The Kadena Story Okinawa in the Aftermath of April Fool's Day of 1945ay by Kazumi Heshiki

Okinawa was one of the last battlegrounds of the Second World War. The three–month long warfare, which started on April 1, 1945 – a beautiful Easter Sunday according to American war correspondent Ernie Pyle – ended with hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides – including that of Pyle himself. When the winners and the losers left the scene to reappear in later acts, telling endless stories of their own, Okinawans – the residents of the islands – who lost more lives than either of the American or Japanese troops, were left behind on the dark stage to be little noticed by the world audience.