Stars and Stripes Pacific
By PFC. WILLIAMS LAND | STARS AND STRIPES May 22, 1945
Stars and Stripes presents these archive reports as they were written by the reporters in the field. The graphic and politically incorrect language used may be offensive to some readers.
Medic on Okinawa
Editor’s Note: A fortnight ago Bill Land, one of our battlefront reporters, learned that he was a father. Back to us by radio came this story of Oki’s orphans. Unable to go home to see his own daughter in Baton Rouge, La., Bill let himself go on Oki’s orphans – being left to die by the Sons of Heaven. But the GIs wouldn’t let the kids die…
OKINAWA – Here’s a story you could call “The Children’s Hour.” Ever since I got that radio about my new baby daughter I’ve had in mind writing a children’s story, especially since the material is so plentiful.
It is said that there are more children on Okinawa than there are goats, and, brother, that is some statement.
Very rarely does one see a woman who isn’t carrying either a born or unborn child around and most of the time it’s both.
For doughboys and leathernecks, the care of children started on the first day of the invasion, and from the way it keeps on, it looks as though “the Children’s Hour on Okinawa” will outlast Lillian Hellman’s play on Broadway.
Military government has even set up an orphanage, probably the first the island has seen.
“Since the natives showed interest only their own babies, we had to do something to care for children whose parents were killed or missing,” said Army Capt. W. W. McAllister of Iowa City, Ia., the officer in charge.
Nipples are made from surgical gloves and the orphans seem to take kindly to their new diet of canned milk through a glove.
Okinawa 1945
In another part of the island, Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Hugh Bell of Iberia, La., found himself playing the role of a mother when his outfit, a Marine reconnaissance unit, was scouting for suspected enemy installations and suddenly came upon a whole colony of natives hiding in a cave. Most of them were starving and sick and 35 children required immediate medical attention.
Bell, being the only “doctor in the house,” had all of them on his hands. For 24 hours he treated them, giving them plenty of food and feeding them canned milk while his buddies drank their coffee black.
“The kids thought I had used magic to fix them up,” he said, “and followed me around whenever I went. The headman of the group of cave dwellers told the unit command later that Bell was called “Mother” whenever they referred to him.
It is not at all a strange sight to see kids running around in cut-off GI woolen underwear or rompers made of fatigues, but Sally’s diapers made of green camouflage cloth really take the cake. Sally’s one of the orphans.
Sitting on the hard coral rock playing with the ration can, it looks as if she selected a soft tuft of grass to place her little behind on.
Pfc. John J. Stroke of Olmsted Falls, Ore., found her. She’s a two-year-old girl, and Stroke supervised her bath and sprinkled her with anti-vermin powder. Then, with the help of marine fatigues, a jungle knife and couple of pins, he went into the diaper business.
With most able-bodied Japs in the Imperial army or navy there seems a definite shortage of obstetricians among civilians and therefore many deliveries have to be performed by American soldiers and medics.
Relating his first attendance at childbirth here, First Class Pharmacist’s Mate Richard P. Scheid of Napoleon, O., warned, “I knock down anybody who calls me a mid-wife.”
Medic, Okinawa
As in the play, “The Children’s Hour,” and everywhere else, for that matter, there are good little children and naughty ones.
The other day, Sgt. Elvis Lane, marine combat correspondent from Louisville, Ky., ran across a couple of them who didn’t want to take to the American way of life at first. Dressed in a ragged Jap soldiers’ suits, they kept hoping to fight the “American devils” who were soon to be blasted by superior Japanese power.
That night, enemy units attacked the camp in which the two boys were staying and the air was filled with screams of the Jap wounded, the rat-tat-tat of machine gun fire and explosions of hand grenades. When morning came, the boys stared in horror at the Jap bodies and one of them said:
“Jap is a big liar. I think my brother and I want to be like our father – farmers.”
