Where were the Japanese? Instead of becoming casualties chopped up in the surf, befuddled GIs and Marines strolled onto the Hagushi beaches walking upright. Other than the occasional report of sniper fire, they faced, in the words of Time correspondent Robert Sherrod, “slightly more opposition than they would have had in maneuvers off the coast of California.” Wrote journalist Ernie Pyle, “medical corpsmen were sitting among their sacks of bandages with nothing to do.” By the end of L-Day, almost the entire first wave, some 66,000 infantry and supporting armor and vehicles, made it safely to shore with only 28 KIA.
Gen. Buckner’s men were understandably ebullient, especially veterans who’d seen the worst carnage on the beaches of Tarawa and Peleliu. One Marine remembered amazed comrades joyfully declaring, “This is just like one of MacArthur’s landings. We don’t even…
