CVE-127 was assigned the name Okinawa, 29 June 1945, after the largest of the Ryukyu Islands (NS0312701). Okinawa was the site of one of the last major island landings of World War II and scene of some of its heaviest fighting. The operation, under the strategic command of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, began with 5th Fleet air strikes against Kyushu on 18 March 1945, and initial landings on Okinawa itself on Easter Sunday, 1 April. An enormous assemblage of ships participated in the operation, during which 36 of them of destroyer size or smaller were lost, most to the heaviest concentration of kamikaze attacks of the war. Almost 8,000 enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air or on the ground. As part of the action, on 7 April last remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy ventured forth, only to be met by the overwhelming Navy airpower. Japanese battleship Yamato, light cruiser Yahagi, and four destroyers (Asashimo, Hamakaze, Isokaze and Kasumi) were sunk in the one-day battle. As a result of securing Okinawa, the supply lanes of the East China Sea were blocked, isolating all southern possessions still in Japanese hands; and the last obstacle in the path to the Japanese Home Islands was cleared. (Map courtesy of Google Maps.)

NS0312701a: Ten-Go Operation, 7 April 1945. Japanese battleship Yamato listing to port and down at the bow, during attacks by U.S. Navy carrier planes north of Okinawa. One of her escorting destroyers is at left. The original photo caption reads: "Japanese battleship Yamato lists to port (at right) just prior to VT-9 (USS Yorktown) torpedo attack. She is making 10 to 15 knots. A Japanese destroyer cruises ahead. Photographed from a USS Yorktown (CV-10) plane." Collection of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, # NH 62585.)