Battle of Okinawa 1945: From Kerama to Mabuni

On 26 March 1945, ahead of the main invasion, soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division came ashore in the Kerama Islands, west of Okinawa. The group was secured over the next five days and gave the fleet a protected anchorage. The islands also saw the first of the mass civilian suicides of the battle: on 28 March, 394 civilians on Tokashiki were forced by Japanese soldiers to kill themselves. Today the Kerama Islands are a popular beach and diving destination.

場所の精度: The pin marks the island group, not a single beach.

訪問のヒント: Tokashiki is one of the inhabited islands; check ferry times before you go.

On 1 April 1945 the Army's XXIV Corps and the III Amphibious Corps landed on the Hagushi beaches on Okinawa's west coast. Resistance was light at first: the Kadena and Yomitan airbases were captured within hours. What the Americans took at Kadena was a 4,600-foot strip of badly damaged coral runway. Kadena remains the largest US air base in Asia.

場所の精度: The landing beaches ran along the coast; the pin marks Kadena Air Base, the airfield taken that day.

Kakazu Ridge was two hills with a connecting saddle, part of the outer defenses of Shuri. The Japanese had prepared well and soldiers hid in fortified caves, so American forces often lost men before clearing each cave. A tank assault meant to outflank the ridge failed, with the loss of 22 tanks. The fight here showed that the road to Shuri would be slow and costly on both sides.

場所の精度: The pin is a search match for the Kakazu district of Ginowan, not a surveyed point on the ridge.

Shuri Castle was the heart of the Japanese defense: the 32nd Army had its headquarters in a bunker beneath it. From 25 May the battleship Mississippi shelled it for three days, and by 27 May it was ablaze. The Japanese withdrew south and the Marines took the ruins with little resistance. Every building on the site today is a modern reconstruction, since the originals were lost in 1945.

訪問のヒント: The reconstructed castle grounds are in Naha.

The Himeyuri students were schoolgirls organized into a nursing unit. Instead of safe hospitals, they were placed on the front lines, performing crude surgery and amputations under fire. On 18 June 1945 the unit was dissolved with an order to go home, and in the following days most of the girls and teachers still on the island died. In all, 211 students and 16 teachers were killed. The museum holds twenty-eight volumes of survivors' testimonials.

場所の精度: The museum stands near the wartime sites in southern Okinawa; the exact caves where the students died are not marked by this pin.

訪問のヒント: The museum is in Itoman, in the southern war-history area near the Cornerstone of Peace.

Organized Japanese resistance ended on 21 June 1945. Ushijima and Chō died in their command headquarters on Hill 89 in the closing hours. Fifty years later, on 23 June 1995, the Cornerstone of Peace was unveiled on Mabuni Hill, the site of the Japanese headquarters. Its black granite screens carry the names of all who died, regardless of nationality and civilian or military status.

場所の精度: The pin marks the memorial on Mabuni Hill; the Hill 89 headquarters cave is not pinned here.

訪問のヒント: The memorial is open to visitors in Itoman.