The number of human beings killed as a direct or indirect result of World War II is staggering.
Honestly, my jaw drops every time I read into it, and I can't help but take a step back
and contemplate how those figures are far, far more than just that. Every one of them
represents a human being — someone's daughter, someone's son
Military persons, of course, make up a portion of these figures, and in this series, we're
going to look into not only military deaths, but some of the most catastrophic military
casualties — which we'll define as including deaths, injuries, illnesses, captures, and
even desertions. We'll be looking through a fairly broad scope, considering freakish
casualties to military units on the scale of formations to commands while keeping that
scope pointed at identifiable military operations rather than attempting to encompass the war
as a whole. It's also important to note that it's pretty much impossible to calculate casualties
with precision, and the actual military casualties may be far less or more than the figures gathered
for this series.
In this second entry to the series, our scope still encompasses the Asia-Pacific War and
all the operations therein.
The Battle of Saipan began just after the start of Operation Overlord. The U.S. opened
with a bombardment from the sea on the 13th of June 1944, then deposited Marine and Army
divisions on the island's beaches on the 15th and 16th. Savage fighting took place on the
shore, and then the Japanese retreated inland, using terrain to their advantage. The battle
stretched out, as it so often did against the Japanese, though the Americans eventually
pushed their enemy into the northern part of the island, where Japanese command accepted
defeat and ordered suicidal banzai charges. The charges inflicted heavy casualties on
the Americans, though they were suicidal, and America came out on top. The loss of Saipan
was the beginning of the end for Japan in World War II, as it put American bombers in
range of the Japanese Home Islands.
U.S. forces were made up of the V Amphibious Corps and the 5th Fleet and weighed in at
about 71,000.
Lieutenant General Saito Yoshitsugu commanded the Japanese 43rd Infantry Division and the
47th Independent Mixed Brigade, as well as a mixed bag of other regiments and battalions;
these combined to a force of about 32,000.
The belligerents fought on beaches, swamps, jungles, cliffs, mountains, caves, sugarcane
fields, and room-to-room in towns, and often in the night. Like on Iwo Jima, machine-guns,
mortars, and flamethrowers saw heavy use, and hand-to-hand combat was inevitable.
U.S. 1st Lieutenant John C. Chapin describes the scene on the landing beach: "All around
us was the chaotic debris of bitter combat. Jap and marine bodies lying in mangled and
grotesque positions; blasted and burnt-out pillboxes; the burning wrecks of LVTs that
had been knocked out by Jap high velocity fire; the acrid smell of high explosives;
the shattered trees; and the churned-up sand littered with discarded equipment."
On the 25th of June 1944, Harold G. Epperson threw his body on top of a grenade to save
his squad. For his sacrifice, a Medal of Honor was presented to his mother in his hometown,
with 8,500 people from the town attending the presentation.
Accepting defeat, and just before cut out his guts, Lieutenant General Saito Yoshitsugu
ordered the infamous banzai charge, and said, "There is no longer any distinction between
civilians and troops. It would be better for them to join in the attack with bamboo spears
than be captured." Coupled with propaganda that basically said "it was better to die
than be captured by the Americans," Saito's inspired many to take their own lives
Guy Gabaldon, the famous U.S. Marine who captured and saved more than 1,000 Japanese during
the battle, recalled what he saw: "Many Japs, both military and civilians, committed suicide.
It was sad to see children struggling with their parents pleading not to be thrown off
the cliffs — 'Please father, do not kill me. I do not want to die!' These parents were
dangerous, desperate people who wanted nothing more than to kill the 'American Savages' who
they thought would roast and eat their children."
While this was a costly victory for the Americans, most the Japanese 43rd Infantry Division,
the 47th Independent Mixed Brigade, and the other Japanese regiments and battalions defending
Iwo Jima were killed or killed themselves. Of 29,000 Japanese deaths, 5,000 of them were
suicides, and that number includes only military suicides.
