The largest amphibious invasion of the Pacific theatre in the Second World War began 70 years ago Wednesday. We recall it by reprinting three stories published 20 years ago marking a visit to the island on the 50th anniversary of the battle.
Day: March 30, 2015
Okinawa: The Final Battle Revisited
In 1995, these old men have returned to the site of the final battle, where many lost their youth, their innocence, their buddies.
Little they saw of Okinawa today is what they have seen these past 50 years in their vivid, often painful memories of that bloodiest battle in the Pacific during World War II. For my father and for the other infantry veterans who returned to Okinawa in late June, 1995, to commemorate the battle’s 50th anniversary, there is scant evidence of the scale of tragedy that was here.
Okinawa: Remembering all the dead
This article first ran July 5, 1995 in the Towson Times and other Patuxent Publishing newspapers in Baltimore County. It is part of a package of four stories marking the 70th anniversary of the biggest battle of the war in the Pacific. Unlike some Okinawans, Masahide Ota does not want to forget the battle. In 1945, the 20-year-old Ota was mobilized as a member of the Blood and Iron Scouts for Japan’s emperor.
Okinawa: It was kill or be killed
This article first ran July 5, 1995 in the Towson Times and other Patuxent Publishing newspapers in Baltimore County. It is part of a package of four stories marking the 70th anniversary of the biggest battle of the war in the Pacific.
If you weren’t on Okinawa, you just won’t understand what went on there.
That’s how many of the veterans of the battle feel about their experiences, and why they’ve shared them so little, even with wives and children.
State Roundup, March 30, 2015
Senate scales back tax relief proposals; budget conference this week; nurse practitioners seek independence; when it rains, is it a fee or a tax?; funding for school buildings; move to tax online hotel bookings stirs debate; call to replace court commissioners with judges; Maryland overbilled feds on health care; University of Maryland study says state faces “triple bottom line” to spur growth; O’Malley says Clinton should have no coronation; Gov. Hogan is looking for a few good — local — recipes.
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