re: 'They'd Just Fight Until You Killed Them' Battle of Okinawa, WWII

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So much respect for that generation and those who served.

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Amen! Was at the WW2 museum a couple months ago and their new movie showcased Japan heavily as the forgotten part of the final push. The movie repeated the motto over and over that Japanese fought until death

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Did he leave a corvette and a note under an old green army tarp?

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Wow, I remember when I first heard that song, I stayed chocked up for a while.
It was hard for me the listen to as it was played again.

My mind goes back and remember all our fallen hero's from years gone past.

Many were still just boys.

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PFC Lesley Ford Malone

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He was 23 years old, was married but did not have children.

All of our family referred to him as 'Uncle Pete'.

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I'm guessing the thought of being occupied by the Americans was less terrifying than being occupied by the Soviets.

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Japanese civilians committed suicide rather than be captured by the Americans. I don’t think they were more scared of the Russians.

Also, how were the Russians going to invade Japan. Did they have enough of a navy to cross the Sea of Japan and the landing craft to put their troops ashore?

Surprised Iwo Jima or Okinawa aren't in the series Greatest Events of WWII in Colour

Dad was there.

He never told anyone in our family about it until he told me on his deathbed in ‘89.

Not

Good.

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They were trying to get the Soviet Union to mediate a more favorable surrender than the Allies were offering. Stalin strung them along, giving them false hope. When the invasion of Manchuria came after the bomb was dropped, there was no hope at all for Japan.

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That makes more sense than all those other explanations.

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Many were still just boys

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My grandfather was only 17 and a corpsman with the 28th Marines when he landed on Iwo Jima. Turned 18 on the ship back to Hawaii. Can't even imagine

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Japanese civilians committed suicide rather than be captured by the Americans. I don’t think they were more scared of the Russians.

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Are you referring to the Okinawans? They were separate from Japan and they considered themselves independent of Japan.

Just about all Japanese soldiers fought to the death. It was considered a dishonor in the Bushido code to surrender.

The WWII Japanese told the Okinawans that the American's would torture them, eat their children among other things. Many Okinawans committed suicide when it became clear the Allies would take their island.
Those who did survive or surrender were very surprised at the gracious treatment that the Americans gave them.

Were there some atrocities committed by some of the GIs? Yes there was but for the most part, the Americans were very generous and kind to the Okinawans.

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Also, how were the Russians going to invade Japan. Did they have enough of a navy to cross the Sea of Japan and the landing craft to put their troops ashore?

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A fair point. The logistics to get troops, supplies, tanks, artillery, ammo, etc over into Japan would have taken a huge effort on the part of the Rooskies.

No doubt our troops would have intercepted them and would have forced them back over onto mainland China.
If anybody, the Russians would have been afraid of the US.
The two A-bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were all we had. It would have taken months to create more. But the Japs and the Rooskies didn't know that. So that was our 'ace-in-the-hole'

The Japanese were ready to fight on till the last person. It is the code of Bushido.

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Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo called the ninth of August "a bad day." The Soviet Union declared war on Japan, overrunning the Kwantung army in Manchuria. Sumihisa Ikeda, Director of the Imperial Cabinet Planning Board, described the once invincible army as "no more than a hollow shell."

When news of the Nagasaki bombing reached Tokyo, Togo proposed acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration which set out terms of surrender for Japan and was signed by the United States, Great Britain, and China (U.S.S.R. ruler Joseph Stalin was a principal participant at Potsdam but did not sign the declaration). Japan's Supreme War Direction Council was deadlocked on a decision.

Debate continued throughout that day and night. Finally, at 2 A.M. August 10, 1945, Prime Minister Admiral Baron Kantaro Suzuki respectfully begged His Imperial Majesty Hirohito to make a decision. Hirohito did not hesitate, "...I do not desire any further destruction of cultures, nor any additional misfortune for the peoples of the world. On this occasion, we have to bear the unbearable." The emperor had spoken.

Unfortunately antisurrender sentiment and objections from much of the Japanese military was widespread. Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, founder of the kamikazes, argued the Japanese "would never be defeated if we were prepared to sacrifice 20,000,000 Japanese lives in a 'special attack' effort." He later committed suicide rather than surrender
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Hirohito was determined. Against all precedent, the emperor himself convened an Imperial Conference and at noon on August 15, 1945, announced Japan's surrender. The war was over.

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LINK

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The Japanese were ready to fight on till the last person. It is the code of Bushido.

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The last Jap soldier was found holding out in Indonesia.....in 1974.