Raynors HCA 2019-01
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/21/2019
A remarkable map entitled "Okinawa Shima" showing the northern part of Okinawa Island, prepared by U.S. Tenth Army Engineers on August 8, 1945, just two days after Hiroshima and one day before Nagasaki. Marked "Confidential: This classification will be changed to restricted in combat area" at bottom. Pencil inscribed "Northern part" twice verso. Lightly folded into six even sections, measuring approximately 20" x 22.5" unfolded. Maps relating to the Battle of Okinawa are much scarcer than highly coveted D-Day maps, the latter of which there are many. The Battle of Okinawa (code name Operation Iceberg) took place on Okinawa Island between April 1-June 22, 1945. One of the Ryukyu Islands extending southwest of the Japanese mainland, Okinawa was of paramount strategic importance. Allied forces needed it to launch Operation Downfall, the large-scale on-the-ground invasion of Japan anticipated to begin in November 1945. Okinawa would have been the main staging ground for an invasion projected to require 700,000-1,700,000 troops and result in an estimated 400-800,000 American fatalities. Researchers believed the invasion would take at least two years. Yet after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, Japan announced its intention to surrender. Yet the cancellation of the invasion did not negate the island's overall importance to American interests. There are U.S. Army installations on Okinawa Island to this day.
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