>In late March, soldiers of the 77th Division seized the Kerama islands, about 20 miles to the west, and witnessed how old men cut the throats of small children and young girls rather than give themselves and their families up. ‚We yelled at them to stop, but it did no good,‘ a GI recalled.
>When invading Ie Shima, another island near Okinawa, American soldiers again were witnessing how war exacted an awful toll among the young and innocent, according to a modern unit history: “For two days, the naked body of a young baby had lain in the road in front of the 2nd Platoon’s night defensive position and each day the men had seen it. Just looking at the body had deeply affected the men. On the third day, they were devastated when they saw it crushed beneath the threads of a tank moving forward to attack.”
– Peter Harmsen: Asian Armageddon, 1944-1945.
One third of Okinawa’s civilian population died in the fighting.
nebairbeats on
I didn’t realize Carbines were so common!
Tojuro on
Reading a detailed history of the battle in Okinawa singlehandedly makes the case for dropping the atomic bombs. We are still using the purple heart medals that were planned for the invasion of the Japanese home Islands.
Leave A Reply
Du musst angemeldet sein, um einen Kommentar abzugeben.
3 Kommentare
>In late March, soldiers of the 77th Division seized the Kerama islands, about 20 miles to the west, and witnessed how old men cut the throats of small children and young girls rather than give themselves and their families up. ‚We yelled at them to stop, but it did no good,‘ a GI recalled.
>When invading Ie Shima, another island near Okinawa, American soldiers again were witnessing how war exacted an awful toll among the young and innocent, according to a modern unit history: “For two days, the naked body of a young baby had lain in the road in front of the 2nd Platoon’s night defensive position and each day the men had seen it. Just looking at the body had deeply affected the men. On the third day, they were devastated when they saw it crushed beneath the threads of a tank moving forward to attack.”
– Peter Harmsen: Asian Armageddon, 1944-1945.
One third of Okinawa’s civilian population died in the fighting.
I didn’t realize Carbines were so common!
Reading a detailed history of the battle in Okinawa singlehandedly makes the case for dropping the atomic bombs. We are still using the purple heart medals that were planned for the invasion of the Japanese home Islands.