page_title: Battle of Okinawa
section_title: Land battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Okinawa / Land battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Generals Mitsuru Ushijima, Isamu Chō and other staff officers of the Thirty-Second Army in Okinawa, April 1945
context_page_description: The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemtively captured on March 26th, by the 77th Infantry Division. The 98-day battle lasted from March 26th until July 2nd, 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, 340 mi away.
  The United States created the Tenth Army, a cross-branch force consisting of the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th infantry divisions of the US Army with the 1st, 2nd, and 6th divisions of the Marine Corps, to fight on the island. The Tenth was unique in that it had its own Tactical Air Force, and was also supported by combined naval and amphibious forces.
  The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame or tetsu no bōfū in Japanese.
context_section_description: The land battle took place over about 81 days beginning on April 1, 1945. The first Americans ashore were soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division, who landed in the Kerama Islands, 15 mi (24 km) west of Okinawa on March 26. Subsidiary landings followed, and the Kerama group was secured over the next five days. In these preliminary operations, the 77th Infantry Division suffered 27 dead and 81 wounded, while Japanese dead and captured numbered over 650. The operation provided a protected anchorage for the fleet and eliminated the threat from suicide boats.
  On March 31, Marines of the Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion landed without opposition on Keise Shima, four islets just 8 mi (13 km) west of the Okinawan capital of Naha. A group of 155 mm (6.1 in) "Long Tom" artillery pieces went ashore on the islets to cover operations on Okinawa.
caption: Generals Mitsuru Ushijima, Isamu Chō and other officers of the Thirty-Second Army in Okinawa, April 1945
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Snapseed 2.15.144832640", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "126", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0231", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}