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Battle of Okinawa (the last stepping stone to the US invasion of mainland Japan)
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During the 1945 battle, the Japanese Army showed indifference to Okinawans' safety, and its soldiers even used civilians as human shields against the Americans, or just outright murdered them. Japanese military confiscated food from the Okinawans and executed those who hid it, leading to a mass starvation among the population, and forced civilians out of their shelters.
Japanese soldiers also killed about 1,000 people who spoke in the Okinawan language in order to suppress spying. The museum writes that "some were blown apart by [artillery] shells, some finding themselves in a hopeless situation were driven to suicide, some died of starvation, some succumbed to malaria, while others fell victim to the retreating Japanese troops."
and as for all those poor civilians we nuked? heads-up, the jap emperor conscripted a shit ton of them and armed them and instructed them to fight to the death when the horrible Americans get there. 28 million civilians, in fact
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In April 1945, the Japanese cabinet resolved on reforming Kokumin Giyūtai into civilian militia. In June, the cabinet passed a special conscription law, and named the militia units Volunteer Fighting Corps (国民義勇戦闘隊 Kokumin Giyū Sentōtai?).
The Kokumin Giyū Sentōtai would be organized, if the Allied landing unit close to the Japanese homeland. Governors of Prefectures could conscript all male civilians between the ages of 15 to 60 years, and unmarried females of 17 to 40 years. Commanders were appointed from retired military personnel and civilians with weapons experience.
Combat training sessions were held. But, the Kokumin Giyū Sentōtai was primarily assigned to support tasks such as construction, transportation and rationing.
The Kokumin Giyū Sentōtai was intended as main reserve along with a "second defense line" for Japanese forces to sustain a war of attrition against invading forces. After the Allied invasion, these forces were intended to form resistance or guerilla warfare cells in cities, towns, or mountains.
Strength
Some 28,000,000 men and women were considered "combat capable" by the end of June 1945, yet only about 2,000,000 of them were recruited when the war ended, and most of them did not experience combat due to Japan's surrender before the Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. The Battle of Okinawa took place before the formation of Volunteer Fighting Corps. At this stage of the war, the lack of modern weaponry and ammunition meant that most were armed with swords or even bamboo spears.
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