Freedom Isn’t Free: Okinawa Remembered

Veterans around the globe will pause and reflect Sunday when remembering the Battle of Okinawa.

Easter marks the 65th anniversary of the massive military and naval campaign in the East China Sea involving 182,000 soldiers and Marines on more than 2,500 ships.

American casualties were the highest of any campaign in the Pacific War—12,000 killed, 36,000 wounded. Thirty-six ships were sunk and 368 were damaged.

Japanese losses were even more staggering, with 110,000 troops killed and 42,000 Okinawans perishing. as well. When the carnage ended, President Truman ordered the dropping of two atomic bombs and the war ended.

Putnam Sheriff Donald Smith, a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army, said this weekend’s anniversary serves as a sobering reminder that “freedom isn’t free. It is paid for by the blood, sweat, and tears of those Americans who answered the call of duty and marched to the sound of the guns.”

Smith, who currently serves as chairman of the American Security Council Foundation, called on all Americans not to let the special anniversary go by without commemorating its significance: “World War II was fought by our greatest generation. Many of these brave men and women are gone. It is so important that we always remember those who gave some and those who gave their all.”

One of the brave Americans who fought in the Battle of Okinawa and whose destroyer was gutted by a Japanese kamikaze plane killing 24 of his shipmates and wounding 44 others was retired U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Spiro (see column reprinted at right).

Smith described Spiro as a man who has “provided a lifetime of service to our nation.” In addition to his long military career, Spiro was a member of the board and chairman of the American Security Foundation, now affectionately called chairman-emeritus.

The foundation’s motto of “peace through strength” encourages the American government to be strong economically, diplomatically, and militarily in order to keep the USA the epitome of what democracy represents.

During a telephone interview with the soon-to-be-90-year-old Spiro at his home in North Carolina Tuesday, the career naval officer who taught for more than three decades in college and university settings throughout the Southeast, told the COURIeR that he joined the security council in 1986: “Our slogan ‘peace through strength’ has allowed us to meet regularly with Presidents starting way back with Lyndon B. Johnson; but it was President Reagan who took us under his wing and respected our belief that ‘peace cannot be attainted through weakness or indecision.’”

Smith called the Battle of Okinawa a “good lesson for everyone. We can never forget how fragile freedom can become. With people like Admiral Spiro America will remain as the beacon of freedom, hope, and justice for many generations to come.”