Okinawa
Okinawa was the scene of the last great U.S. amphibious campaign in World War II. U.S. army and marine forces landed there on Apr. 1, 1945, and fought one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war, while the navy offshore suffered heavy damage in resisting attacks by suicide planes (see kamikaze). The Japanese garrison, having lost 103,000 of its 120,000 men, ended organized resistance on June 21, 1945. U.S. casualties were 48,000, one fourth listed as dead. Okinawa was placed in Aug., 1945, under a U.S. military governor and remained under U.S. control until May, 1972, when it was returned to Japan.
U.S. military bases were allowed to remain on the island; about three quarters of the American forces based in Japan are in Okinawa. Opposition to the bases from local residents grew in the mid-1990s, and in 2006 the United States and Japan agreed to redeploy 8,000 U.S. marines to Guam and relocate other U.S. forces from the greater Naha area to another part of Okinawa. In 2009 a new Japanese government reconsidered the plan but ultimately accepted (2010) it, and a revised agreement was reached in 2012. Progress on the relocation was slow, however, due to local opposition.
See J. Belote and W. Belote,
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