Waiting in the now-familiar network of caves and underground bunkers, the Japanese withstood American bombardments only to throw themselves against Allied ground forces in suicidal attacks. Most damaging were the kamikaze air attacks which sunk almost threee dozen American ships. Japan even sacrified its enormous battleship Yamato in an attempt to stave off surrender.
But Okinawa was finally secured by the Americans. This cut off Japanese forces remaining in the south Pacific from the homeland. It also set the stage for the invasion of Japan -- an invasion which never occured because of the use of the atomic bomb.
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