Marine First Lieutenant Hart H. Spiegal of Topeka, Kansas, uses sign language as he tries to strike up a conversation with two tiny Japanese soldiers captured on Okinawa. The boy on the left claims he is “18” while his companion boasts “20” years.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
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SHOUT OUT !!!
MAY WE ALL REMEMBER ON ANZAC DAY
Please keep in mind that Tuesday, 25 April is a remembrance day for Australians and New Zealanders.
It is one that I have tried to show respect and honor to…
https://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/?s=ANZAC+Day
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Thomas E. Button – NZ; RNZ Navy, CPO (Ret. 20 Y.)
Australian soldier pays tribute
Robert G. Cole – Montague, NJ; US Army, Vietnam, 101st Airborne Division, Bronze Star
Trevor Crawley – Hawkes Bay, NZ; RNZ Air Force # D80250, Flight Lt.
James Graham – Dunlap, TN; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT/11th Airborne Division
Ernest E, Hamilton Sr. – Key West, FL; US Air Force, Korea
Noah Evans – Decatur, GA; USMC, Pfc, M Co/3/Recruit Training Regiment
Peter W. Leufkens – Palm Springs, FL; US Army, Korea
William Peterson – Tamp, FL; USMC / US Coast Guard
Ken Potts (102) – Honey Bend, IL/Provo, UT; US Navy, WWII, PTO, coxswain, USS Arizona survivor
Robert R. Samples – Charleston, NC; US Army, Japanese Occupation, 187/11th Airborne Division, Army boxing team
Jozef Subritzky-Kusza – NZ; RNZ Army # A483345, Sgt.
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I apologize if I happen to be missing some posts lately. The routine here has been disrupted somewhat.
Thank you for being understanding.
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THE BATAAN, emblazoned with the five impressive stars of a General of the Army, stops at Yontan Airfield late in August to refuel and be checked over. This was General MacArthur’s private plane and excited considerable interest. Having thoroughly snubbed the Jap surrender mission in Manila, the General was en route to Tokyo for the official surrender on 2 September, His visit to Okinawa was a rigid military secret, but Merlin Monroe, SCIc, happened to be there with these results.
The Bataan, decorated with Marshal’s impressive five-star star, stopped at Yomitani Airfield in late August for refueling and maintenance.
HAIL, THE CHIEF! While waiting for mechanics to apply final touches, General MacArthur discusses Jap surrender with Lt. Gen. Richardson, boss of Middle Pacific Command. This was MacArthur’s first and only visit to Okinawa.
Salute to the Commander! While waiting for the final maintenance mechanic, MacArthur told the general about the Japan’s surrender with Lieutenant General Richardson, a senior officer in the Central Pacific Command. This was MacArthur’s first and only visit to Okinawa.
Resource: 87th Naval Construction Battalion Cruisebook (1943-1945)
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Click on image to enlarge and read caption.
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Betty Brandenburg – Cambridge, ENG; RW Air Force, WWII, ET
Courtesy of Dan Antion
Bessie (Elwood) Carter – Beatrice, NE; US Navy WAVE, WWII
Glenn Fritts – Butter, MI; US Army, WWII
Roy C. Harms – Grafton, WI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, 1st Lt., 329BS/93BG/8th Air Force, B-24 pilot, KIA (Ploiesti, ROM)
Gerald Heggy – Girard, IL; US Navy, Korea, USS Hornet
James L. Miller – USA; US Army, Korea, Pfc., K Co/3/24/25th Division, KIA (Sangju, SK)
Ralph E. Richardson – Columbia, SC; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, TSgt., 329BS/93BG/8th Air Force, B-24 radio operator, KIA (Ploiesti, ROM)
William A. Simon – USA; US Army, WWII, ETO, Pfc., Co G/2/109/28th Infantry Division, KIA (Hürtgen, GER)
Michael Uhrin – Metuchen, NJ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, SSgt., 369BS/306BG/40CW/8th Air Force, B-17F radio operator, KIA (Hessen, GER)
Donald L. Worden – West Branch, NY; US Army, 11th Airborne Division
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Okinawa typhoon damage
14 August, the Emperor made a recording to be played over the Japanese radio stating that their government had surrendered to the Allied powers and to request that his people cooperate with the conquerors. The fanatics, mainly Army officers and also known as die-hards or ultras, attempted to confiscate the prepared discs and claim that the Emperor had been coerced into accepting the Potsdam Declaration. People died in this mini revolution and others committed hara-kiri when it failed. Some enemy pilots continue to fly their Zeros as American planes went over Japan.
