Japan
Atomic Bomb Dome. World Heritage Site.
August 6, 1945 a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped the first deployed atomic bomb in combat over Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb killed around 100,000 upon impact and more later due to radiation. The blast destroyed most of the city. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki, Japan. On August 15, Japan unconditionally surrendered.
Kure, Japan
Kure Maritime Museum, known as the Yamato Museum and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Museum. The Yamato (and its sister ship Musashi) are the largest and most heavily armed battleships ever built.
Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters
The bunker complex was as headquarters for Japanese leadership to direct the Japanese armed forces against the Allied invasion of Japan. The facility was never completed.
Yamato. Picture Public Domain.
Photo of what became later Hiroshima Peace Memorial among the ruins of buildings in Hiroshima, in early October, 1945, photo by Shigeo Hayashi.. Picture Public Domain.
Mushroom cloud above Nagasaki after atomic bombing on August 9, 1945. Picture Public Domain.
“The mystery of the universe had once inhabited these lolling lumps, had given each an identity, a way of walking, perhaps a social habit of address or a way with words or a knack of putting color on canvas. They had been so different, then. Now they were nothing, heaps of nothing. ”
Picture is of two Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment during fighting at Wana Ridge during the Battle of Okinawa, May 1945. Public Domain.
Okinawa
A Japanese Type 89 150mm gun hidden inside a cave defensive system. Public Domain.
U.S.S. Bunker Hill (CV-17) hit by two Kamikazes in 30 seconds on 11 May 1945 off Kyushu. Dead-372. Wounded-264. Public Domain.
This is an illustrative diagram based on U.S. Navy intelligence reports from 1945 meant to illustrate a typical Japanese defensive structure and how they were able to move around while underground. Public Domain.
Luzon in the Philippines and Okinawa, Japan were the two major U.S. Army land campaigns in the Pacific WWII.
“To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning.”…―
Shuri Line
Kakazu Ridge
Hacksaw Ridge
Former Japanese Underground Naval Headquarters
“The Commander’s Room of the underground Naval Headquarters. Ōta committed suicide here.” as detailed in the link.
Attribution: 663highland https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_Japanese_Naval_Underground_Headquaters_Okinawa06s5s3104.jpg
