To understand Hamas, reflect on the Japanese in World War II - opinion

• Published date: 02 April 2024
• Author: YECHIEL M. LEITER
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Hamas has unsurprisingly interpreted the US position as support for its refusal to surrender and release the hostages it has held in underground tunnels for half a year

The American military seizure of the Japanese island of Okinawa, an operation dubbed "Iceberg," was part of a wider strategy to capture and occupy a series of islands as a gateway to the invasion of Japan itself.

In the battles that lasted for three months, until July 2, 1945 – when the US military declared that the island was conquered and safe for Americans – almost all the Japanese soldiers who had defended it were killed by US forces, between 80,000-100,000 in number. Along with the Japanese fighters, over 100,000 Japanese citizens were killed as well, out of a population of 500,000 people. US troops killed in battle numbered about 12,500.

Strategically, the capture of Okinawa was important enough for the US to sacrifice a huge number of its soldiers and kill over 20% of the island's civilian population. Why? Beyond the tactical war importance of securing air and sea space, as well as a convenient logistical base for a planned invasion of Japan itself, the Roosevelt administration realized that it could not let the Japanese culture of death – the creation of then-Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo – prevail.

Tojo, who was the architect of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, knew that in terms of military power alone, the Americans would eventually win. Therefore, he promoted a concept, a terrorist concept, whose sole purpose was to break the will of Americans to fight. He sent many thousands of kamikaze pilots, soldiers who came from the Japanese elite, to carry out suicide attacks against American warships, killing thousands of soldiers and causing enormous damage to the American Navy fleet.

The US was not only faced with an army of human missiles but also with tunnels from which Japanese soldiers sprang out and killed American troops. The tunnels were dug inside civilian villages and populated areas, and the US found no alternative other than to pour gasoline into the tunnels and burn the Japanese alive. Since in most cases it was dangerous to get close to the mouth of the tunnels, the US Army established special units that were given the name "Flamethrowers." The modus operandi of the flamethrowers was the high-powered projection of a stream of burning liquid – benzine or napalm – stored in pressure vessels connected to the weapon and an ignition system.

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