typhoon damage
“To our good and loyal citizens,
After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our Empire today, we have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.
We have ordered our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union that our Empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration…” (The complete speech will appear next week)
15 August, Washington D.C. received Japan’s acceptance of the terms of surrender. Similar to the Western Electric advertisement pictured, phones and telegraphs buzzed around the world with the news that WWII was over, but reactions varied. Among the men on Okinawa, there was jubilation mixed in with ‘let’s wait and see.”
In Japan, most felt relieved, but others committed suicide to fulfill their duty. Russian troops continued to push into Manchuria to get as far into the area as possible before the Allies could stop them. Troops in Europe were elated to hear that they were no longer being transferred to the Pacific. South America began to see the arrival of Nazi escapees and the United States went wild with gratitude.
Okinawa, typhoon damage
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Tee Time
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Marilyn Benson – Orion, IL; US Navy WAVE, WWII
Garland W. Collier – Coleman, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, HQ Co./3/506/101st Airborne Division, Sgt. # 39849456, KIA (Opheusden, NETH)
Francis Duval – Amherst, NH; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Michael Fusco – Syracuse, NY; US Army, WWII, Iceland
Elmore Herold (100) – Cresco, IA; US Army, WWII, Purple Heart
Norbert J. Logan (101) – Delta, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII
Cornelia O. Moore – Conyers, GA; US Army, Korea, HQ Co./ 187th RCT
Joseph J. Puopolo – E. Boston, MA; US Army, Korea, Cpl. # 11193248, Field Wireman, C Batt/38/2nd Infantry Division, POW, KWC (Camp # 5)
Clarence Smoyer – Allentown, PA; US Army, WWII, ETO, gunner, 3rd Armored Division
Adelaido M. Solis – Inez, TX; US Army, Korea, Pfc # 18355862, B Co./1/9/2nd Infantry Division, POW, KWC (Camp # 5)
Charles W. Woodruff – Mocksville, NC; US Army Air Corps, WWII, HQ Co./188th/11th Airborne Division
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Today is Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, I send my very best to our Canadian neighbors!!
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Front page of Stars and Stripes, 22 May 1945
By PFC. WILLIAMS LAND | STARS AND STRIPES May 22, 1945
Stars and Stripes presents these archive reports as they were written by the reporters in the field. The graphic and politically incorrect language used may be offensive to some readers.
Editor’s Note: A fortnight ago Bill Land, one of our battlefront reporters, learned that he was a father. Back to us by radio came this story of Oki’s orphans. Unable to go home to see his own daughter in Baton Rouge, La., Bill let himself go on Oki’s orphans – being left to die by the Sons of Heaven. But the GIs wouldn’t let the kids die…
Front page, 15 May 1945
OKINAWA – Here’s a story you could call “The Children’s Hour.” Ever since I got that radio about my new baby daughter I’ve had in mind writing a children’s story, especially since the material is so plentiful.
It is said that there are more children on Okinawa than there are goats, and, brother, that is some statement.
Very rarely does one see a woman who isn’t carrying either a born or unborn child around and most of the time it’s both.
For doughboys and leathernecks, the care of children started on the first day of the invasion, and from the way it keeps on, it looks as though “the Children’s Hour on Okinawa” will outlast Lillian Hellman’s play on Broadway.
Medic on Okinawa, 1945
Military government has even set up an orphanage, probably the first the island has seen.
