This was the largest enemy troop movement ever seen in the Okinawa campaign.{448}
The reports of the aerial observers on the 26th were perplexing. Enemy troops were moving in all directions. The majority, however, were headed south; the main exception was the largest column, which was moving north. The heaviest movement was in an area about five miles south of Shuri. It was noted that artillery and armor were moving south. What did it all mean? One careful appraisal concluded that the Japanese were taking advantage of the bad weather, poor aerial observation, and the general stalling of the American attack to carry out a relief of tired troops in the lines by fresh reserves from the south. It was believed that artillery was being moved to new emplacements for greater protection and for continued support of the Shuri battle.{449}
The next day, 27 May, little movement was noted behind the enemy's lines in the morning, but in the afternoon from 2,000 to 3,000 troops were seen moving in both directions at the southern end of the island.{450}
After the reports of enemy movement on 26 May by aerial observers, General Buckner issued on 27 May an order directing that both corps "initiate without delay strong and unrelenting pressure to ascertain probable intentions and keep him [the Japanese] off balance. Enemy must not be permitted to establish himself securely on new positions with only nominal interference."{451}In view of the preponderance of other evidence it seems that this order was purely precautionary, and that there was no real conviction in the American command that the Japanese were actually engaged in a withdrawal from Shuri.
On 28 May the Tenth Army intelligence officer observed in a staff meeting that it "now looks as though the Japanese thinks holding the line around north of Shuri is his best bet....It is probable that we will gradually surround the Shuri position."{452} General Buckner indicated at this meeting that he was concerned about the possibility of a Japanese counterattack against the 7th Division on the left flank. He asked, "What has Arnold in reserve against counterattack?"{453} On the following day, however, General Buckner said it looked as though the Japanese were trying to pull south but that they had made the decision too late.{454} On the day before, a total of 112 trucks and vehicles and approximately 1,000 enemy troops had been observed on the move to the south and southeast, in the vicinity of Itoman on the west coast, and around Iwa and Tomui in front of the Yaeju-Dake, a strong terrain position in the south.{455}On 28 May Marine patrols found evidence of recently evacuated enemy positions west of Shuri.{456} On 29 May there was almost no aerial observation because of a zero ceiling, and on 30 May practically no movement was seen behind the enemy's lines.
American opinion on the meaning of the Japanese movements crystallized on 30 May. After a meeting with III Amphibious Corps and XXIV Army Corps intelligence officers the Tenth Army intelligence officer reported at a staff meeting on the evening of 30 May that they had reached a consensus that the "enemy was holding the Shuri lines with a shell, and that the bulk of the troops were elsewhere." He estimated that there were 5,000 enemy troops in what he hoped would be the Shuri pocket, and stated that he did not know where the bulk of the Japanese troops were.{457} At a staff meeting held on the evening of 31 May, it was suggested that the enemy would make his next line the high ground from Naha-Ko and the Oroku Peninsula on the west to Baten-Ko below Yonabaru on the east. At this meeting General Buckner stated that "he [General Ushijima] made his decision to withdraw from Shuri two days too late."{458} During the following days it became clear that the Americans had underestimated the scope of the enemy's tactical plan and the extent to which it had been executed.
Once the Japanese decision to withdraw had been made, steps were taken to carry out the withdrawal in an orderly manner. The major part of the transportation fell to the 24th Transport Regiment of the 24th Division. This unit had been exceptionally well trained in night driving in Manchuria, and as a result of its fine performance in the withdrawal from Shuri it received a unit citation from the 32d Army. When the withdrawal from Shuri began only 80 of the 150 trucks of the transport regiment were left. One hundred and fifty Okinawan
Boeitai helped to load the vehicles. The formal order from 32d Army headquarters to withdraw from Shuri was apparently issued on 24 May.{459}
The movement of supplies and the wounded began first, one truck unit moving out the night of 22 May. Communication units proceeded between 22 and 28 May to Mabuni and Hill 89, where the 32d Army proposed to establish its new command post. The 36th Signal Regiment left Shuri on 26 May and arrived at Mabuni by way of Tsukasan on 28 May. Other units moved out early. The 22d Independent Antitank Gun Battalion left the Shuri area on the night of 24.-25 May, withdrawing to the Naha-Yonabaru valley area, and at the end of the month continued on south to the southern end of the island. Remnants of the 27th Tank Regiment began to withdraw from Shuri on 26 May, passing through Kamizato. At the same time the 103th and 105th Machine Cannon Battalions left the Shuri and Shichina areas and began the movement south, hand-carrying some of their guns.{460}
Of the major combat units of the 32d Army, the 62d Division left first. It began moving out of Shuri on 26 May, two days ahead of the original schedule, fighting delaying actions in the zone of the 7th Division, where the bulge had been pushed deep to the southwest of Yonabaru. The 44th Independent Mixed Brigade on the left flank in front of the 6th and 1st Marine Divisions was to begin withdrawing from the front lines on 26 May, but, because of the failure of naval ground troops to arrive and take over the lines, the evacuation of the front positions by the brigade had to be delayed two days, and it was not until 28 May that the withdrawal began in the western part of the line. The units of the brigade assembled behind the lines and made the move south in mass on the night of 1-2 June. One battalion, the 3d, withdrew directly from Shuri. The24th Division remained behind longest. Elements of the division fought in front of Shuri as late as 30 May, and the division headquarters itself did not leave Shuri until 29 May. The mortar battalions supporting the Shuri front had for the most part already left, their main movement south having taken place between 27 and 29 May.{461}
