{"id":2208,"date":"2018-04-01T13:11:54","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T04:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nedforney.com\/?p=2208"},"modified":"2019-04-21T22:46:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T13:46:25","slug":"battle-of-okinawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nedforney.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/01\/battle-of-okinawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter on Okinawa, 1945"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\"Dick\n\t

On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, Richard (Dick) Whitaker, a Private in the US Marine Corps, landed on Okinawa’s Red Beach-2. For the next 82 days, Whitaker, along with 180,000 American and Allied soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, would fight in a battle so horrific that the world would forever recognize it as the largest and bloodiest of the Pacific War.<\/p>\n

Okinawa, a rugged, mountainous island covered with dense\u00a0foliage and defended by nearly 80,000 Japanese,\u00a0would become the scene of Japan\u2019s “last stand.” With hundreds of\u00a0hills, ridges, and caves, it was the perfect place to defend. As the Americans were about to discover, it was also the worst place to attack.<\/p>\n

The Battle of Okinawa was a terrifying nightmare for every American, Japanese, and Okinawan who endured the nearly three months of hell. Even by the standards of Marines who had\u00a0fought at Tarawa, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima, the length,\u00a0intensity, and ferocity of the fighting on Okinawa were\u00a0unparalleled.<\/p>\n

\"Marines

Marines landing on Okinawa. Of the Marines from Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 29th Marines who went ashore on Easter Sunday
1945, only three are alive today: Neal McCullum (93), Ken Wells (92), and Dick Whitaker (92). (Photo credit: National Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n

In a\u00a0typical example of how vicious and costly the fighting was on the island, during a three-day engagement on Sugar Loaf Hill and Horseshoe Ridge (think scenes from the Academy Award-winning movie\u00a0Hacksaw Ridge<\/em>), only 60 Marines in Whitaker’s unit of 216 made it through the fight. The rest were dead, wounded, or unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

During the epic struggle for Okinawa,\u00a0nearly 20,000 Americans died or went missing, an estimated 80,000 to 110,000 Japanese were killed, and more than 100,000\u00a0Okinawans perished. But the Allies had been victorious and were one step closer to winning the war.\u00a0Less than two months later, World War II ended. Whitaker was convinced his life had been saved. The Marines would no longer have to attack mainland Japan, and he could go home.<\/p>\n

Anything We Did Could Get Us Killed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dick and I met in 2005 while I was working as the education director and volunteer coordinator on the USS Yorktown<\/em> CV-10, an aircraft carrier-turned-museum located in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Dick was one of a handful of loyal WWII veterans who volunteered on the ship. He gave tours, met with visitors, and generally kept me on my toes with his sharp wit, dry sense of humor, and strong opinions on how I should or shouldn’t do my job, the way things should run at\u00a0Patriots Point Naval and\u00a0Maritime\u00a0Museum<\/a>, and the ship’s latest\u00a0scuttlebutt. He was great!<\/p>\n

\"Marine

Marine Corp volunteers Jim Morrow (Tarawa), John Flinn (Vietnam), Dick Whitaker (Okinawa) and staff member\/former Marine Ned Forney celebrate on the hangar deck of USS Yorktown. (Photo credit: Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum)<\/p><\/div>\n

When I asked him about his time in the Pacific, however, he wasn’t as talkative; he rarely went into detail about his combat experiences. But as we became better friends, he began to tell me about what it was like on Okinawa. His accounts of “living in foxholes, eating rations, fighting dysentery, wearing the same clothes and going without bathing” for three months were hard to fathom.\u00a0And then he started telling stories about the really<\/em> bad stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in close contact with stubborn, treacherous, suicidal,\u00a0Japanese defenders – 24-hours every day,\u201d he recounted. “Anything we did could get us killed including absolutely nothing.\u201d And he had the proof. One day he showed me his disfigured finger.<\/p>\n

A Near Miss<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Looking at his hand, he explained how on May 17, 1945, while taking a smoke break with a fellow Marine in a newly-dug foxhole,\u00a0he leaned over his shovel and reached down, hoping to use his buddy\u2019s cigarette to light his own.\u00a0What happened next was a miracle or – depending on how you look at it – just another lucky “near miss.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Japanese sniper had zeroed in on Whitaker, and after waiting for the precise moment that the young Marine\u2019s chest was exposed, pulled his trigger. Almost simultaneously, Whitaker moved, and the bullet, instead of hitting its target, ricocheted off a shovel and sliced into his hand. Literally milliseconds had made the difference between a flesh wound and death.<\/p>\n

\"Marines

Marines battling the Japanese on Okinawa, 1945. Notice the flames (from a Marine flame thrower) in the background. (Photo credit: National Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMaybe there is glory in war,\u201d Dick told author George Feifer in his excellent, best-selling book, Tennozan<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0\u201cbut not for anyone fighting it. There\u2019s only fear and filth, shock and suffering. You see such blood, so many bashed bodies, so much gore. You\u2019re an animal, a barbarian, just like the enemy.\u201d Whitaker then echoed the words spoken by nearly every combat veteran I’ve ever talked with: \u201cNo one who fought has illusions about glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going Home<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When the fighting finally ended on June 22, 1945, Whitaker, who had celebrated his 19th birthday just months before, would be among the\u00a0\u201clucky\u201d few in his\u00a0machine gun platoon to make it off the island alive.<\/p>\n

Pvt. Whitaker and the remaining men in Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 29th Marines were sent to Guam to begin preparing for the much-anticipated and highly-feared\u00a0invasion of Japan. With the war’s end on August 15, however, they ended up in Tsingtao, China,\u00a0to repatriate Japanese troops. Six months later Whitaker was back in the States. He arrived in his hometown of Saugerties, New York, on Memorial Day, 1946.\u00a0\u201cI had been away from Saugerties for 23 months and it sure was a great day to arrive home . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

On the 73rd anniversary of the Okinawa Easter Sunday landing, I salute all the brave men who\u00a0fought and died for their brothers in arms, their country, and the freedom of the world. Thank you, Dick, and Happy belated 92nd Birthday!<\/p>\n

Postscript:<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Dick died on April 17, 2019, in Mt. Pleasant, SC. He will be missed by many.\u00a0I’m grateful for having known him. He was a great man, Marine, and friend. Semper Fi!\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Private\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tPrivate Richard Whitaker, USMC, 1945. (Photo credit: Dick Whitaker)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Dick\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tDick Whitaker at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, 2009. (Photo credit: Dick Whitaker)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Clipping\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tClipping from Dick Whitaker\u2019s local newspaper taken during a rare lull in the action on Okinawa. (Photo credit: Saugerties Post Star)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Map\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tMap from the book “Tennozan” by George Fiefer. \n\t

Top\/Featured Photo<\/strong>:\u00a0Pvt. Whitaker ready for action. This photo was taken during training in the States, before his deployment to the Pacific. (Photo credit: Dick Whitaker)<\/p>\n\t