“Since the natives showed interest only their own babies, we had to do something to care for children whose parents were killed or missing,” said Army Capt. W. W. McAllister of Iowa City, Ia., the officer in charge.
Nipples are made from surgical gloves and the orphans seem to take kindly to their new diet of canned milk through a glove.
In another part of the island, Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Hugh Bell of Iberia, La., found himself playing the role of a mother when his outfit, a Marine reconnaissance unit, was scouting for suspected enemy installations and suddenly came upon a whole colony of natives hiding in a cave. Most of them were starving and sick and 35 children required immediate medical attention.
Bell, being the only “doctor in the house,” had all of them on his hands. For 24 hours he treated them, giving them plenty of food and feeding them canned milk while his buddies drank their coffee black.
“The kids thought I had used magic to fix them up,” he said, “and followed me around whenever I went. The headman of the group of cave dwellers told the unit command later that Bell was called “Mother” whenever they referred to him.
It is not at all a strange sight to see kids running around in cut-off GI woolen underwear or rompers made of fatigues, but Sally’s diapers made of green camouflage cloth really take the cake. Sally’s one of the orphans.
Sitting on the hard coral rock playing with the ration can, it looks as if she selected a soft tuft of grass to place her little behind on.
Pfc. John J. Stroke of Olmsted Falls, Ore., found her. She’s a two-year-old girl, and Stroke supervised her bath and sprinkled her with anti-vermin powder. Then, with the help of marine fatigues, a jungle knife and couple of pins, he went into the diaper business.
Marine First Lieutenant Hart H. Spiegal of Topeka, Kansas, uses sign language as he tries to strike up a conversation with two tiny Japanese soldiers captured on Okinawa. The boy on the left claims he is “18” while his companion boasts “20” years.
With most able-bodied Japs in the Imperial army or navy there seems a definite shortage of obstetricians among civilians and therefore many deliveries have to be performed by American soldiers and medics.
Relating his first attendance at childbirth here, First Class Pharmacist’s Mate Richard P. Scheid of Napoleon, O., warned, “I knock down anybody who calls me a mid-wife.”
As in the play, “The Children’s Hour,” and everywhere else, for that matter, there are good little children and naughty ones.
The other day, Sgt. Elvis Lane, marine combat correspondent from Louisville, Ky., ran across a couple of them who didn’t want to take to the American way of life at first. Dressed in a ragged Jap soldiers’ suits, they kept hoping to fight the “American devils” who were soon to be blasted by superior Japanese power.
That night, enemy units attacked the camp in which the two boys were staying and the air was filled with screams of the Jap wounded, the rat-tat-tat of machine gun fire and explosions of hand grenades. When morning came, the boys stared in horror at the Jap bodies and one of them said:
“Jap is a big liar. I think my brother and I want to be like our father – farmers.”
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
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6th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosives Ordnance Disposal Team
Live missile found at Lakeland, Florida airport.
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Lucy Amat – Providence, RI; US Army WAC, WWII
Michael Burke – Montreal, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII, radar mechanic, attached to RAF 106th Squadron
Richard Gentz – Jackson, MI; US Navy, Admiral (Ret. 33 y.), pilot, Naval Academy grad ’57
Warren “Bud” Henke – South Bend, IN; US Army, WWII, ETO, 2 Silver Stars, Bronze Star
Harold Mendes – Cleveland, OH; US Army Air Corps, Japanese Occupation, 11th Airborne Division
Bryan Mount – Parawan, UT; US Army, Iraq & Syria, Calvary scout/gunner, Sgt. KIA
John E. Norman – Powell, TN; US Army, Vietnam, 101st Airborne Division
Patrick Tadina – Fayetteville, NC; US Army, Vietnam, CSgt. Major, 2 Silver Stars
Floyd Welch – Burlington, CT; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Maryland, Pearl Harbor survivor
Henry Zajac – Elyria, OH; US Merchant Marines, WWII, Merchant Marine Academy graduate
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18 July 1945, Okinawa, 90mm AAA-gun emplacement
During the night of 1 July, I found out that the was on Okinawa was not quite over. Around midnight a party of Japs blundered into a fight with the guards about 50 yards from my tent. I put my pistol on a chair beside the bed. The shooting died down a little later and I went to sleep. The next morning, as I was taking off for Manila, Col. ‘ Photo’ Hutchison told me that he had had another battle going on during the night near his HQ.
