26.3°N 127.8°E Pacific Battle of Okinawa
Briefing
The last great battle of the war, from April to June 1945, was also the bloodiest of the Pacific: some 12,500 Americans dead, over 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed, and as many as 150,000 Okinawan civilians caught in between, while kamikazes savaged the fleet offshore. Its casualty rates shaped the American decision to use the atomic bomb rather than invade Japan.
Books Covering This Event (8)
Popular History
The United States Marines against Japan, island by island, by a man who fought as one.
The classic single-volume history of the American war against Japan.
The brutal final year of the Pacific War, from the Philippines to the atomic bombings.
The official companion to the HBO series, following five men through the island campaigns.
The final volume of the Pacific War Trilogy: Leyte Gulf, the kamikazes, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the bomb.
Memoir
A young ensign survives the suicide sortie of the largest battleship ever built, sent to Okinawa with fuel for one way.
William Manchester's memoir of his time as a Marine in the Pacific, interwoven with a pilgrimage to the.
A Marine's harrowing memoir of combat on Peleliu and Okinawa.