The evidence is conflicting concerning the date when the 32d Army headquarters left Shuri. The cook for the 32d Army staff said that the Army headquarters left Shuri on 26 May and arrived at the Hill 89 headquarters cave near Mabuni on 29 May. Officers of the 62d Division confirmed this, stating that the Army headquarters left Shuri on 26 May, the same day the division itself started to move south. On the other hand, Colonel Yahara, 32d Army operations officer, and Mr. Shimada, secretary to General Cho, stated that the Army headquarters did not move from Shuri until the night of 29 May. On the whole the evidence seems to indicate that the Army headquarters moved from Shuri before 29 May. On that day elements of the 1st Marine Division entered Shuri Castle, the 24th Division headquarters left Shuri, and only the last of the rear guard units were still in the line as a holding force. It seems improbable that the 32d Army headquarters would have remained behind so long. It appears likely that the Army headquarters left Shuri at night between 26 and 28 May, possibly as early as 26 May.{462}
The main movement of 32d Army combat units out of the inner Shuri defense zone took place from 26 to 28 May, some of the units, particularly the 62d Division, fighting as they went. The 3d Independent Antitank Battalion, the 2d Battalion of the 22d Regiment of the 24th Division, and part of the 17th Independent Machine Gun Battalion formed the principal components of the final holding force in front of Shuri, 29-31 May, after the 32d Regiment withdrew.{463}
As the battle lines tightened around Shuri at the end of May, the 1st Marine Division on the northwest and the 77th Division on the north and northeast stood closest to the town. Patrols reported no signs of weakness in the enemy's determination to hold the Shuri position. Invariably they drew heavy fire when they tried to move forward. There was one exception to the reports of the patrols. On 28 May a patrol brought back to the 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, the news that Shuri Ridge, the high ground south of Wana Draw, seemed to be held more lightly than formerly. (See Map No. 49.)
SHURI HEIGHTS, at southwest corner of the city, was approached by the marines from the low ground at right. First building to be taken was the Shuri Normal School (upper left). (Photo taken 28 April 1945.)
At 0730 on 29 May the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, left its lines and started forward toward Shuri Ridge, where patrol action the previous day had indicated a possible weakness in the enemy's lines. The high ground was quickly occupied. The 1st Battalion was now on the ridge that lay at the eastern edge of Shuri. Shuri Castle itself lay from 700 to 800 yards almost straight west across the Corps and division boundary. From all appearances, this part of the Shuri perimeter was undefended and the castle could be captured by merely walking up to it. The battalion commander immediately requested permission from his regimental commander to cross the Corps boundary and go into Shuri Castle. The request was approved, and at mid-morning Company A of the 5th Marines started toward the spot that had been so long a symbol of Japanese strength on Okinawa. At 1015 Shuri Castle was occupied by Company A.{464} The Marine unit entered Shuri through a gap in the covering forces caused by the withdrawal of the 3d Battalion, 15th Independent Mixed Regiment of the 44th Independent Mixed Brigade, in the course of the Japanese retreat from Shuri.{465} This seems to have been the only notable instance of confusion and mistake in the Japanese withdrawal operation as a whole. Everywhere else around Shuri the Japanese still held their covering positions in the front lines.
As a result of the unexpected entrance into Shuri, the 1st Marine Division at 0930 ordered the 1st Marines to bypass Wana Draw, leaving its position in the line next to the 77th Division, and to move around to the southwest to relieve the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, in Shuri. This move was carried out with the 3d Battalion leading and the 1st Battalion following. Enemy positions were bypassed on the right, and by night the two battalions had established a perimeter in the south of Shuri.
The elements of the 1st Marine Division which entered Shuri Castle had crossed over into the 77th Division zone of action and line of fire without giving that unit notice that such a movement was under way. The 77th Division learned of the move barely in time to cancel an air strike on the Shuri Castle area which it had scheduled.{466}
The next day, the Marine units at Shuri Castle and south of Shuri did not move, except for small patrols that were turned back by heavy machine-gun and 47-mm. antitank fire a few hundred yards north of the castle. Vehicles could not reach the marines in Shuri and their supplies were critically low. Carrying parties of replacement troops formed an almost unbroken line from the west coast dumps all the way to Shuri. Many men collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Five air drops through heavy clouds to the marines in Shuri relieved somewhat their critical supply situation on 30 May.{467}
Map No. 50: Fall of Shuri
The entrances to the caves under Shuri Castle were still held by the enemy at 1330 on 30 May, and no additional ground had been taken in Shuri itself.{468} The two Marine battalions, dug in, merely formed a pocket within the Japanese perimeter on which the enemy's rear guard was fighting the holding battle around Shuri. The occupation of Shuri Castle did not cause these Japanese to withdraw from their covering positions or result in the occupation of Shuri itself; nor did it, so far as is known, affect the enemy's plans. The marines themselves had all they could do to get food and water and some ammunition up to their position in order to stay.
