In 1997, with the sound of the hammer, a lawsuit that had lasted for 32 years was officially closed.
The initiator of the lawsuit was named Ieyasaburo, the editor of the early postwar Japanese textbook New Japanese History.
Ieyasaburo exposed the crimes of the Japanese army in his textbooks, writing: "In the Battle of Okinawa, no less than 100,000 civilians died. Many civilians were forced to commit suicide by the Japanese army and even used as "human bombs". ”
After its examination, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology considered the book to "portray the war too darkly" and did not depict a "glorious image" of the Japanese people. The order was forced to be deleted by Ieyaburo. In order to uphold the justice in his heart, the intolerable Ieaga Saburo filed an unconstitutional lawsuit against the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for requesting that the textbook be revised.
What really happened on okinawa, and why did the Japanese government feel ashamed and afraid to face the truth? It all starts with a fierce battle that took place there 77 years ago.
Okinawa, located in the western Pacific Ocean, is the only way for Japan to plunder resources from the southeast coast of China, the island of Taiwan, and Southeast Asia to replenish the mainland. At the same time, the island is only 600 kilometers away from Kyushu and shares a line with Iwo Jima in the east, forming a maritime gate to defend the mainland.
After the Battle of Midway, the U.S. military turned its offensive in the Pacific Theater, gained the upper hand, and gradually approached the Japanese mainland. By the beginning of 1945, the Japanese army had lost the Philippines and Iwo Jima. As a result, Okinawa became the last springboard for the U.S. military to attack the Japanese mainland. As soon as the island was occupied, Japan's air defense would collapse completely, and American bombers would be able to enter and leave Japan at will.
The Japanese army predicted that there would be a war between the United States and Japan on okinawa, so it planned to concentrate land, sea and air forces to defend this island and fight an end to the war with the American army.
The commander-in-chief on okinawa was Lieutenant General Ushijima, commander of the Japanese Army's 32nd Army. A year before the battle, 20,000 troops of the island's elite 9th Division were transferred to Taiwan, leaving the 32nd Army with only 120,000 men left.
Udo man was promoted to the Chinese battlefield, participated in the Nanjing Massacre and the Japanese bombing of Wuhan and Chongqing, and had the blood of countless civilians on his hands. In the ensuing Battle of Okinawa, this man once again vividly portrayed brutality and bloodshed.
From the day he was commissioned, Ushijima firmly believed that this was a war that must be lost, and all his efforts could only slow the advance of the US giant ship cannons. Udo has seen how powerful the U.S. military is in the Iwo Jima landings. He believes that beachhead blocking is useless, and defending the beachhead is something that is done when there is a chance of victory. Looking at the current situation, the US military's 543,000 people, 1,300 warships, and 15,000 military aircraft crushed the Japanese army in all directions. Hard-hitting thinking is obviously not in line with the overall strategic situation.
Therefore, Udo decided to abandon the beachhead and abandon the northern part of the island. Take advantage of the terrain and disperse the main force on the hills. Hollow out mountains, build fortifications, lay out hidden fire points and well-developed underground passages. A group of fortifications was established around Shurijo Castle, the ancient capital of the Ryukyu Islands.
Lure the enemy deep into areas where it is difficult to support by sea and air. Don't fight for victory, just fight for killing the enemy. This is the tactic of Ushijima's stubborn resistance.
On April 7, the largest battleship in history, the Yamato, was sunk by the U.S. military. This marked the complete defeat of the Japanese combined fleet at sea.
To the surprise of the U.S. military, the real suffering has only just begun.
At this time, Japan had lost its air superiority. And due to the cut off of the sea supply line, the Japanese lacked gasoline, and the fuel could only be replaced by a mixture of alcohol.
Vice Admiral Osamu Onishi came up with the "kamikaze special attack" tactic of "one man, one machine for one ship". From April to the end of May 1945, the Japanese flew 1,900 suicide planes. Dozens of U.S. ships were sunk and more than 5,000 U.S. sailors were killed. For U.S. ships close to the coast, the Japanese used motorboats for suicide attacks.
Under the control of the pilot, the aircraft is equivalent to a precision-guided bomb, with the least resources in exchange for the greatest damage.
Without sea and air support, the defeat of the Japanese army on the island was decided, so it was even more mad. On April 12, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. On the same day, the U.S. army took control of Cactus Ridge and Kashu Heights, and took the forward position of Shurijo Castle in one fell swoop. Udo man decided to launch a counterattack. Under the cover of night, more than 4,000 Japanese troops launched a "long live charge" at the American positions.
The inferior Japanese army always liked to attack when the Americans were defenseless, and the American army suffered 1500 casualties in this battle, but in the face of strong firepower, the attacking Japanese army was almost completely destroyed.
In order to make up for the loss of manpower, the Japanese army decided to pull the local people to death.
