The Landing on Okinawa

Contributed by 1st Sgt. Scott M. Smith
(taken from Book History of the 6th Marine Division, Edited By Bevan G. Cass, Copyright 1948 by Infantry Journal Inc.)

That Easter Dawn was hailed by the crash of guns from some 1,200 ships, the largest war fleet that ever sailed, with the heavy artillery of battleships and cruisers concentrating on the sloping ground from the beach to Yontan Airfield, 1,200 yards inland. With that fierce music ringing in their ears, Leathernecks crawled from their bunks and went to the mess halls for a breakfast of oranges, steak and eggs, ice cream, coffee cake and hot coffee. By 5:30 they were topside, watching the bombardment.

Japanese planes began to attack in the early morning light, at first only the local reserves, apparently, for their efforts were not well coordinated and though there were several narrow escapes from bombs or suicide attacks, there were no hits and at least five planes were shot down. Meantime the gunfire had change direction slightly, and our own carrier-based aircraft were blasting fortifications along the shore and inland toward the airfield.

The bright sunlight of the spring morning was considered a good omen for the coming battle as the assault troops in amphibian tractors headed for the beach to make their landing at 8:30 A.M., April 1, 1945, the designated H-hour. For the first time in the Pacific our tanks swam in with their own flotation gear. It was actually 8:37 when the first waves reached the beach, the 22^nd Marines near Hanza on the series of beaches designated as Green, the 4^th Regiment on the Red beaches opposite Yontan Airfield.

Veterans of Saipan, Bougainville and Guam received the surprise of their lives as they leaped from the amphtracs and began climbing into the rising, terraced ground dotted with concrete tombs which they had expected to find full of machine guns manned by suicidal Japs. There seemed to be no Japs; the deadly grazing fire of machine guns and the bursts of mortars were alike absent. Aboard the ships officers could hardly believe their ears as the first radio reports came in. The desperate and bloody resistance at the waterline that had marked every other invasion of the Pacific was entirely wanting. Easter services could have been held in the open on a beach that had loomed in advance as one of toughest of them all.

Neither Colonel Schneider’s 22^nd Regiment nor Colonel Shapley’s 4^th wasted time trying to solve the mystery or congratulating themselves. They pushed inland rapidly but cautiously; by 9:12 A.M., the 22^nd had moved five hundred yards forward through sugarcane fields, and by 10:30 both regiments had reached the day’s objective with only a few casualties. There was still too much good daylight to be wasted; the orders were to continue the advance with all possible vigor.

Beyond Hanza the troops began to meet their first natives; frightened, undersized individuals who looked up at the giant invaders, then grinned and bobbed their heads rapidly when asked "Okinawa? Okinawa?" which was as near as most of the Marines could come to saying something in a language these people understood. It was still early afternoon when the 22^nd reached Castle Hill, named for an old Chinese castle that was supposed to have occupied its summit at some time in the past. We had not expected to take this point for two days, but there was still no organized resistance.

In their zone the men of the 4^th Marines were making equally rapid progress. A few minutes after landing, Major Barney Green’s 1^st Battalion was three hundred yards inland, and it was still early morning when the 3^rd Battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Hochmuth reached the first line of tombs, eight hundred yards from the beach, which the schedule called for it to reach late in the afternoon. There were a few scattered shots from Japanese stragglers, but within the hours the 4^th was on Yontan Airfield; and to make the lack of resistance all the more astonishing, it had passed several systems of interlocking caves, some of them well stocked with ammunition.

The airfield itself they found deserted except for camouflaged bamboo poles arranged in emplacements to look like antiaircraft guns, damaged planes rigged to appear operational, and a number of cleverly constructed dummy aircraft. They had expected that as much as three days would be required to seize this objective.

That evening, as the Marines were cooking their suppers, a Japanese plane circled the field, swung seaward, then turned back to a smooth landing. The pilot cut his motor, wriggled out of his parachute pack, climbed down and started to walk away in full view of the Marines; then halted in amazement and reached for his pistol as he noted signs of the field’s change of ownership. It was the last thing he ever did. As one Marine inspected the bullet-riddled plane, he remarked philosophically: "Well, there’s always that ten per cent that doesn’t get the word."

The unexpected lack of resistance led to a stepping up of the landing schedule. By late afternoon, when the Jap pilot was cut down, equipment was pouring across the beaches and bulldozers were busy carving out new roads. By the evening of the first day Colonel Bleasdale’s 29^th Regiment, in corps reserve, had joined the others on the beach, the Reconnaissance Company had pushed one thousand yards out onto Zanpa Misaki (Zanpa Cape) on the Division’s left flank, and elements of the assault regiments had reached the line scheduled for seizure on Love plus 2.

This story was contributed by 1st Sgt. Scott M. Smith (USMC), son of Bob Smith. Bob was in the 29th regiment of the 6th Marine Division. Scott attended a reunion in San Diego a where he conducted a bus tour to the rifle range, and attended the reunion dinner. He is an outstanding, upright Marine.

During the war Bob Smith befriended a small Okinawa boy while on duty....feeding him and allowing the boy to share his foxhole. On returning to Okinawa many years later, he mentioned this fact to a tour director while on a tour as they arrived at the area where he had found the boy during the war. The tour director replied.."that was me!!"...they were friends for the rest of their lives!!! The tour guide's name was Zenichi Yoshimine. He now lives with his family in Shuri Heights just below Shuri Castle. Mr. Yoshimine invited the Smith family to his home for lunch at a traditional Okinawan restaurant, and a tour of Shuri Castle on March 20th. Scott adds "We had a great time".

Read the transcript of the 60th Anniversary Ceremony
of the Landing on Okinawa

Follow up from Scott:

Addendum from Scott (May 2005): "Here is a photo of Mr. Yoshimine along with my wife Leigh, Daughter Lyvia she is 4, and son Dominic he will be 2 in July. This photo was taken at Shuri Castle."

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