Although the holding party at 100 Meter Hill repulsed the 306th Infantry on 30 May when it attacked across the Marine line, elsewhere across the Shuri front key positions were wrested from the enemy in what obviously was a breaking up of the Japanese rear-guard action. Now for the first time there was convincing proof along the front lines that the Japanese had withdrawn from Shuri. (See Map No. 50.)
Dorothy Hill, a fortress directly east of Shuri and a tower of strength in the enemy's inner line for the past two weeks, was attacked by the 3d Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Division. The first platoon to reach the base of the hill was pinned down by heavy fire, the platoon leader and all noncommissioned officers being wounded. Other platoons maneuvered into position and finally one squad reached the crest at the right end. This entering wedge enabled two companies to reach the top, from which they discovered three levels of caves on the reverse slope. They went to work methodically, moving from right to left along the top level, burning and blasting each cave and dugout, the flame-thrower and satchel-charge men covered by riflemen. When work on the top level was finished, the second level of caves and tunnels received similar treatment, and then the third and lowest level. That night fifteen Japanese who had survived the day's fighting crawled out of the blasted caves and were killed by Americans from their foxholes. A great amount of enemy equipment, including ten destroyed 150-mm- guns and twenty-five trucks, was found on the south (reverse) side of Dorothy Hill, testifying to the enemy fire power at this strong point. On 30 May, the 77th Division also took Jane Hill on its left flank and then almost unopposed took Tom Hill, the highest point of ground in the Shuri area, by 1700.{469}
For nine days elements of the 96th Division had been stalemated at the base of Hen Hill, just northeast of Shuri. On the 30th, Company F and one platoon of Company G, 383d Infantry, resumed the attack on Hen Hill. Pfc. Clarence B. Craft, a rifleman from Company G, was sent out ahead with five companions to test the Japanese positions. As he and his small group started up the slope, they were brought under heavy fire from Japanese just over the crest, and a shower of grenades fell on them. Three of the men were wounded and the other two were stopped. Craft, although a new replacement and in his first action, kept on going, tossing grenades at the crest. From just below the crest he threw two cases of grenades that were passed up to him from the bottom, those of the enemy going over his head or exploding near him. He then leaped to the crest and fired at point-blank range into the Japanese in a trench a few feet below him. Spurred by Craft's example, other men now came to his aid. Reloading, Craft pursued the Japanese down the trench, wiped out a machine gun nest, and satchel-charged the cave into which the remaining Japanese had retreated. Altogether, in the taking of Hen Hill as a result of Craft's action, about seventy Japanese were killed, at least twenty-five of whom were credited to Craft himself. This daring action won him the Congressional Medal of Honor.{470}
To the left (east), Company F at the same time engaged in a grenade battle for Hector Hill, using ten cases of grenades in the assault on the crest. It was finally won after a satchel charge was hurled over the top and lit in the enemy trench on the other side, parts of Japanese bodies and pieces of enemy equipment hurtling into the sky in the blast. Hen and Hector Hills had fallen by 1400.{471}
On the 96th Division's left rapid advances were made on 30 May. Roger Hill was seized when the Japanese failed to man their combat positions quickly enough after an artillery barrage that had driven them to cover. They were killed to a man by the infantry, which surprised them when they tried to reach their fighting positions. Sgt. Richard Hindenburg alone killed six of the enemy with his BAR. The 3d Battalion, 381st Infantry, went down the western slope of the Conical hogback to find from 75 to 100 dead Japanese on the reverse slope of Cutaway Hill. At last the ad Battalion, 383d Infantry, reached Love Hill and dug in, although scattered fire was still received from a machine gun in a nook of Charlie Hill and there were a few live Japanese on Love itself. In the afternoon the 3d Battalion, 383d Infantry, left its foxholes on Oboe, where it had experienced so great an ordeal, and proceeded down the reverse slope of the hill, finding only a few scattered Japanese. That night the 383d Infantry expressed a heartfelt sentiment when it reported "infinite relief to have Conical Hill behind us." Although there had been suicidal stands in a few places by the last of the holding force, the advances had been rapid.{472}
SHURI, photographed 28 April (above) and 23 May 1945 (below). Ruins shown in lower picture include Methodist Church and a 2-story concrete structure (circle A). Dotted outline in photos indicates the castle wall.