Battle of Okinawa (1 April to 21 June 1945). One major naval battle occurred, called Operation Ten-Go (7 April 1945) after the operational title given to it by the Japanese.
April 1 – June 21, 1945: Battle of Okinawa. 82,000+ US military casualties, and 117,000+ Japanese and Okinawan. Approximately one-fourth of the Okinawan civilian population died, often in mass suicides organized by the Imperial Japanese Army.
The Battle of Okinawa (1 April to 21 June): Of approximately 100,000 Japanese defenders, only 24,455 survived. There were also two naval battles: Operation Ten-Go (7 April): All but four Japanese vessels committed were lost. The Battle of Tokyo Bay (22 and 23 July 1945): Most of the Japanese vessels committed were heavily damaged or lost.
Okinawa was declared secure by Allied forces on 21 June 1945, [60] after an intense and costly battle. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the USSR launching an invasion of northern China and Korea. The apparent willingness of Japan to sacrifice so many of its people using suicidal tactics ...