The Washington National Records Center in Suitland, Maryland, holds
primary documents of the Okinawa campaign. The III Amphibious Corps
After Action Report provides the best overview, while reports of
infantry battalions contain vivid day-by-day accounts. The Marine Corps
Oral History Collection contains 36 interviews with Okinawa veterans,
among them Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.; Pedro A. del Valle; Alan Shapley;
Edward W. Snedeker; and Wilburt S. Brown. The Marine Corps Historical
Center also holds Oliver P. Smith’s outspoken account of his Okinawa
experiences as Marine Deputy Chief of Staff, Tenth Army, as well as the
original interrogation report of Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, Operations
Officer of the Japanese _Thirty-second Army_.
Among the official histories, the most useful are Benis M. Frank and
Henry I. Shaw, Jr., _Victory and Occupation_, vol V, _History of U.S.
Marine Corps Operations in World War II_ (Washington: HistBr, G-3 Div,
HQMC, 1968); Charles J. Nichols, Jr., and Henry I. Shaw, Jr., _Okinawa:
Victory in the Pacific_ (Washington: HistBr, G-3 Div, HQMC, 1955); and
Roy E. Appleman, et al, _Okinawa: The Last Battle_ (Washington: OCMH,
Department of the Army, 1948). Two excellent unit histories provide
detail and flavor: George McMillan, _The Old Breed: A History of the
1st Marine Division in World War II_ and Bevan G. Cass, _History of the
6th Marine Division_ (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948). Jeter
A. Isley and Philip A. Crowl provide an analytical chapter on Okinawa
in _U.S. Marines and Amphibious War_ (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1951). Robert Sherrod provides lively coverage of Marine Air
units in the campaign in his _History of Marine Corps Aviation in World
War II_ (Washington: Combat Forces Press, 1948).
More recent accounts of note include George Feifer, _Tennozan: The
Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb_ (New York: Ticknor & Fields,
1992), and Thomas M. Huber, _Japan’s Battle of Okinawa, April-June
1945_ (Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Army Command and Staff College,
1990). A particularly dramatic, first-person account is “A Hill Called
Sugar Loaf” by 1stSgt Edmund H. DeMar, USMC (Ret), in _Leatherneck_
(Jun95).
The author benefited from interviews with LtGen Victor H. Krulak, USMC
(Ret), BGen Frederick P. Henderson, USMC (Ret), Mr. Benis M. Frank, and
Dr. Eugene B. Sledge.
The author is also indebted to MajGen James L. Day, USMC (Ret)
and LtCol Owen T. Stebbins, USMCR (Ret), for extended personal
interviews--and to the entire staff of the Marine Corps Historical
Center for its professional, courteous support.