Battle of Okinawa Study Day

We had such a late night last night, we didn't get time to update our blog.  We spent the day with Robert Mastriano, who used to be the Sergeant Major here on Okinawa and now teaches NJROTC at Kubaski High School.  He is an expert on the Battle of Okinawa, and he was willing to share his day with us on Friday.

The Battle of Okinawa began on April 1, 1945 when the United States landed four divisions, two Marine divisions and two Army divisions, on the beach.  They expected a lot of resistance from the Japanese, but, in fact, they faced very little.  Within a short time they had secured the airfields at Kadena and Yomitan.  The Marines were to move north from the beachhead while the Army moved south.

The Marines were able to reach the northern and of the island and secure Ie Island as well by April 21st.  However, the Army would run into stiff resistance in the south.  Okinawa is full of caves that served as ancient tombs for the dead.  The Japanese military took over these caves, expanded them, and put artillery guns in the entrances.  It was very hard for our troops to dislodge the Japanese soldiers from the protected caves.  Also, the caves were on the high ridges, so the soldiers could fire down upon the American troops.

We were able to visit a cave.  When we began to climb up the hill to the cave, here is what we saw:

That's some pretty dense underbrush, isn't it?  But Jill and I climbed through the jungle-like area going pretty much straight up a hill.  Here is what we saw when we reached the cave.  These are old tombs from well before the war.  But the caves were taken over by the Japanese soldiers because they provided protection.

The caves had more than one entrance.  Here is looking out another entrance of the cave we explored:

The Japanese made some of these caves into fortresses.  After the cave tour, we visited the Battle of Okinawa Historical Society Museum.  It's open by appointment only, but Bob had the key.  That was handy!

Near the end of the day, we visited the Naval Underground Headquarters.  This is a park and museum where you can actually enter the tunnels and see for yourself how the Japanese soldiers lived underground during the day.  They could only come out under the cover of darkness for fear of having the headquarters discovered.  Here is the entrance area of the museum:

When the Japanese soldiers knew that the battle for control of Okinawa was nearly over, they committed suicide in the underground tunnels.  Around 4000 men died here, 175 of them by suicide.  It was considered dishonorable to be taken prisoner by the Americans.  Before he committed suicide, the Japanese naval commander sent a letter to headquarters on mainland Japan telling them that that Okinawans had been loyal fighters during the battle.  Here is what it looks like underground.  It's been made safe now so people can go down there, but back during the war, it was a dark and dangerous series of tunnels.



Here is the room where Admiral Ota stayed.



It is said that this wall is scarred from where soldiers committed suicide using hand grenades.