On April 1, 1945 with the battle of Okinawa beginning, fourteen-year-old native Okinawan Hideki, drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps, is handed two grenades and told to go kill American soldiers; small for his age Hideki does not really want to kill anyone, he just wants to find his family, and his struggle across the island will finally bring him face-to-face with Ray, a marine in his very first battle--and the choice he makes then will...

"When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion...

It began on April Fool's Day, 1945, which was also Easter Sunday. It lasted eighty-four days. In that time the United States lost its commander in chief, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and at the site of the battle itself, lost its most beloved war correspondent, Ernie Pyle. In that time Germany was finally defeated, but when GIs on the island heard the news, they snorted in contempt - "So what?" For these men were fighting for their own lives against...

Growing up on Kadena Air Base with her no-nonsense sergeant mother, Luz suffers suicidal thoughts in the aftermath of her soldier sister's death and investigates the story of her Okinawan grandmother, who also confronted her mortality after the World War II deaths of family members.

While living at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Bernadette "Bernie" Root, hoping to escape her oddball military family, takes a job as second banana to a third-rate comedian touring Japanese military bases, only to be reunited with her family's former maid, Fumiko, and uncovers a painful family secret.

By the spring of 1945, the once mighty Japanese fleet has been virtually destroyed, leaving Japan open to invasion. Japan responds by dispatching hundreds of suicide bombers against the Allied fleet surrounding Okinawa. Patrolling miles off the coast, the USS Malloy is part of a squadron of ships assigned to warn the carrier formations closer to the island of impending kamikaze attack. Executive Officer Connie Miles begins to realize that Malloy's...

Dre Parker finds himself in China after his mother's latest career move. He and classmate Mei Ying immediately fall for each other, but cultural differences make this friendship impossible. Even worse, his feelings make an enemy of class bully, Cheng who is quite adept at kung fu. Dre turns to maintenance man Mr. Han, who is secretly a kung fu master and learns that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm. However, Dre realizes...

Eyewitness account of the final battle of the Pacific war from the viewpoint of a Japanese general.

Discusses the efforts to seize the island of Okinawa during World War II emphasizing the naval operations involved and the impact that capturing the island had on the outcome of the war.

"A riveting firsthand account of American heroism, Colonel Art Shaw's 82 Days on Okinawa delivers an unprecedented soldier's-eye view of the Pacific War's 'bloodiest battle of all' (New York Times)— the climactic final land battle of World War II and a campaign so brutal that it convinced leaders to unleash the atomic bomb. 75 years ago, he was the first officer ashore on Okinawa. It's taken him a lifetime to speak about the 82 days that followed....