The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb

by George Feifer

The "apparition of this almost supernatural weapon," said Churchill, gave the courageous Japanese people "an excuse [to] save their honour and release them from their obligation of being killed to the last fighting man." (He omitted nonfighting men, women, and children.) Perhaps some other shock might have accomplished the same, but in the end, it was the bombs that provided the face-saving opportunity. The spectacle of the immense American fleet at Okinawa, among the most graphic displays of conventional weaponry in history, had done nothing to reduce General Ushijima's 32nd Army's obligations to code and country. The troops loathed the American planes that pulverized them with virtual impunity from return fire, but fought on defiantly without thought of surrender. They took unimaginable punishment from every available weapon without cracking until the pitiful 5 percent of survivors had been deprived of supplies, fortifications, and leadership. Brother soldiers would surely be even braver and tougher on the sacred home islands with their immeasurably better preparation. No accumulation of bombs, shells, and bullets was likely to free them from their commitment.