Grunt Style's Violent But True Video Series Breaks Down The Battle Of Okinawa

Grunt Style and American Grit tell the story of the Battle of Okinawa in their Violent but True series

Grunt Style/American Grit

World War II had countless battles whose stories have been told in history books and depicted in film. In the Pacific campaign, most of the attention usually goes toward the Battle of Iwo Jima and the iconic flag-raising. As storied and bloody as it was, that battle and every other would be overshadowed by the final major battle of the entire war on Okinawa. Grunt Style and American Grit tell the story of this gruesome battle as part of their Violet but True video series.

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By early 1945, it was apparent that the tide of the war had turned decisively toward the advantage of the U.S. and the Allies. With the death of Adolf Hitler and the unconditional surrender of Germany in May of that year, the world turned its attention to the Pacific theater of war with the Japanese.

While the Allies were celebrating victory in Europe, the Marines and Army troops on Okinawa were doing anything but celebrating. They were engaged in what turned out to be the bloodiest conflict of the entire war. The island was deemed crucial to capture as a staging ground for what seemed to be an inevitable invasion of Japan.

If you look at Okinawa on the map, it really puts into perspective just how close it was to mainland Japan. Most of the major battles in the Pacific were fought on islands that the Japanese invaded during the expansion of their empire in the 1930s and 40s. Okinawa was their home turf, and they were going to fight tooth and nail to keep it.

From the time of their arrival on Okinawa in April 1945, U.S. forces were met with fierce resistance from Japanese forces who were determined to fight until the last man and resort to increasingly violent tactics to convince the U.S. that this battle was just a taste of what to expect if they attempted a mainland invasion.

The Army and Marines spent most of their time fighting off Japanese forces and an unrelenting artillery barrage, all of which was made even more brutal by pouring rain that turned the entire terrain of the island into one big mud pit filled with rotting corpses.

Meanwhile, the Navy provided artillery and air support from the sea while trying to avoid possibly the most brutal and fanatical military tactic used by the Japanese: kamikaze pilots. Hundreds of ships were sunk or damaged and thousands of sailors were killed by these pilots intentionally flying their explosive-filled planes into the naval vessels.

When the battle finally ended in June of 1945, casualties proved to be the highest of the war: 50,000 American casualties, which included over 12,000 killed. Japanese casualties were even worse, with over 100,000 killed.

The battle also proved costly to the civilian population on Okinawa, with close to 150,000 dead as a result of fighting, coerced suicide, and, in some brutal cases, human shields for Japanese troops.

A little over a month after the fighting ended on Okinawa, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, definitively ending World War II. It was said that the Marines that were still on the island when the war ended almost didn’t want to believe that it was truly over because to find out that it wasn’t true would be too devastating to bear. Tells you everything you need to know about the horror of what they experienced in that battle.