This week in 1945, the US began its battle for Okinawa, killing 140,000 civilians w/ relentless bombing, indiscriminate firing, the sinking of evacuees ships, executions & mass rapes. The US occupation of Okinawa continues (in part) today, w/ huge US military bases on the island. 
1/3 of all Okinawans died during the 82-day battle, and 90% of the buildings on the island were destroyed, along with countless historical documents, artifacts, and cultural treasures. Okinawa was turned into "a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots".
US troops fired indiscriminately during the battle. One US soldier said: “There was some return fire from a few of the houses, but the others were probably occupied by civilians – and we didn't care. It was a terrible thing not to distinguish between the enemy & women/children."
Following the battle, the US occupation involved placing alleged Japanese collaborators in concentration camps & using flamethrowers to force out civilians hiding in caves & random executions of Okinawans.
US forces occupying the Island, committed thousands of rapes. In a village on Okinawa’s Motobu peninsula, US soldiers raped nearly every women in the village. By some estimates, as many as 10,000 Okinawan women were raped under US occupation.
US troops drove Okinawan farmers from their land to make way for US military bases. On Iejima Island in 1955, the US tricked farmers into giving away their land, then later dragged away those who refused to leave, bulldozing their farms and slaughtering their livestock.
The US bases on Okinawa were used to launch the wars in Korea & Vietnam. During Vietnam, B-52 bombers took off from Okinawa to carpet bomb Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia. The formal US occupation lasted in 1972, but today, the US has 32 military facilities on the Islands.