After the Japanese inflicted 145,000 casualties on the Allies in the Malayan Campaign, they
first bombarded Singapore then — in February 1942, over the Straits of Johor — invaded
it. Having deceived the commander of the Allied forces in Singapore and gained a foothold
on the island, the Japanese closed in, driving the inexperienced — though more numerous
— defenders back, cutting their water supply, and bombing the city. Feeling the heat, Allied
command ordered a surrender, despite the desperate opposition of British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, who said: "There must at this stage be no thought of saving the troops or sparing
the population. The battle must be fought to the bitter end at all costs. [...] Commanders
and senior officers should die with their troops. The honour of the British Empire and
of the British Army is at stake."
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival commanded around 85,000 inexperienced and/or ill-equipped
infantrymen. This command — The Malaya Command — included the Indian III Corps, the Australian
8th Division, the British 18th Division, the Malay Regiment, the SSVF, and Dalforce.
In the other corner, General Tomoyuki Yamashita commanded the Japanese 25th Army, which was
more than 30,000 strong and made up of the Imperial Guard Division, the 5th Infantry
Division, the 18th Infantry Division, and the 3rd Air Division, as well as a light tank
brigade.
Singapore suffered greatly under Japanese rule, which lasted three and a half years,
with many British and Australian troops being locked up in Changi Prison. Others were shipped
overseas and put into forced labour; many perished on the "hell ships" on the way over.
Others were bayoneted, beaten to death, or doused in fuel and burnt alive as soon as
they surrendered.
Various Australian POWs in Singapore's Changi Prison speak of something funny that happened
there
On the Japanese emperor's birthday, Aussie POWs were made to line up with their mugs,
and "Along came a Jap officer resplendent with gold braid and campaign ribbons, sword
swinging by his side, and he stepped up onto a raised platform specially placed in front
of the parade so that he could address us at eye level. 'Today is the emperor of Japan's
birthday and we are to celebrate.'"
Their mugs were then filled with sake, and "Then out stepped Vern Rae, a rugged 15th
Battery intelligence officer, hailing from the tall cedar country of Tasmania. In his
big booming voice he thundered out: 'Boys, we will drink to the emperor. FAAAARK the
emperor.'
A great roar went up from the Australians, 'The emperor — FAAAARK the emperor.' And
the Australians quaffed down their half-filled pannikins of sake.
The Japanese officer dutifully completed his toast. 'Ah so ... FAAAARK the emperor.'"
Almost 85,000 Allied personnel from the Malaya Command were captured, and about 5,000 were
wounded or killed, while Japanese casualties totalled 5,000. The Fall of Singapore devastated
Churchill; he called it "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history."
In March 1945, the U.S. were preparing to capture Okinawa. The island was the last major
stepping stone to the Japanese Home Islands, and the Japanese dug into it like they did
the island of Iwo Jima. On the 25th of March, the U.S. Navy bombarded it in preparation
for landing, though, like in Iwo Jima, these strikes were not enough to collapse Japanese
tunnels and bunkers. Landing on the beach, the Americans split north and south, taking
Japanese air bases and outposts, while, off the coast, the Yamato and nine smaller Japanese
warships were put under the waves by U.S. aircraft. Back on land, the Yanks that went
north pushed the Japanese into a corner and pacified that side of the island, while those
that went south encountered heavy resistance. Between the 6th of April and the 22nd of June,
almost 1,900 Japanese kamikaze aircraft bore down on the U.S. Navy off Okinawa, killing
and wounding many.
To take the island, the Americans combined units of the U.S. Army with units of the Marine
Corps under the 10th Army, and this new army was supported by the 5th Fleet. This gave
the Americans the numbers, with the 10th Army sitting around 180,000, and naval forces at
around 18,000.
The 32nd Army, around 9,000 troops from the Imperial Japanese Navy, and around 24,000
local Ryukyuan people drafted into a militia made up the Japanese garrison on Okinawa;
this combined force of about 100,000 fell under the command of Lieutenant General Mitsuru
Ushijima.
The belligerents fought on elevated, rocky terrain, and in and out of caves, pillboxes,
bunkers, and machine-gun and mortar death-traps. When the monsoons came, they turned the battlefield
into a soupy graveyard — bodies rotted in the mud, and maggots crawled out of flesh
and earth as if from hell itself. U.S. veteran Eugene Sledge recalled the environment, stating:
"If a [U.S.] Marine slipped and slid down the back slope of the muddy ridge, he was
apt to reach the bottom vomiting. I saw more than one man lose his footing and slip and
slide all the way to the bottom only to stand up horror-stricken as he watched in disbelief
while fat maggots tumbled out of his muddy dungaree pockets, cartridge belt, legging
lacings, and the like."