On July 10th it was announced from Washington that the B-29s in the Marianas would form the 20th Air Force, under Gen. Twining and that those operating from Okinawa would form the 8th Air Force, under Jimmy Doolittle. The 8th & 20th would together be called the United States Strategic Air Force, with Gen. Spaatz in command.
American soldier, Okinawa
On the same day, Nimitz turned over control of the 7th A.F. to the Far East Air Forces and told the Marine Fighter Wing at Okinawa to operate in conjunction with our (Army) show there.
On the 12th, Lord Louis Mountbatten and a few members of his staff flew from India to Manila for a conference with MacArthur. We briefed him on the coming Olympic Operation and his staff in turn gave us the details of the proposed British operation to recapture Singapore.
Mountbatten wanted some bombing assistance at that time, if we had any to spare. MacArthur asked me what I could do. I gave him the details about the Australians and our B-24s and Mountbatten was quite pleased.
Kyushu Island, July 1945 bombing
All through July we kept moving aircraft into Okinawa from both the 5th and 7th Air Forces. Generals Whitehead and Tommy White set up their HQ on the island and began the final sweep of Japanese shipping from the Yellow Sea and the Straits of Tusishima, between Japan and Korea.
In conjunction with the B-29 from the Marianas, who were battering the big cities of Japan apart and burning them down, we concentrated our attacks on the island of Kyushu, smashing airdromes, burning up gasoline stocks and wrecking the railway centers, bridges and marshalling yards.
The attacks were being made with a ever-increasing weight, as airdromes were being finished on Okinawa, allowing us to move the aircraft forward from the Philippines and the Marianas.
By the end of July, on an average day, when weather permitted large operations, there would be over 1500 of my airplanes operating along the line from Japan to Formosa to Shanghai to Borneo and the Netherlands East Indies. Of this number around 600 bombers, strafers and fighters would be attacking targets in Japan itself.
It was a far cry from the days back in 1942, when a raid of 50 or 60 planes was such big news that we boasted about it for days!
Click on images to enlarge.
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Great Lakes Training 1945
From: David Hart at https://mywarjournals.com/
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Paul Connelly – Tulsa, OK; US Army Air Corps, WWII / US Navy, Korea
Brian Hawkins – Pasadena, TX; US Army, 143rd/36th Division, medic
Herbert Hill – Shreveport, LA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-24 nose gunner
Ellis Lindsey – SC; US Army, 511th/11th Airborne & 504th/82nd Airborne divisions
William Mercantonio – East Orange, NJ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Korea, TSgt.
Earl Ray – Cadillac, MI; US Army, MP
Maureen Rodgers – London, ENG; British Navy WRENS, Hut 11 decoder, Bletchley Park
Roland Rioux – Vero Beach, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO / Korea, Cuban Missile Crisis
Nicholas Vollweiler – Pleasant Valley, NY; US Army, K-9 instructor, Japan Occupation
Sam Wagner – Tonville, CO; US Army, WWII, PTO, Bronze Star
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Okinawa
Hari-kari to end Okinawa
‘The Fall of Japan” by William Craig, excerpt submitted by Rosalinda Morgan who can be found at https://subliblog.wordpress.com/
On the evening of the twenty-first of June, Generals Ushijima and Cho sat down to a sumptuous meal in their home under Hill 89. Overhead the Americans walked on top of the escarpment, where Japanese soldiers continued to resist them by fighting for every rock and tree.
