A map shows the positions of cannons and machine ... guard down for even a second," he writes on April 1, 1945. "The battle of Okinawa is in its final stages. We’re up next.

The Battle of Okinawa was a taste of what was to come. The Americans knew that taking Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, would be a monumental task, and the body count would be ...

fold in the earth just north of Naha, U.S. Tenth Army infantrymen found out for sure what they had suspected all along: Okinawa would ... be but one outcome to the battle—U.S. victory.

The Battle of Okinawa erupted in the final stages of World War Two and lasted more than three months. By the end of it, over 200,000 soldiers and civilians were dead.