Bloody Okinawa

January 6, 2020
Military historian Wheelan (Midnight in the Pacific) draws on U.S. and Japanese sources to deliver an encyclopedic chronicle of the April 1945 invasion of Okinawa. American forces seeking to establish a launching pad for the invasion of Japan made a “deceptively easy” beach landing, Wheelan writes, because Japanese commanders planned to mount their primary defense in the vicinity of Mount Shuri, where 10,000 soldiers occupied a network of caves and tunnels and the rocky terrain was “anathema to tanks.” Wheelan minutely details major battles, including Sugar Loaf Hill and Hacksaw Ridge, in the three-month campaign to take the island, and describes the rituals of kamikaze pilots, the use of native islanders as “human shields” by Japanese troops, and the high incidence of “battle fatigue” among U.S. soldiers and Marines. He cites death tolls of more than 100,000 Japanese troops, 120,000 civilians, and 12,000 Americans, and quotes U.S. Gen. George C. Marshall that the “‘bitter experience of Okinawa’” played a significant role in the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wheelan mines a wealth of source material to present a 360-degree view of the battle, and maintains a brisk pace. This exhaustive yet accessible account will appeal to WWII history buffs and general readers alike.

January 15, 2020
The final campaign against Japan receives expert handling. Former AP reporter and veteran military historian Wheelan (Midnight in the Pacific: Guadalcanal--The World War II Battle That Turned the Tide of War, 2017, etc.) reminds readers that by the time an immense armada descended on the island of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, Japanese leaders knew the war was lost. With victory out of the question, defenders concentrated on the mountainous south, where they dug massive underground shelters and tunnels, producing a huge interconnected complex largely immune to Allied firepower. It was also invisible from the air, so the invaders did not know what they were getting into. Taking lessons from earlier landings where resistance survived intense bombing, American ships and planes delivered the greatest bombardment of the war, which devastated Okinawans and their cities but barely touched the defenses. American forces met little opposition at first, but the Japanese had also learned from earlier battles that defending beaches was impossible in the face of superior naval firepower. Wheelan describes the brutal fighting that seized northern Okinawa and the surrounding islands over the next few weeks before turning to the main resistance in the south which soldiers encountered a week after landing. The campaign that followed featured heroism on both sides, horrendous casualties and suffering as well as atrocities--mostly but not entirely by the Japanese--as U.S. forces slowly battled south. "The battle of Okinawa," writes the author, "was neither the climax nor the resolution of the Pacific war, but its battle royale--fought by the United States with crushing power and ferocity, and by Japanese forces with calculation, abandon, and fatalism." Wheelan delivers excellent analyses and anecdotes and biographies of individuals from both sides, but the narrative is mostly a long series of unit-level actions down to the company and platoon level. Military buffs will eat them up, but general readers may skim.

February 1, 2020

Wheelan (Midnight in the Pacific) recounts how Japanese resistance, rain, and mud made the Battle of Okinawa the costliest victory in the Pacific for the United States. Using both American and Japanese primary sources, the book describes how the largest and most powerful American Pacific amphibious force struggled to overcome fierce Japanese resistance. Japan's defense was based on ample troops and artillery, along with coordinated kamikaze attacks. The author conveys how Japanese leaders hoped the resulting casualties would wear down U.S. troops and a war-weary American public, forcing the U.S. to negotiate rather than imposing unconditional surrender. The significant numbers of dead and wounded civilians and servicemen among the U.S. and Japan did, indeed, alarm American leaders about the costs of the war, Whelan argues. However, he counters that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 forced Japan's unconditional surrender. VERDICT Wheelan's detailed, mainstream account of the Battle of Okinawa and its significance in World War II history will especially appeal to fans of military history interested in the Pacific Theater.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.