We had to kill 110,000 Japanese before we took Okinawa, and when the officers of the Japanese are killed- or defeated- they commit suicide. They cost us 12,000 men and they had to kill 110,000 Japs. And it's a terrible thing- don't know what you're gonna do with any crazy outfit like that except all you can do is to destroy them, and that's too bad.

Anyone who knew our military installation in Okinawa knew it was a room full of gasoline waiting for someone to strike a match. We had forty-two bases on the island with more than twenty thousand personnel. All of them were living and conducting exercises right up against Okinawan civilian neighborhoods.

Okinawa

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