Well said, Ken. It was a horrific battle and one we paid dearly for. Many years later when you and I were on Okinawa, there were few signs of the devastation unless you knew where to look. The Shuri Castle near Naha, which was virtually destroyed during the battle, was being rebuilt but was closed to the public while I was there.
Okinawa during the Vietnam war was a vast military citadel. Every branch of the service had units stationed there. It was a long-distance communications hub with some of the strangest and most prolific antenna farms I've ever seen. There were fields of huge steerable Yagi array antennas used by the CIA and NSA, large circular antennas hundreds of yards in diameter for low-frequency communications with submarines - every kind of antenna you can imagine was there. The only thing missing at that time were satellite dishes.
Back then, the road system was right-hand drive to accommodate the occupation forces. When the island reverted back to Japan in 72, I understand they went back to left-hand drive. Left or right side of the road, when you rode in an Okinawan taxi, you put your life on the line. We called them Kamikazes, and they earned the name. The first couple of times riding with them, you tended to cower on the floorboards while praying to God you would live to get to your destination. Later, having consigned your posterior to Fate, you sat back and laughed at the stark terror on the faces of passengers in the other taxis. They should have sold T-shirts that said "I survived the taxi ride to Naha" 
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Unfortunately, we had little time to explore the island as we worked 12-hour shifts and sometimes, 24-hour shifts. We usually had at least Saturday or Sunday off and could make bus trips to various tourist traps. I always wanted to go to Ie Shima to visit the site where Ernie Pyle was killed, but never got the chance.
Most of our time off, when we weren't sleeping, was spent shopping in nearby Koza City or running the bars after dark. There were some terrific restaurants there too. In those days, photographic equipment from Japan was dirt cheap and I came back with a Minolta camera and complete set of lenses including a long focal length telephoto lens, that back then cost a couple hundred bucks, but today would be worth thousands. Unfortunately, I sold the whole setup years later.
Ah well,
Russ