Okinawa
Okinawa was
the final battleground
of the war. Okinawa was just 325 nautical
miles
away from Japan. It was only 70 x 18 miles
in area. It had a mountainous terrain in the north and was
farmland in the south. This battle was going to be very
difficult. The Japanese Imperial General Staff set out to protect
the island with all available forces including the elite kamikaze
(kah-mĭ-KAH-zee)
meaning "divine wind." The 32nd army, more than 100,000 troops in all, was to
garrison the island. Their artillery consisted of 75mm to 150mm
gun sizes, three machine gunner companies, four anti-aircraft
battalions, four anti-tank battalions, batteries of the 1st and 23rd
Medium Artillery Regiments, 7th Heavy Artillery Regiment, and the 110th
Heavy Artillery Battalion. In other words, these guys weren't
going without putting up a fight.
When the battle was underway, the Navajos were once again busy getting
messages off like crazy:
Jo-kayed-goh chay-da-gahi
ba-ah-hot-gli ashdla mos-bas a-del-tal nish-cla-jih-goh toh-ni-tkal-lo
Dzeh Nakia shil-loh
Request tank support 50
yards left of E Company immediately!
Jo-kayed-goh be-al-do-cid-da-hi coh n-kih
ashdla a-del-tahl be-kah-dehn Wol-la-chee Nakia
Request mortar fire 25 yards behind A Company!
Jo-kayed-goh A-zay da-ne-lei woh-neh d-ah a-kha be-ka-dehn who-dzah
Shush Nakia
Request medical personnel report to rear echelon of
B Company!
The
battle of Okinawa lasted for just over two months.
The Americans’ losses here were more than that of the
battle of
Iwo
Jima. Roy Hawthorne’s patrol was under
enemy fire for two days. “The antenna
of my radio was shot off, but I was able to get a message through for
reinforcements,” he recalls. After these
long two
months of battle, Okinawa finally fell to the Americans, thanks in part
to the
call for reinforcements. The tired,
exhausted United States troops waited for the order to invade the
Japanese
islands. The Navajo manning the radio
in August of 1945 was transmitted the message. He
jumped and danced and sang his way to the officers’
tent. The message was that after the
atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese had finally
surrendered. The war was over. |
