Jun 21, 2025
Spiritually Speaking at the Movies: Today, June 22, is the 80th anniversary of the ending of the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific during WWII. The 82-day battle took the lives of 110,000 Japanese soldiers and up to 26,000 Japanese civilians either pressed into military service or pressured into suicide to avoid capture by the Americans.
Spiritually Speaking at the Movies recommends “Hacksaw Ridge,” (2016 by Mel Gibson) the story of U.S. Army medic PFC Desmond Doss who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Okinawa. In the face of a fierce enemy, Doss saved the lives of 70 Americans during two nights — and even some Japanese combatants — for medical treatments. The amazing story of faith under fire is remarkable because it is true. If it were fiction, no one would believe it.
A “most memorable” line in the film is when Doss says, “Please, Lord. Help me get one more.”
About 11 thousand-plus U.S. Navy, Army and Marine soldiers lost their lives taking Okinawa, considered one of the “home islands” by the Japanese. The highest ranking American officer of the Pacific War, Lt. General Simon B. Buckner Jr., was killed on Okinawa on June 18th, three days before hostilities ceased, a testament to the lasting ferocity of the campaign.
A side-note: The fierce, “until-the-death” resistance of Japanese military and the brutal deaths of their civilians played a hand in deciding the use of the atomic bomb to end similar scenarios during the planned invasion of Japan, in August of 1945. Mercifully, despite the brutal end, that invasion and ensuing nation-wide bloodbath never had to take place.
PPS; My Father-in-Law, Roy Smith was in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific for the entire war, and lived in Okinawa during the Korean War, as did my future wife, Janet. He is how I knew about General Buckner.