The Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa was the last significant battle of WWII. The Americans (and some British) amassed a massive armada offshore of the Okinawan archipelago in March of 1945 that included 183,000 men, 327 ships and 750,000 tonnes of supplies (in comparison, the Allied invasion of Normandy employed 150,000 troops and 284 ships). On April 1, after a massive aerial and naval bombardment of the island, the allied forces landed on the west side of Okinawa just north of Naha City. Over the next 82 days of intense fighting throughout the entire island, approximately 250,000 people would lose their lives - 90000 Japanese troops, 12, 000 US troops and nearly 150000 civilians. Only Stalingrad saw higher civilian casualties during WWII.
The battle ended on June 21, 1945. It is impossible for us to fathom the scale of this battle and the loss of life. Understanding what happened in Okinawa does help to understand the decision to use the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.