what is not widely known is that more people died during the battle of okinawa than all those killed during the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. to protect mainland japan. so ever since that battle of okinawa, okinawan people say we were sort of, what do you call it sacrifice? yes. uh-huh. masaharu ota is the former
isolated mainland. while japan as it existed then was isolationist, racially and ethnically, culturally and every other way, the ryukyu kingdom was not. they were more open, more multiculture, more used to and predisposed to dealing with the outside world and its influences. today, just a short ferry ride from the main island, a feeling of that long-gone empire remains. kumejima is a small island that has been largely untouched by the changes in the world. people farm and fish as they always did. the war never came here? no. these are kumejima residents and friends of james. they suffered very little damage in the war.
dried sea snake wrapped in kombu and slow simmered. burdock root slow cooked. okinawan taro, flash cooked and dressed with sugar and soy. and shoulder dredged in black sesame then steamed. you have described that you were shocked and surprised to see the japanese soldiers, their treatment of okinawans was not good during the battle. after the united states abandoned okinawa, the defense
and no military bases. no american up until 72, there was an american base. there was. but then in 72, the base was taken away. now nothing. only the japanese self-defense forces now. what do people do here? agriculture? growing sugarcane? tourism. fishing. develop here and have the locals been able to resist that impulse? they have rich lives. they have everything they need. they have produce from the land, the sea. they don t need much else. i ve been invited to a beach barbecue, kumejima style. go big, or go home. to eat some fresh caught tuna
on april 1st, 1945, a u.s. invasion fleet of nearly 1,500 ships, a landing force of 182,000 people, that s 75,000 more than normandy, approached okinawa. what came next was what okinawans called a typhoon of steel. having island hopped across the pacific, allied forces saw okinawa as a key base for fleet anchorage, troop staging and air operations for the final push into the japanese mainland and victory. the fighting was brutal for both sides. the cost in lives and resources for the allied forces was tremendous. and when it was over, military planners looked at the mainland, looked at what okinawa had cost them, and projected even more appalling losses. what came next, we all know.