The inhabitants of the island are ancient Ryukyu people, not pure Japanese, so they have always been treated as second-class citizens. At the beginning of the battle, they were driven to the cave, and when the battle was lost, they were pulled out of the cave. The Japanese officer told them, "The Americans and the British are man-eating monsters." So, if you get caught by them, your ears and nose will be cut off, blind, and run over by tanks. If you were a woman, you would be raped. ”
Okinawan residents, young and old, who could walk, were recruited as cannon fodder. In order not to be affected by the wounded, the Japanese army forced the wounded to jump off a cliff and commit suicide. Those who refused to join the Japanese army were executed for espionage. Hirata, a Japanese-American who served as an interpreter, has persuaded hundreds of civilians not to commit suicide, saving civilian lives.
The Japanese took advantage of the U.S. military discipline of not killing old, weak, women, children, and prisoners of war. Let these residents approach the U.S. military and detonate the bombs. The most terrifying thing is to surrender and secretly give you another shot. This directly blocked the attempts of the Japanese and civilians to surrender to the Americans. Because of this, the US military no longer believed in the Japanese, and could only kill all the living people encountered on the island.
The muddy road was full of corpses, all of which were mixed together, and there were too many corpses to be withdrawn in time, so the bodies could only be wrapped in raincoats and put into the tunnels. Temperatures on the island are as high as 27 degrees, and it rains more than half the time of the month. Rain flooded the bodies, the heat accelerated decay, the island grew bacteria, and diseases were rampant. Many soldiers suffered from malaria.
The Japanese raids were almost all suicidal, and they only wanted to pull a few cushions before they died. In order to kill more American troops, the Japanese usually rushed to close combat. In the rear, when the two armies are fighting, the mortar squad will shell regardless of the enemy or us.
The day-to-day fighting, the desolation of the land, and the occasional suicide bomber have caused many highly nervous American soldiers to suffer from mental illness. In the whole campaign, the non-combat reduction of the US army was 26,000, and 14,000 people were evacuated because of neurasthenia alone.
Between the hills of Shuri and Naha, there were Japanese caverns, bunkers, and forts. On the back of the mountain alone, the Japanese had five hundred openings to enter their underground positions.
These clandestine fortifications often inflicted surprise casualties on the U.S. military. In order to deal with the enemy hiding inside, the U.S. army used a large number of flamethrowers, close-in fuzes, and spitfire tanks in the all-front offensive on April 19.
For the strong and huge caverns, the US military adopted the method of pouring gasoline and detonating white phosphorus bombs to completely collapse the fortifications inside. To this day, many caves on Okinawa are closed to the public because of the large number of unexploded bombs and ghosts that died tragically. About 20,000 people were trapped alive in collapsed caves.
On 4 May, Ushijima launched a final counter-offensive. By the end of May, the japanese army had ceased to exist, and only a small number of Japanese troops who were proficient in the terrain were resisting sporadically.
In the early morning of June 23, in the Cave of Mowen Renqiu, Commander Ushijima Man and Chief of Staff Nagamasa committed suicide one after another. Yahara Hirutō Daisaku asked to commit suicide with him, but Washijima refused, who told him, "If you die, no one will know the truth of the war." ”
This man became the highest-ranking Japanese officer to survive the campaign, and his writings provided a valuable reference for future studies of the campaign.
It is worth mentioning that the Japanese side has designated the day of Ushijima's suicide as the "Okinawa Island Day of Consolation", without the slightest intention of repentance.
Throughout the battle, less than 7,000 of the Japanese defenders survived 120,000. The Americans suffered 80,000 casualties, annihilated 100,000 enemies, and lost one man, Lieutenant General Simon Buckner Jr. The main commanders of both sides were killed, which is extremely rare in the history of war. More than half of the island's land is green, and the smell of lead and rotting corpses surrounds the island. It was arguably the fiercest battle in the Pacific.
The battle was heavy for the United States, but it was worth it. On August 6 and August 9, 1945, American B26 bombers dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, losing its air defense network and overseas defenses.
Later, the U.S. military built a military base on the ruins of Okinawa. Today, the Ryukyu Islands, with Okinawa as the core, together with the Japanese archipelago and the Philippine islands, constitute the first island chain to curb China's rise, and play a vital role in the US "pivot to the Asia-Pacific" policy. The "Okinawa Massacre" seems to be repeating itself, but hopefully it won't spawn new wars.
Text/Winds of Peace
Resources: 1. "Ieaga Saburo Litigation and Freedom of Expression", Zhao Jiangao 2. "The Most Tragic Battlefield The Battle of Okinawa", JieXia 3. "U.S. Casualties Exceed 80,000 Battle Commanders Killed okinawa: The final battle is the most brutal", Zhu Shiwei