The generals ate quietly. As their aids offered toasts, the two leaders drank to each other with dregs of whiskey preserved for this moment. A full moon shone on the white coral ledges of Hill 89 as a final tribute rang through the cave: “Long live the Emperor.”
At 4:00 A.M. on the morning of the twenty-second, Ushijima, cooling himself with a bamboo fan, walked with Cho between lines of crying subordinates to the mouth of the cave. There Cho turned to his superior and said, “I will lead the way.” The two generals emerged into the moonlight. They were followed by several staff officers.
Outside the entrance a quilt had been laid on top of a mattress. Loud firing sounded on all sides as American infantrymen, no more than fifty feet away, sensed movement. Ushijima proceeded to sit down and pray. Cho did the same.
Ignoring the guns and grenades, Ushijima bowed low toward the ground. His adjutant handed him a knife. The general held it briefly in front of his body, then ripped it across his abdomen. Immediately his adjutant raised a jeweled sword and brought it down across his neck. Ushijima’s head toppled onto the quilt and blood spattered the onlookers. Within seconds, General Cho died the same way.
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Okinawa, The Flag is raised
By 30 June, even the mopping up was completed’
The battle of Okinawa had ended. Over 12,000 Americans and more than 100,000 Japanese were dead and there were 7,401 military prisoners. The American flag flew only 350 miles from Japan.
***** ***** *****
Clearing the post of Naha, 19 June 1945
During the Okinawa campaign, a very strange “armed truce” occurred on a nearby island. The commander of the small Japanese garrison asked to have time to consult with Tokyo about continuing his pointless holdout. He later met several American emissaries on his beach and informed them that he was forbidden to surrender – but he would not fire on parties visiting the island for recreational purposes – on the condition that they did not molest his people. Quite an improvement on the “old Pacific War”.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Alan I. Armour – Chicago, IL; US Army, Korean War, Lt., battalion cmdr. 187th RCT “Rakkasans”
Raymond Bonang – Boothbay Harbor, ME; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 880th Airborne Engineers
John Broderick – Pittsbourgh, PA; US Army, 756th Field Artillery Battalion, MSgt.
William Fouty Sr. – Tukwila, WA; USMC, WWII, PTO
G.M. ‘Jim’ Greene – Conway, AR; US Army, WWII, PTO, 7th Cavalry
John McGinnis – NY; US Army, Vietnam, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Chalmers Murray – Ft. Lauderdale, FL; US Army, WWII
Percy Overman Jr. – Newport News, VA; Merchant Marine, aviator
Howard Wildrick – Highland, NY; USMC
Thomas ‘Vic’ Varnedoe – Nashville, TN; US Army, Sgt., 2nd Infantry Division
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Last picture ever taken of Lt.Gen. Buckner, the day before he died
By 10 June, the Marines had captured Yuza Hill. The 10th US Army suffered severe casualties before they and the USMC advanced to Kunishi Ridge, the western anchor of the Japanese defense; a massive fortress.
Gen. Buckner had been sending messages to Gen. Ushijima, urging him to surrender. So, when over a dozen Japanese wearing white hats appeared, the Marines assumed they were surrendering and they ceased operations. Shortly after the enemy soldiers ran, a mortar barrage began.
By morning, the Americans had a foothold on the ridge, but reinforcements were cut down when they tried to advance. Nine tanks were used to deliver 54 fresh men and supplies, but returned with 22 wounded. As the battle for Kunishi raged on, the tanks opened a road to continue supplying the Americans.
Okinawa
By 16 June, the US 96th Div. opened a road for the tanks to continue delivering supplies, as air drops were falling into enemy hands. Only one day later, Kunishi Ridge was considered a “mopping up” operation.
The Marines were sent to Mezado and Kuwango ridges where the enemy fire though intense, was short-lived. Meanwhile, the Army moved down the Pacific side of the island encountering the enemy at Yaeju Dake-Yuza Dake Escarpment. Naval gunfire and artillery smothered the enemy as the 10th Army proceeded hill by hill toward the tip of Okinawa, up Hill 89, Ushijima’s headquarters near Mabuni.
