A marine comforts his comrade breaking down after witnessing the death of one of his buddies on an Okinawa hillside.

Amarine comforts his comrade breaking down after witnessing the death of one of his buddies on an Okinawa hillside. 

The marines of the First Division were part of the drive on Shuri Castle in may of 1945.

Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.The most complete tally of deaths during the battle is at the Cornerstone of Peace monument at the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, which identifies the names of each individual who died at Okinawa in World War II. 

As of 2010, the monument lists 240,931 names, including 149,193 Okinawan civilians, 77,166 Imperial Japanese soldiers, 14,009 American soldiers, and smaller numbers of people from South Korea (365), the United Kingdom (82), North Korea (82) and Taiwan (34).

The numbers correspond to recorded deaths during the Battle of Okinawa from the time of the American landings in the Kerama Islands on March 26, 1945, to the signing of the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, in addition to all Okinawan casualties in the Pacific War in the 15 years from the Manchurian Incident, along with those who died in Okinawa from war-related events in the year before the battle and the year after the surrender.234,183 names were inscribed by the time of unveiling and new names are added each year. 

40,000 of the Okinawan civilians killed had been drafted or impressed by the Japanese army and are often counted as combat deaths.

The Americans suffered over 82,000 casualties, including non-battle casualties (psychiatric, injuries, illnesses), of whom over 12,500 were killed or missing. Battle deaths were 4,907 Navy, 4,675 Army, and 2,938 Marine Corps personnel. 

Several thousand personnel who died indirectly (from wounds and other causes) at a later date are not included in the total.

The most famous American casualty was Lieutenant General Buckner, whose decision to attack the Japanese defenses head-on, although extremely costly in American lives, was ultimately successful. 

Four days from the closing of the campaign, Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire, which blew lethal slivers of coral into his body, while inspecting his troops at the front line. 

He was the highest-ranking US officer to be killed by enemy fire during the Second World War. 

The day after Buckner was killed, Brigadier General Easley was killed by Japanese machine gun fire. 

The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle was also killed by Japan

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