Fading Memory of World War Two

     As time marches on, it is only natural that memory would become fainter.  It is, therefore, not surprising that the memory of World War Two begins to fade, especially since survivors of that war, both veterans and those who stayed at home, are fast disappearing with the passage of time.  Each year, it seems, that the 6th of June, the date of the great D-Day Invasion, becomes less and less prominent in the newspaper headlines and TV coverage.  To be sure there are still bits and pieces in newspaper about D-Day and its veterans, and TV does still provide its usual fare of Hollywood movies about World War Two and D-Day to commemorate this day.  For all practical purposes, in the minds of most Americans, D-Day the 6th of June, represents the Second World War, most especially in the European Theater of Operation!
     There is no denying that the D-Day invasion was a tremendous effort with the largest assembled invasion fleet in the history of world's warfare.  It was indeed a monumental effort and a gigantic scale military operation.  Many brave men and women lost their lives in this giant, never before attempted military operation in history.  But not to take anything away from those who participated in the D-Day operation or paid with their lives during the invasion, but D-Day was not the biggest nor the bloodiest invasion of World War Two.  That credit has to go to the very last land battle that was fought by American troops in the Pacific, the Battle of Okinawa.
     For comparison purposes, let's just look at the numbers, the troop strengths and casualties of both battles.  The D-Day Invasion took place on June 6th 1944 and did not end until the last objective of the invasion was attained on July 21st 1944, so it lasted a little over a month and a half.  There were 156,000 U.S. troops and 83,115 allied troops (mostly British) faced approximately 50,300 German forces.  There were 10,000 casualties with 4,414 dead for the allies.  German figures ran higher, somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 dead and wounded, no accurate figure is available. 
    The Battle of Okinawa began on April 1, 1945 and lasted until June 22, 1945, a month longer than the D-Day Invasion.  U.S. Forces consisted of 500,000 Army and Marine ground troops, plus Navy (US and British), more than twice the number of D-Day Invasion, that suffered more deaths than total number of casualties for D-Day!  There were 12,520 combat deaths with 55,000 wounded for a total of 67,520 casualties on Okinawa!  Japanese forces consisted of 86,000 men and they suffered 77,166 dead!  But the worst part was the civilian (Okinawan) casualties.  There were approximately 150,000 Okinawan civilians killed out of a total population of 300,000.  In other words, half of the civilian population on Okinawa was killed in the bombings and other war related activities!  The figure of 150,000 dead is disputed by some who claim it is much higher, more like 200,000!  So, as you can see, the last land battle in the Pacific was much costlier in terms of human lives for both sides, but especially for Okinawan population!
     Then there is still the actual very last land battle in Asia during World War Two that was the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria.  Now, I know that some of our historians derisively refer to Soviet Invasion as simply an opportunistic move by Stalin to grab some territory, since the invasion took place after we dropped the bomb in Hiroshima, but before Nagasaki.  However, the Invasion of Manchuria by the Soviets was agreed upon by Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill much earlier.  The date of the invasion was chosen by all parties, and the 9th of August was selected.  We dropped the bomb on Hiroshima without informing the Soviets!  The Soviets had planned the invasion of Manchuria for months.  It was important to neutralize or destroy the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Manchurian Army, which was arguably the largest and the best in the Japanese Imperial Army.  The Japanese kept the Kwantung Army in reserve to protect the homeland, and although troops were pulled from the Kwantung Army periodically to replenish the units in other places in the Pacific, for the most part the Japanese tried to keep the Kwantung Army intact.
     The Soviet Union invaded Manchuria on August 9, 1945 in a multi-pronged attack with 1,577,725 troops.  The Japanese Kwantung Army was at the time just shy of one million at 927,729 men, just below its normal strength of around 1.2 million troops.  Still, it was obviously a sizable and a potent force.  It would have been very costly for the U.S. had we made a Japanese homeland invasion as it was planned.  Combined with troops stationed in Korea and in Japanese homeland, we would have faced about a 2 million man army!
     The vicious fighting in Manchuria lasted until September 25, 1945, well after Japan had surrendered.  Although it became obvious that the Soviets were steamrolling through Manchuria, many Kwantung Army units refused to surrender!  Soviet Union lost 11,033 men in that period while the Japanese lost 21,389 men.  The rest, including the commanding officer of the Kwantung Army, were taken as POW and put in Soviet slave labor camps in Siberia!  Combined with the destruction of the Kwantung Army and the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, it became very clear to the Japanese leaders that the war was completely lost. 
     For years, our historians refused to give Soviets any credit for contributing to the Japanese surrender.  Japanese, however, have always maintained that the destruction of the Kwantung Army was a major factor in their decision to surrender.  The Kwantung Army was their last hope!
     So, as you can see, the D-Day was a major event that started the ending of the war in Europe, and it was a huge endeavor by the allied troops.  But, it wasn't the only "invasion" that helped to end the war completely, i.e., the war in the Pacific.  For us, the Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest of all in World War Two, and the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria did play a part in ending the war in the Pacific.