18th June – the 8th Marines moved into the line contribute their fresh, full strength to the slow drive. Army Gen. Buckner decided to leave the outpost he was at and found himself on a hill which afforded him a view of what was actually going on up at the front. He paused to watch for a few moments.
Oroku Peninsula where Japanese base force made their last stand
By this time, the Japanese artillery had been reduced to next to nothing, no shells had fallen in that area all morning. However, by some devious quirk of fate, a lone gun somewhere in the shrinking ranks of the enemy let go a few rounds. The first one felled the general, but no one else near him was injured. He died before they could evacuate him.
Gen. Geiger took over the command and followed what his late chief would have done. This was the first instance of a Marine officer commanding an Army unit of that size, though in WWI, MGen. Lejeune had commanded the Army’s Second Division in several operations.
Ambulance jeep, Okinawa
Although Allied land forces were entirely composed of U.S. units, the British Pacific Fleet (BPF; known to the U.S. Navy as Task Force 57) provided about a quarter of Allied naval air power (450 planes). It comprised many ships, including 50 warships of which 17 were aircraft carriers, but while the British armored flight decks meant that fewer planes could be carried in a single aircraft carrier, they were more resistant to kamikaze strikes. Although all the aircraft carriers were provided by the UK, the carrier group was a combined Commonwealth fleet with British, Canadian Australian and New Zealand ships and personnel. Their mission was to neutralize Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Islands and provide air cover against Japanese kamikaze attacks.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Information on the upcoming events of the Bataan Legacy Historical Society….
http://bataanlegacy.org/future-events.html
Information contributed by Nasuko
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Robert J. Andrews – Colorado Springs, CO; US Air Force, Korea & Vietnam, Lt.Colonel (Ret. 31 y.)
Rosetta Brobst – Laceyville, PA; WWII, US Army, nurse
Athol Currin – Wanganui, NZ; RSA # 816777, J Force 22nd Batt/42 Squadron
Robert Dole – Pearl City, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO, 665th Ordnance Co.
Dennis Garbis – Falls Church, VA; Vietnam, Lt.Colonel (Ret. 20 y.), Bronze Star
John McCain – Alexandria, VA; US Navy, Vietnam, pilot, USS Forrestal, POW / US Senator
Miriam Olsen – Eugene, OR; US Army, WWII, nurse
Ronald Setniker – Biwabik, MN; US Army, Vietnam, 101st Airborne Division
James Tisdale – Goshen, AR; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division, Bronze Star
John Waite – Clarkston, WA; US Navy, WWII, PTO
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Jul 14
This gallery contains 11 photos.
Originally posted on USS Hornet (CV-12)-A Father's Untold War Story:
John T. Ryan US Navy It is May 1945, the world is still at war and my father, Seaman First Class, John Thomas Ryan is still serving on the USS Hornet (CV-12). In my last posts, I began the Battle of Okinawa and…
Lines of defense on Okinawa. Top Japanese officers were in the bottom line of bunkers.
Colonel Hiromishi Yahara was third in command of the Japanese defenses on Okinawa. Read all about his story below.
It was Colonel Hiromishi Yahara who designed and implemented the jiykusen, or the yard-by-yard battle of attrition that cost the American forces so many casualties in the three-month battle, and he was the highest ranking officer to survive the battle and make it back to Tokyo. Before the overall commander on the island, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, committed ritual suicide in the battle’s final days, he instructed Yahara to escape to Tokyo to make a final report to the emperor.
Yahara was captured by the Americans, which bothered him immensely—to be captured or to surrender was considered a disgrace to one’s family—but eventually he did return to Japan. In 1973, Yahara still felt strongly that the garrison at Okinawa, as well as the people of Okinawa themselves, had been betrayed by Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo. Because he faced personal attacks for surviving the battle, Yahara decided to write a book to set the record straight.
