Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign

Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign
Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II
USS Tennessee bombarding Okinawa with her 14"/50 main battery guns, as the Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) in the foreground carries troops to the invasion beaches.
Date 19 February – 21 June 1945 Location Volcano Islands and Ryukyu Islands, Pacific Ocean Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Chester W. Nimitz Douglas MacArthur Holland Smith Simon B. Buckner † Roy Geiger Joseph W. Stilwell Ray Spruance Marc A. Mitscher William Halsey, Jr. Sir Bernard Rawlings Sir Philip Vian Bruce Fraser	Tadamichi Kuribayashi † Mitsuru Ushijima † Isamu Cho † Hiromichi Yahara (POW) Seiichi Itō † Minoru Ota † Kosaku Aruga † Keizō Komura
Casualties and losses
27,113 dead or missing, 74,501 wounded, 79 ships sunk and scrapped, 773 aircraft destroyed Casualties from Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa	98,811–128,375 dead or missing, 17,000 wounded, 7,216 captured, 21 ships sunk and scrapped, 3,130 aircraft destroyed, 75,000–140,000 civilians dead or missing Casualties from Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa

The Volcano and Ryūkyū Islands campaign was a series of battles and engagements between Allied forces and Imperial Japanese forces in the Pacific Ocean campaign of World War II between January and June 1945.

The campaign took place in the Volcano and Ryukyu island groups. The two main land battles in the campaign were the Battle of Iwo Jima (16 February to 26 March 1945) and the Battle of Okinawa (1 April to 21 June 1945). One major naval battle occurred, called Operation Ten-Go (7 April 1945) after the operational title given to it by the Japanese.

The campaign was part of the Allied Japan campaign intended to provide staging areas for an invasion of Japan as well as supporting aerial bombardment and a naval blockade of the Japanese mainland. The dropping of atomic weapons on two Japanese cities and the Soviet invasion of Japanese Manchuria, however, caused the Japanese government to surrender without an armed invasion being necessary.