Desmond Doss, born in Virginia to a "homemaker" and shoe-factory worker and raised a Seventh-day
Adventist, entered military service in April, 1942, though, due to his beliefs, refused
to kill or even carry a weapon, and thus became a medic. Doss was wounded four times while
rescuing between 50 and 100 wounded men from Hacksaw Ridge on Okinawa, receiving a Medal
of Honor for his actions.
Yoshiko Shimabukuro, a female Japanese student, was mobilised as a battlefield nurse in 1945.
Seventy years after Okinawa, she spoke about her experience tending to the wounded, saying:
"They had legs ripped off, their intestines were falling out, faces missing. We simply
had no idea what to do. I was 17. We all thought we would be back at school in a week."
Of the 100,000 or so Japanese under the 32nd Army, most were killed, and while the U.S.
suffered only around 12,500 killed or missing, its casualties were up around 82,000, with
many of these being non-battle casualties such as psychological damage, injuries, and
illnesses.
After the Americans captured the islands of Leyte and Mindoro, they moved onto the Phillippine
Island of Luzon. The assault was launched on the 9th of January 1945 under the codename
"S-day," leading with a pre-landing bombardment on Japanese positions, which was answered
with kamikaze attacks. Over the next few days, U.S. forces landed and set up a beachhead,
and on the 15th, a second landing took place, closer to the focus of the invasion — Manila.
By the 11th of February, the Americans and their Filipino allies had captured Japanese
outer defences and encircled the city. They then cleared out the city, though small Japanese
forces scattered throughout Luzon continued to put up resistance right up until the unconditional
surrender of Japan. Japanese casualties were immense, with very few prisoners, though the
atrocities inflicted on civilian population by the Japanese were straight-up evil. We
won't be covering those in this video, however, as, again, our focus is casualties to military
units.
General Walter Krueger commanded the U.S. 6th Army, which was some 175,000 strong and
supported by the 3rd and 7th Fleet.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita commanded around 275,000 troops from the Imperial Japanese
Army in three defensive groups, with the largest group, Shobu Group, numbering 152,000.
The Battle of Luzon raged hardest in the streets of Manilla, obliterating the city and inflicting
many civilian casualties. Fighting took place between the ruins of architectural and cultural
landmarks. Men killed men with flamethrowers, grenades, and bazookas. Tanks rolled over
rubble and blew holes in buildings, and artillery strikes turned anything left standing into
dust. It was all-out urban warfare, building to building — the worst in the Pacific War.
A historian, William Manchester, wrote, "The devastation of Manila was one of the great
tragedies of World War II. [...] Seventy percent of the utilities, 75 percent of the factories,
80 percent of southern residential district and 100 percent of the business district were
razed."
Army Sergeant Richard Foss of the 11st Cavalry Division experienced the landing on Leyte,
admitting, "I don't understand how any of us survived that ordeal." Foss also spoke
specific incident during the landing which involved one of his friends: "Just as I fell
to the ground, I glanced over to look to see how Johnny Baxter was doing. I wish I had
not done that. I was just in time to see blood shoot from his stomach. After he fell to the
ground, blood squirted out of his buttocks like water coming out of a water faucet. The
bullet that hit him went through his body. He looked over at me said very weakly, 'Help
me.'"
Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi gathered the survivors of the Manila Naval Defense Force in his headquarters
at the Agriculture Building in Manila during the end stages of the battle. Before he committed
suicide, he apologized to the remnants of the force and told them: “If anyone has
the courage to escape, please do so. If not, please take your lives here.” These words
were recorded in the diary of Lieutenant Hoichiro Miyazawa of the Japanese Navy.
Between 192,000 to 205,000 of soldiers under Yamashita's command were killed throughout
the Battle of Luzon, with almost 17,000 of those deaths occurring in the Battle of Manilla
alone. To put it in perspective, only 9,000 or so Japanese
were captured.