Oliver stone is a really great guy. But in this case he is wrong, or at least it’s a half truth.

The United States in June was finishing up a battle on Okinawa. The battle of Okinawa was an extremely tough brawl for American forces. The Japanese 32nd army intended to fight a defense in depth campaign where each ridge and hill would take a toll on American forces.

Kakazu, Kakazu west, hacksaw, skyline, Gaga, Ryans, red, dick, rocky craggs, pretzel, chocolate drop, wana draw, wana, 152, horseshoe, half moon, these are the names of ridges that Americans had to take from the 96th, 7th, 77th, infantry divisions and the 1st marine and 6th marine division. The 6th marine division was given the worst one, Sugar Loaf hill. It cost about 3,000 marines to take in a span of 10 days. One marine who fought at Sugar Loaf, LT Henry Cortese I-3-22 looked at sugar loaf before attacking it

“The entire hill was covered in dead marines, some Japanese, but almost all marines. Maybe a few hundred in my view alone”

He would attack and out of his company of 245 men only 3 were able to fight the next day.

These ridges and hills were BRUTAL. I think Tokyo rose sums it best

“Sugar loaf...chocolate drop... strawberry hill... Gee! Those places sound wonderful! You can see the candy cane houses and the white picket fences around them and the candy canes hanging from the trees, their red and white stripes glistening in the sun! But the only thing red about those places is the blood of the Americans. Yes sir, these are the names of the hills in southern Okinawa where the fighting is so close it can get down to the bayonet and sometimes your fist.... I guess it’s natural to idolize the worst places with pretty names to make them seem less awful. Why, sugar loaf hill has changed hands so often it looks like Dante’s inferno. Yes sir! Sugar loaf hill... chocolate drop....Stareberry hill. They sound good don’t they? Only those who’ve been there know what they’re really like.”

Okinawa also was filled with civilians. The Okinawans were caught in a very tough spot with the US 10th army and the Japanese 32nd army fighting between them. It was really difficult in telling the difference between civilians and soldiers so the US often killed civilians on accident. One notable event, more popular in the Okinawan and Japanese histories than western is the “cave of the virgins” where US troops were advancing and mistook a cave of civilian women for hostiles and fumed chemicals in killing a large amount of them.

Some woman, notable on Ie Shima ( where Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese machine guns ) were very fanatical and used suicide tactics combined with children, sometimes their own babies to kill Americans. This happened several more times on Okinawa including around hacksaw ridge.

The Japanese army was also a challenge, they were beaten and still refused to surrender. One Japanese soldier named Masao Murata said

“When the Americans called for soldiers to come out of their caves, they’d put hand grenades under their armpits. Outside they’d get as close as possible to the Americans, throw the grenades and try to flyback into the cave. Not very noble, but there was simply nothing else they could do to resist. Anyway, such tactics only worked once. The Americans learned to order us to raise our hands higher”

Some GIs and Marines didn’t even take prisoners. An uncommon event ( not too uncommon though ) was the killing of those who tried to surrender, they were sick of risking it. Some Japanese prisoners were actually allowed to walk away, the Americans just didn’t want to bring them to the rear and sub machine gunned them to avoid the danger of getting jumped.

The navy also sustained the highest losses it had yet to receive. Before the battle even started they learned it was going to be hell. The USS Franklin was hit by an unexpected hit, all the men were relaxing after constant combat and were taken down an alert, but the radar must’ve messed up because the ship was hit by a Japanese pilot who dropped bombs. All the pilots and crew lined up into mess halls, and parked planes with fuel on the deck... some men were blown off into the sea, some had to jump but as many as 730 killed, 300 wounded. The ship smelled like burned flesh until it got back into port. ( the men who were blown off or jumped were also brought up on desertion charges interestingly. But they were dropped )

This it before the massive kamikaze campaign started. Although your ship was unlikely to get hit, the danger and stress was very unbearable to the navy and over 350 ships, although mostly smaller sunk. Thousands of sailors died, were burned and injured and wounded.

So this is Okinawa. Let’s not forget about Iwo Jima just ending while Okinawa started or the Philippines or Saipan or any of the others.

So the US had to land in Japan, which had similar terrain to Okinawa, and it would yet again, have to fight a hostile populace, a fanatical enemy in hills and ridges where more Americans would be grinned up.

So what about Russia? Well the Japanese didn’t see them as the most important threat. Were they a huge issue, yes. But they didn’t have a navy, and the US and UK did and they were a lot closer. So the Japanese were still prepare for their upcoming battles with the US and Uk. Did the US intend to “threaten” Russia? No, their main purpose was to save American lives, Russia was a future issue but the operation to take japan was much more closer. Were the Americans upset that Russia was threatened by this weapon? No but again, not the main issue.

I really like Oliver stone. He’s a cool guy. But he is EXTREMELY IGNORANT about the battles in the pacific in the last year of the war and it comes across like he is more focused on saying something about “evil American imperialist who wanted to threaten Russia and use japan as a way to do it” which is so far from the truth. In reality, those bombs were dropped to prevent another Okinawa. Where a million allied deaths, the entire Japanese militaries deaths, and god knows how many civilians deaths were A VERY REAL possibility.