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By Root 1473 0

by American ships and planes. But west of the city, in carefully designed fortifications, the peninsula held some three thousand Japanese naval troops, troops over which Ushijima had no direct authority. Their commander was Admiral Minoru Ota, who had enthusiastically offered his men for whatever operation Ushijima might appreciate. Despite Ota’s willingness to help, Ushijima knew that the naval troops had almost no training in the field and weren’t likely to fare well against the Marines. Up until now the sailors had only been used as part of small infiltration squads. But as the fight dragged on, even those efforts had been futile at best. Too often the effectiveness of their raids had been a complete mystery, since once they went into action, no one had ever heard from them again. Even if they weren’t effective fighters, Colonel Yahara still believed they could be effective in adding manpower to the defense of the Kiyan Peninsula by moving south with the army, hopefully escaping the American drive that was sure to engulf the capital city. Admiral Ota disagreed, feeling that his men would best serve the Japanese cause by keeping to their well-designed fortifications on Oroku. Added to the naval force were five thousand Okinawans who had been pressed into service supporting the navy’s defenses across the peninsula. Whether those troops would be effective as fighters mattered little now. Ushijima could not order the admiral to comply with any plan, so, for now anyway, the naval troops would make their stand by keeping to their artillery and automatic weapons dug into the rough ground closer to the airfield. The goal on the Oroku Peninsula was much the same as throughout the entire campaign, to delay the Americans, this time the Marines, in their inevitable efforts to capture the airfield. Also, Ushijima knew that any fight that kept a full division of Marines bogged down on Oroku meant fewer Americans joining the ultimate assault against Ushijima’s bastion down south. Any delay would prolong the fight.

The plan was as sound as any that Ushijima could have imagined, but there was nothing in Yahara’s strategy that predicted a defeat of the Americans, none of Cho’s manic boastfulness that this time the Americans would be driven back to their ships. The plan had one inevitable outcome, no matter if it was successful by Yahara’s standards or not. Ushijima knew that it was his army’s final effort, their last stand.

MAY 29, 1945

They escaped from the Shuri Heights through a thicket of artillery blasts, slipping in the darkness down treacherous pathways that led through hillsides of rubble. For the first few miles, the artillery had continued, terrifying rips through the night sky, the Americans blanketing the entire area with firepower that the Japanese could never equal. But luck followed them, Ushijima and his senior staff making their way mostly on foot until the most immediate danger of the American artillery was past.

He rode now in an old truck, Yahara and Cho piled in like so many farm laborers, their dignity erased by the urgency of the escape. As they moved farther south, the roads became better, less of the paralyzing mud, harder surfaces. But the truck itself was wholly unreliable, one more symptom of the diminishing supplies. As though on schedule, the truck’s engine had gasped into silence, the officers disembarking onto the wet roadway once more.

Ushijima moved away from the turmoil of his aides, the men fumbling beneath the truck’s open hood, desperate to remedy the problem. Cho was there, would do as he had done before, stand watch behind the men, as though by his threats of punishment the truck itself would be as fearful as the men and respond with proper behavior.

Ushijima wandered farther from the chaotic scene, listened instead to the artillery, a barrage coming down closer to the sea, along the western coast. There was little noise from the south, a good sign, the advance staff reporting that the American fleet had not anchored any of the larger warships off the island’s southern tip. So far,