Mitsuru Ushijima

Mitsuru Ushijima was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army who commanded the Thirty-Second Army on Okinawa in 1945. A career officer and former military educator, he was given responsibility for the defence of the island against the expected American invasion.

Ushijima adopted a defence-in-depth strategy that avoided wasting the main force on the beaches and instead turned southern Okinawa into a prolonged fortified battlefield. As organised resistance collapsed in June 1945, he and his chief of staff Isamu Chō died by suicide.

In Jeff Shaara’s The Final Storm, in spring 1945, American forces invade Okinawa, the last major stepping-stone before the Japanese home islands. Chester Nimitz directs the naval campaign while General Mitsuru Ushijima prepares a defence based on fortified positions, attrition and refusal to surrender. Marines and soldiers confront mud, caves, artillery and kamikaze attacks during months of severe fighting. Historical accounts that place Mitsuru Ushijima in context include Saul David’s Crucible of Hell.