Good morning,
It’s another mild day for Whitewater, with a predicated high of seventy-eight degrees, and breezy conditions.
It’s VIP Day at Lakeview School. Today is also the end of the academic quarter, with one quarter yet to go in this school year.
On this day in 1945, the United States began the invasion of Okinawa. The New York TImes reported on the landing:
Guam, Monday, April 2 — The United States Tenth Army landed yesterday morning on Okinawa, main island of the Ryukyus, 362 miles from the Japanese home islands. This morning found the invaders three miles inland and holding two airfields, with the defenders retreating all along the eight-mile landing line.
The veteran doughboys and marines met amazingly light resistance from the minute they landed yesterday at 8:30 A.M. They pushed up the steep slopes from the landing beaches with ease, although the shore was dominated by enemy guns on high ground.
Marines took the Yontan airfield at the northern end of the beachhead while Army troops captured the Katena airdrome in the southern area.
Action in Okinawa was to last for nearly three months, until defeat of the Japanese on the island in June.
US Flag raised over Shuri castle on Okinawa. Braving Japanese sniper fire, US Marine Lieutenant Colonel R.P. Ross, Jr. places on American flag on a parapet of Shuri castle on May 29, 1945.