April 1945: the Empire of Japan was fighting for survival. After each of their confederates had fallen against the Allied forces, Japan stood alone as a relentless push came closer and closer to their homeland. Eventually Okinawa was the last remaining buffer. The Japanese government dispatched a fleet of ships on a suicide mission, in a final attempt to stop the forward motion of their enemies. Operation Ten-Go called for the fleet to position themselves between the advancing enemy and Okinawa -- then sink their own ships in shallow waters so that they would become unsinkable fighting platforms. Land based kamikaze planes would provide support. Their hopes rested on the notion that this tactic would slow, or even stop, the Allied advance, and inflict "unendurable" damage in the process.
What the Japanese did not know was that the Allied forces had an ace up their sleeve: Purple, the codebreaking machine for Japanese intelligence. Listening stations from the Philippines to Iwo Jima intercepted orders, passing them on to be quickly decoded. As a result, before Operation Ten-Go could reach its intended destination, the U.S. Navy launched hundreds of aircraft against the armada. The attack ended with a Japanese loss of over 4,000 soldiers and all but three badly damaged destroyers. Among the ships lost was the IJN Yamato, then the largest battleship in the world. In contrast, the U.S. Navy suffered the loss of 12 airmen.
The decisive battle ended Japanese sea power and solidified air-power as the guiding force in future conflicts. This also convinced the United States and Allied forces that Japan would fight to the last man, in a bloody, multi-year conflict if necessary. This realization influenced the decision to use atomic weapons to end the war.
-Professor Walter
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