Okinawa
Okinawa was
the final battleground
of the war. Okinawa was just 400 miles
away from Japan. The
battle of Okinawa lasted for just over two months.
The Americans’ losses here were more than that of the
battle of
Iwo
Jima. Roy Hawthorne’s patrol was under
enemy fire for two days. “The antenna
of my radio was shot off, but I was able to get a message through for
reinforcements,” he recalls. After these
long two
months of battle, Okinawa finally fell to the Americans, thanks in part
to the
call for reinforcements. The tired,
exhausted United States troops waited for the order to invade the
Japanese
islands. The Navajo manning the radio
in August of 1945 was transmitted the message. He
jumped and danced and sang his way to the officers’
tent. The message was that after the
atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese had finally
surrendered. The war was over.
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