Iwo+Jima+and+Okinawa

The battle for Iwo Jima was part of America's island hopping campaign in the Pacific, it was one of the last main battles before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that would end the war. The battle proved to be tough one for the American soldiers since many of the Japanese defences were dug underground, and many were hard to fight because of their better defensable postion. The battle was also called Operation Detachment, the battle would help America capture two airfields. This battle would be extremely tough because this was the last chance the Japanese would have to protect their mainland. The Japanese had around 20,000 men defending the position, and each one of them was ready to fight to the death, and the Marines fighting would have a hard time capturing any enemy at all because they would rather die than be captured. The Japanese were led by General Kuribayashi and he was prepared. The beginning of the fight, in Febuary 19, 1945, began with American Naval artillery shooting every possible target on the island, thought to be effective at first because the Marines landed on the island being all quiet. The fighting then began when the Japanese began to fight from their defences, and it suprised the Americans. The Americans were able to cut off the Japanese in the middle and pushed them to each of the island. One end of it was Mt. Suribachi and the Japanese had an underground position where they were able to hold off the Americans for a while. But the Americans found a way to push them out by the use of flamethrowers and grenades and this finished the Japanese off. The island was taken on March 26, 1945. There were barely any Japanese defenders left on the island after the battle was fought, and this showed that 22,000 Japanese would fight to their death.
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The **Battle of Okinawa**, codenamed **Operation Iceberg**, was fought on Okinawa and was the largest sea to land assault in the Pacific Theatre. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June, 1945. The battle has been referred to as the **"Typhoon of Steel"** in English. The nicknames are because of the intensity of the fighting, the intensity of gunfire involved, and to the numbers of Allied ships and vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in one of the highest number of casualties of any [|World War II] engagement. The Japanese lost over 100,000 troops, and the Allies suffered more than 50,000 casualties. Simultaneously, more than 100,000 civilians were killed. Approximately one-quarter of the civilian population died due to the invasion. Five divisions and two Marine Divisions fought on Okinawa. The invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces. The main objective of the operation was to seize a large island only 340 miles away from mainland Japan. After a long island hopping campaign through the Pacific, the Allies were closing in on Japan. They planned to use Okinawa as a base of operations and to send Air units to bomb Japan. The planned invasion of Japanese mainland, coded [|Operation Downfall]. The [|atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki] caused [|Japan to surrender] just weeks after the end of the fighting at Okinawa.

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