Battle of Okinawa is worth a look

Sure, this 1971 Japanese movie of the final battle of the Pacific War, BATTLE OF OKINAWA, is dated and shows it. But it is definitely worth your time to watch it, if for anything, to see how the Japanese saw World War II in the far western Pacific from their viewpoint.

The movie was filmed in 1971. Japan was at that time an even stronger ally of the United States than today, even as the Vietnam War started winding down. Therefore you can discern some Japanese sensibilities at avoiding or minimizing the portrayal of Americans as evil, ugly, hairy, vicious white barbarians, as was in World War II. The American Marines and soldiers are shown in a few, pitched hand-to-hand battles, which accurately reflected the brutal, nasty, hand-to-hand affair that the battle on the Ryukyu island of Okinawa actually was. But the Americans are shown in small numbers and just a few, hand-to-hand battle scenes. You see a lot of combat action and explosions and machine gun fire, but no actual battle scene depicting hundreds of extras and stuntmen. Possibly financial reasons. But it doesn't detract from the movie. You won't see any atrocities depicted from both sides in this movie. But the Japanese wanted to depict the suffering their soldiers and civilians underwent so there is a lot of screen time devoted to showing the suffering of civilians and wounded Japanese soldiers in underground hospitals.

The Japanese director naturally devoted a lot of screen time to scenes where top Japanese military brass discuss strategy for Okinawa, from the Imperial Japanese HQ in Tokyo, to the next lower HQ of 32nd Army HQ on Taiwan, to the command center of the Okinawan garrison, commanded by LTG Ushijima - oddly portrayed as too quiescent, his second-in-command, MG Cho (aptly played by the excellent actor T. Tanba), and Chief-of-Staff, Colonel Yahara (who somehow looks inconguously Hispanic). Historically, these three men made up a well-working command team that proved unfortunate for the invading American amphibious forces. But in an ironic twist of fate, the defense of Okinawa was weakened when 32nd Army HQ ordered LTG Ushijima to transfer his crack 9th Division to Formosa. Historians on both sides continue to point to this action as a colossal error. I will go out on a limb and say that it was NOT an error, but a gigantic unfortunate stroke of bad luck for the Japanese. Why? The Japanese military high command CORRECTLY deduced that the Americans would invade Taiwan (Formosa) at first. This is true. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up plans for the invasion of Taiwan in early 1945 under the name of, "Operation Causeway". The Japanese therefore, were wise in bolstering the defense of Taiwan. But in a colossal stroke of ill luck for Japan, at the last moment, the Americans decided to invade Okinawa. For the Japanese, it was then too late to transfer the 9th Division back to Okinawa. The American navy isolated the ocean areas around the Ryukyu Islands, cutting it off. The Japanese high command had the opportunity to transfer the 82nd Division, but cancelled it at the last moment in cold, ruthless calculation that the fall of Okinawa was inevitable and therefore wasting any further valuable troops was out of the question if these men were to be employed in defending Japan itself.