In 1941, a fierce conflict between Japan and America unfurled across the expanses of the Pacific.
Initially on the offensive, the Japanese army gradually retreated after its defeat in the Battle of Midway, and its bases on the islands of the South Pacific were taken one after another by the American forces. This led the Japanese army to make Okinawa its base for defending the mainland, and in March 1944, an Okinawa garrison (the 32nd Division) was formed on the Nansei Islands to defend Okinawa. Meanwhile, having taken the islands of the South Pacific, the American army decided to make Okinawa its base of operations for its mainland offensive, and launched a large-scale air raid on the main island of Okinawa on October 10th, 1944. The Japanese army, finding itself at a disadvantage in the attack on the Nansei Islands, engaged in a protracted struggle to keep the American troops in Okinawa as long as possible. It is said this was a strategy to buy time to prepare its mainland strategy.