page_title: Battle of Okinawa
section_title: American
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Okinawa / Casualties / Military losses / American
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the last photograph taken of Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, Jr., USA, right, just before he was killed on 18 June, observing the 8th Marines in action on Okinawa for the first time since the regiment entered the lines in the drive to the south. Note the rock and coral outcropping to his left. The shell that exploded hit that outcropping, dispersing fragments into the general, killing him within a few minutes. The other two staff officers were not seriously hurt.
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 Americans suffered over 75,000 - 82,000 casualties, including non-battle casualties (psychiatric, injuries, illnesses), of whom over 20,195 were dead (12,500 were killed in action, 7,700 died of wounds or non-combat deaths). Killed in action were 4,907 Navy, 4,675 Army, and 2,938 Marine Corps personnel. The several thousand personnel who died indirectly (from wounds and other causes) at a later date are not included in the total.
  The most famous American casualty was Lieutenant General Buckner, whose decision to attack the Japanese defenses head-on, although extremely costly in American lives, was ultimately successful. Four days from the closing of the campaign, Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire, which blew lethal slivers of coral into his body, while inspecting his troops at the front line. He was the highest-ranking US officer to be killed by enemy fire during the Second World War. The day after Buckner was killed, Brigadier General Easley was killed by Japanese machine gun fire. The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle was also killed by Japanese machine gun fire on Ie Island (Ie Shima, a small island just off of northwestern Okinawa).
  Aircraft losses over the three-month period were 768 US planes, including those bombing the Kyushu airfields launching kamikazes. Combat losses were 458, and the other 310 were operational accidents. At sea, 368 Allied ships—including 120 amphibious craft—were damaged while another 36—including 15 amphibious ships and 12 destroyers—were sunk during the Okinawa campaign. The US Navy's dead exceeded its wounded, with 4,907 killed and 4,874 wounded, primarily from kamikaze attacks.
  American personnel casualties included thousands of cases of mental breakdown. According to the account of the battle presented in Marine Corps Gazette:
  More mental health issues arose from the Battle of Okinawa than any other battle in the Pacific during World War II. The constant bombardment from artillery and mortars coupled with the high casualty rates led to a great deal of personnel coming down with combat fatigue. Additionally the rains caused mud that prevented tanks from moving and tracks from pulling out the dead, forcing Marines (who pride themselves on burying their dead in a proper and honorable manner) to leave their comrades where they lay. This, coupled with thousands of bodies both friend and foe littering the entire island, created a scent you could nearly taste. Morale was dangerously low by the month of May and the state of discipline on a moral basis had a new low barometer for acceptable behavior. The ruthless atrocities by the Japanese throughout the war had already brought on an altered behavior (deemed so by traditional standards) by many Americans resulting in the desecration of Japanese remains, but the Japanese tactic of using the Okinawan people as human shields brought about a new aspect of terror and torment to the psychological capacity of the Americans.
  Medal of Honor recipients from Okinawa are:
  Beauford T. Anderson – April 13
  Richard E. Bush – April 16
  Robert Eugene Bush – May 2
  Henry A. Courtney Jr. – May 14–15
  Clarence B. Craft – May 31
  James L. Day – May 14–17
  Desmond Doss – April 29 – May 21
  John P. Fardy – May 7
  William A. Foster – May 2
  Harold Gonsalves – April 15
  William D. Halyburton Jr. – May 10
  Dale M. Hansen – May 7
  Louis J. Hauge Jr. – May 14
  Elbert L. Kinser – May 4
  Fred F. Lester – June 8
  Martin O. May – April 19–21
  Richard M. McCool Jr. – June 10–11
  Robert M. McTureous Jr. – June 7
  John W. Meagher – June 19
  Edward J. Moskala – April 9
  Joseph E. Muller – May 15–16
  Alejandro R. Ruiz – April 28
  Albert E. Schwab – May 7
  Seymour W. Terry – May 11
caption: The last picture of US Army Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. (right), taken on June 18, 1945. Later in the day, he was killed by Japanese artillery fire.
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