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By Root 1512 0

the rolling rocky ground, each one a little taller, a little more rugged. The Sixth Marines were moving forward in a progressive wave, on a compact line that bordered the coastline. To their left, inland, the First Marine Division was pushing hard into more of the Japanese lines of resistance, while farther to their east, the two army divisions did the same. The sounds of the ongoing fighting were everywhere, some of it from the sea, shelling from warships that were taking up position around the base of the island. Word had come from Marine lookouts near the shore that the Japanese had attempted amphibious operations of their own, small boats and barges loaded with commandos who had attempted to slip along the coastline after dark, to come in behind the Marines and soldiers closest to the sea. But the naval lookouts had done their jobs, patrol boats aiming spotlights into every hidden bay, every rocky nook where those enemy boats could hide. Even the small spotter boats were armed with heavy machine guns. Supported by heavily armed gunboats offshore, the Americans made quick work of the Japanese commandos, none of whom reached their targets.

On Mezado Ridge the caves were everywhere, the nerves of the men tested by the certain presence of the Japanese beneath them, as well as the constant sounds of the fight far up in front of them. All through the day the Marines had pressed forward through the ridgelines, and in every case the Japanese had made a good stand, but the enemy could not hold back the power that the Marines brought to the fight. Bennett’s company was one of several charged with the job of mopping up, of making sure that any Japanese soldiers hidden in the caves, in any kind of underground lair, were brought up, or dealt with according to how the Japanese themselves responded. From many of the holes Okinawans emerged first, manic chatter to the interpreters, some begging for mercy, for food, some telling the Marines that soldiers still lurked below, back in the caves. Some of those civilians were led away quickly, grateful for anything, if only the promise of food. But others had stayed below, and when the caves were blown, either by explosives or the blistering fire from the flamethrowers, the Marines were astonished and sickened to find women, children, even babies, horrifying groups of bloody corpses alongside the Japanese soldiers, the same men who had so brutally dominated the Okinawan people and their country.

Before the Marines could begin their own work, muffled shots and grenade blasts would ring out from inside the cave, ending often furious arguments between those Japanese soldiers who favored surrender and those who never would. More often the Marines would discover a cave occupied by corpses who had settled their differences in the bloodiest way possible. The same fate befell those few Japanese soldiers who sought the sanctuary the Americans were offering. Japanese troops emerged from caves, hands high, a show of gratefulness to their captors, but many of those men did not survive long enough to matter. From small spider holes Japanese snipers waited for the opportunity to execute the Japanese soldiers who attempted to surrender. To the disbelief of the Marines, the snipers seemed to regard that mission even above killing their enemy. Marines stood unharmed, startled, while a Japanese prisoner would suddenly drop from an unseen assailant. If surrender was the greatest act of dishonor a Japanese soldier could display, there were Japanese marksmen who would enhance their own honor by eliminating them.

“Easy now, take it slow. Where’s that damn interpreter?”

Captain Bennett’s order was repeated, a shout echoed back across the open ground, and Adams saw one man coming quickly, an uneven run, negotiating his way through the jagged rocks. Bennett waited impatiently, the interpreter struggling to make the climb, and Adams saw the man’s lumpy gut, surprising. But he had seen that before, knew the look of rear echelon. Bennett pointed to the cave, a jagged hole in the rocks, lined with thickly webbed