The land battle for Okinawa becomes the Pacific war's largest amphibious assault
Kamikaze attacks and an 82-day ground fight bring the war to Japan's doorstep
Quick facts
- Location
- Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands
- Dates
- April 1 to about June 22, 1945
- US forces
- US Tenth Army, over 60,000 initial landing troops
- Ships lost to kamikaze
- 36 sunk, 368 damaged
- Civilian deaths
- About 50,000 Okinawans
What happened
On April 1, 1945, more than 60,000 soldiers and Marines of the US Tenth Army landed on Okinawa, the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war, meeting little resistance on the beaches because Japanese commanders had built their defenses inland in deep, mutually supporting positions rather than at the water's edge. Five days later, on April 6, Japan launched the first of a series of mass kamikaze raids: 355 army and navy suicide aircraft struck the invasion fleet that day alone, part of a campaign that would total more than 1,900 kamikaze sorties against the ships supporting the landing, sinking 36 vessels and damaging 368 more. Ground fighting ground on for nearly three months through fortified ridge lines in the island's south.
Why it matters
The Tenth Army inflicted more than 100,000 casualties on Japanese defenders while the fighting also killed an estimated 50,000 Okinawan civilians, a toll that weighed directly on American planning for an invasion of the Japanese home islands, since Okinawa suggested any landing on Kyushu or Honshu would cost far more in both military and civilian lives.
How we know
Naval History and Heritage Command's official account documents the April 1 landing date and the shift of Japanese defensive doctrine to inland positions; kamikaze sortie and ship-loss figures come from the National WWII Museum's dedicated analysis of the Okinawa air campaign.
Sources
- Naval History and Heritage Command. Battle of Okinawa · Reputable sourcehistory.navy.mil · The domain "history.navy.mil" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The National WWII Museum. Operation Iceberg: The Battle for Okinawa · Reputable sourcenationalww2museum.org · The domain "nationalww2museum.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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