The Battle of Okinawa

The film chronicles the Japanese military command and civilian population of Okinawa as American forces invade the island in one of the war's bloodiest battles. It depicts the desperate defense, mass civilian suffering, and the tragic mass suicides urged upon Okinawan civilians. The scale of destruction and human cost is presented from the Japanese and Okinawan perspective.

The Battle of Okinawa was the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War and one of the bloodiest, resulting in over 12,000 American deaths, over 100,000 Japanese military deaths, and the deaths of as many as 100,000 or more Okinawan civilians, some coerced into mass suicide by Japanese propaganda and military pressure. The battle's staggering toll influenced Allied planning and debate over an invasion of the Japanese home islands.

The film draws on historical accounts of the battle and is noted in Japan for confronting the controversial issue of civilian mass suicides encouraged by the Imperial Japanese military.

The largest amphibious assault of the Pacific war, and the bloodiest, fought on Japanese home soil with a large civilian population caught in the middle.

Landings were unopposed, but the Shuri Line in the south held for weeks at places such as Hacksaw Ridge (the Maeda Escarpment). Mass kamikaze attacks struck the fleet offshore. Civilian deaths were catastrophic.

Directed by Kihachi Okamoto

Cast: Tetsurō Tamba, Yūzō Kayama, Yoshio Tsuchiya

Positioned at April-June 1945 within the Pacific 1945 phase of the war, as part of the Battle of Okinawa. This is entry 141 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Okinawa
• civilian mass suicide
• Japanese cinema
• Pacific War
• 1945

• 

  Hacksaw Ridge

  April-May 1945

• 

  The Emperor in August

  August 9-15, 1945

• 

  Japan's Longest Day

  August 14-15, 1945

• 

  The Pacific

  1942–1945

• 

  Letters from Iwo Jima

  February-March 1945

• 

  Grave of the Fireflies

  March-September 1945