The result is a fascinating and unique look at the last, decisive battle of the Pacific War, written by a surviving member of the defeated Japanese command on Okinawa. Yahara was a gifted and meticulous strategist, highly respected by his peers. Because he had spent two years in the United States as an exchange officer prior to World War II, he knew his enemy better than did his superiors at Okinawa, Ushijima and Maj. Gen. Isamu Cho.
Yahara makes a startling revelation in the book regarding the events surrounding the American landing on Okinawa on April 1, 1945. According to Yahara, the plans drawn up in Tokyo called for Japanese air power to play the decisive role in the battle for Okinawa prior to the actual landing. Japanese planes flying from the mainland along with aircraft launched by the Japanese Combined Fleet—conventional fighters and kamikaze suicide attackers—were supposed to strike the U.S. Fifth Fleet offshore prior to the landing and annihilate the American landing forces while they were still in their ships. The 32nd Imperial Army entrenched on Okinawa was to play a minor role, mopping up the survivors of the American landing forces as they struggled ashore.
Giretsu Commandos on Okinawa
To Yahara, the failure to launch the promised air attack on April 1 sealed the fate of the island’s garrison—it never had a chance for victory. Hundreds of thousands of Okinawan citizens had been betrayed as well, Yahara believed, sacrificed to the whims of the Japanese high command.
Although his love for his country never wavered, Yahara was unique among his peers. He fully recognized the flaws in traditional Japanese military thinking—the Bushido code, or way of the warrior—and he was disgusted as he watched his superiors repeat the errors of previous eras. The Imperial Army had a “blood and guts” mentality; it had been undefeated since winning the Sino-Japanese War in 1895. To the Japanese militarists’ way of thinking, the combination of Japanese spirit and the willingness to die for the emperor would overcome any material advantage enjoyed by an enemy.
Japanese bunker
Yahara was convinced that the initial Japanese strategy for Okinawa—depending on air power—would fail. Japan’s air forces were seriously degraded by early 1945, and it had lost many experienced pilots. American aircraft were now technically superior, and Japan’s Navy was down to just a few surviving carriers. Yahara believed that the only chance for his country’s survival lay in the proper use of its remaining ground forces.
After the promised air assault did not materialize, he went ahead with his planned defenses on the ground. He would fight for time, making the invaders pay dearly for every inch of ground, to allow Japan to prepare its defenses on the main islands for the Allied invasion that was sure to come. Yahara’s tactics on Okinawa would utilize the island’s terrain, which was perfectly suited for defense, to wage an ugly war of attrition. His soldiers would go underground in caves and concrete bunkers to survive air, artillery, and naval gunfire, and then battle American ground forces for every inch of island real estate. His intricate, multi-layered defensive positions and the tenacity of the 110,000-man 32nd Army combined to prolong the battle for three long and exceedingly bloody months.
Col. Hiromishi Yahara
In his book, Yahara admits that he despised both the self-delusion practiced by his superiors and the false propaganda foisted upon the Okinawan people, who were told that capture by American troops would result in rape, torture, and death, to which suicide was preferable.
Condensed from an article by John Walker.
Click on images to enlarge.
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‘Sign me up for swing shift basic training! I don’t think I could handle early morning hours.’
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Robert Bathurst – Madison, WI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Frank Conger – Poughkeepsie, NY; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Bennington
Missing Man formation
Warren Foss – St. Louis, MO; US Navy, WWII, PTO
James Gavette – Bradford, PA; US Army, WWII
Samuel Tom Holiday – Kayeta, AZ; USMC, WWII, PTO, Navajo Code Talker, Purple Heart
Norman Jackson – Watertown, NY; US merchant Marine, WWII
Francis McCormack – Rutland, VT; USMC
Irving Press – Windsor, CT; US Army, WWII
Raymond Rzepecki Sr. – Central Falls, RI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Pfc, B-24 tail gunner, 370th
Omar Shaffer – Linden, VA; US Navy, WWII, gunner
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