''The 6th Marine Division on Okinawa'' is a 1945

Kodachrome Kodachrome is the brand name for a color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. For many years, Kodachrome was widely used ...

color

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

produced about the action of the 6th Division during the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

. The film was released shortly after the event. The film begins by outlining the strategic and psychological importance of

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

, including its use as a supply base for Japanese forces in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

, the

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, as well as a "choke hold" over China. It also informs the audience that Okinawa is an actual part of the Japanese homeland, only a few hundred miles south of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

. The movements of the units and their order of battle is carefully traced, from the landings on April 1 to the assault on

Naha is the Cities of Japan, capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 people per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). ...

. Some interesting footage is also shown on life in northern Okinawa soon after liberation, with the locals setting up a democratic government under the US military and opening up schools while battle is raging in the south. Some of the footage includes the use of

flame tank A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the Second World War, dur ...

s and close air support in an attempt to dislodge heavily dug-in Japanese defenders. The film ends with a eulogy for all those who died attempting to secure the island, as Marines visit a gigantic graveyard prior to departing for their next objective.

References

External links

* * 1945 films American World War II propaganda films American documentary films 1940s English-language films Films about the United States Marine Corps 1945 documentary films Battle of Okinawa English-language documentary films English-language war films {{WWII-documentary-film-stub

See also

References

External links