Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
It has been a busy couple of days as I get ready for another trip to Gettysburg for the Staff Ride and finished up teaching my Ethics elective. So tonight since I am still receiving from my trip to Houston last week and getting ready to travel again this weekend you get a re-run. This is something I wrote almost five years ago as part of my Masters Program in Military History dealing with the Battle of Okinawa which was being fought this time of year 69 years ago. It was an amazing and brutal battle.
Peace
Padre Steve+
Plans and Preparation
The United States decided to invade Okinawa in the fall of 1944 following the seizure of Peleliu and the Philippine landings. The planned invasion of Formosa was cancelled after General Simon Bolivar Buckner objected.[i] Buckner argued that the Japanese army on it was “much too strong to be attacked by the forces by American Forces then available in the Pacific.”[ii] The strategic rationale behind the decision to invade Okinawa included Okinawa’s proximity to Japan as a staging base for a future invasion of the Japanese mainland. Likewise taking the island would severe Japan’s lines of communication and commerce with Southeast Asia and to serve as base for strategic bombers.[iii] Planning began in October 1944 and the detailed plan for OPERATION ICEBERG was issued 9 February 1945.[iv] The campaign was not planned in isolation but “was bound up strategically with the operations against Luzon…
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