Description:

World War II

Okinawa Island Map: Air Traffic Control Patterns in Advance of Japanese Mainland Invasion

 

Map showing air traffic control patterns over the southwestern part of Okinawa Island, prepared by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in July 1945. Marked "Confidential: This classification will be changed to restricted in combat area" at top. Lightly folded into six even sections, measuring approximately 22.5" x 20" unfolded. Maps relating to the Battle of Okinawa are much scarcer than highly coveted D-Day maps, the latter of which there are many.

 

The Battle of Okinawa (code name Operation Iceberg) took place on Okinawa Island between April 1-June 22, 1945. One of the Ryukyu Islands extending southwest of the Japanese mainland, Okinawa was of paramount strategic importance. Allied forces needed it to launch Operation Downfall, the large-scale on-the-ground invasion of Japan anticipated to begin in November 1945.

 

Allied forces, the bulk of which were U.S. Army and Marines, faced off against the Imperial Japanese Army and conscripted indigenous Okinawan civilians that spring. The Allies launched a multi-pronged amphibious assault of Okinawa and surrounding islands. Although the Allies significantly outnumbered defenders, the Japanese brooked their efforts with kamikaze and other extreme defense tactics. Approximately 250,000 died from war, starvation, illness, and mass suicide in what would be the bloodiest battle in the Pacific Theater.

 

This map was prepared after the battle by the victorious Americans, and shows air traffic control patterns by direction. Color-coded vectors indicate the recommended minimum and maximum flying altitudes over certain areas of the island. This, the southern part of Okinawa Island, saw some of the fiercest fighting from Japanese defenders, many of whom were barricaded in fortified caves. Japanese forces retreated further and further south until the Americans had cleared the island by late June 1945.

 

In July 1945, Allied forces still believed they would stage on Okinawa prior to launching a massive ground invasion against Japan that fall. Projected to require 700,000-1,700,000 troops and result in an estimated 400-800,000 American fatalities, the invasion was predicted to take two years. Japan announced its intention to surrender, however, after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9. The cancellation of the invasion did not negate Okinawa's overall importance to American interests. There are U.S. Army installations on Okinawa Island to this day.

 

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