| Sources |
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 6 Nov 2001.
Esther Susanna "Anna" Burns obituary
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 10 Nov 2012.
WWII veteran recalls bloody Battle of Okinawa
By Melanie Tucker | (melt@thedailytimes.com)
Ask U.S, Marine veteran Ralph Irwin about his heroics during World War II and he will politely set you straight.
“I am no hero,” he explains. “I was just one of the lucky ones.”
Irwin was enjoying his life here in Blount County and attending school at Porter High School back in 1943 when the U.S. military required his service. He was able to get a deferment until after high school graduation, but left soon after for his call of duty. He was 18.
The first stop for this new recruit was Parris Island, then a naval ammunitions depot in Charleston, S.C., before heading to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Irwin said then it was on to Guadalcanal for a while before they loaded up for their real mission: Okinawa, Japan.
“I was there on the first day of battle,” Irwin recalled. “I was wounded and was out for five days.” Then he quickly returned to the battlefield, at his own insistence.
The bloodiest battle
The Battle of Okinawa lasted for 87 days and Irwin was in the throes of that conflict for all but those five days. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. Four divisions of the U.S. Army and two Marine divisions fought on the island.
The battle was code-named Operation Iceberg and lasted from early April to mid-June in 1945. It resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. American casualties were listed at more than 38,000, with 12,000 Americans killed. More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers lost their lives.
More people died during the Battle of Okinawa than all of those killed during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That included countless civilians. Kamikazes sunk a large number of Allied ships and damaged others. The Navy suffered the greatest loss of life.
Irwin, who just turned 88, still recalls days of fierce fighting. He remembers one commanding officer’s request that he go out and bring in a Japanese prisoner.
Following orders
“As we came around a hill, we saw a Japanese soldier lying there with just a loin cloth on,” Irwin said. “He wasn’t carrying anything. He just staggered and got up.”
Irwin said the man had apparently taken poison to kill himself but hadn’t taken enough. After giving the man a drink of water, Irwin and his comrades took him to their superiors for interrogation.
“That night, my lieutenant came to see me and said the man was Japanese naval intelligence,” Irwin said. “He told me the man died but he told them everything they wanted to know.”
It was common, Irwin explained, for the enemy soldiers to take their own lives instead of facing imprisonment. He said he watched from atop a hill one day as a group of them got into a huddle as a grenade went off.
Then there was the time Irwin said he woke in the middle of the night to hear rounds of gunfire. At daylight he and his company came down the trail and saw a soldier carrying a baby. Further down the path was a young woman and two children, dead. The baby had been with them.
“We couldn’t even open our mouths,” Irwin said. “That hurt more than anything. No one said a word. They later came and told us the Japanese were doing that to try and locate us. They would send children through and when we opened fire, they knew exactly where we were. That is one memory I wish I didn’t have.”
When he enlisted, Irwin weighed in at a mere 133 pounds. His rifle alone weighed 22 pounds. Then there were the two canteens of water he hauled around, ammunition and a 15-pound steel helmet. He recalled having to walk for miles with all of that gear as his unit went to relieve another one. They would walk for an hour and rest only five minutes. Some simply collapsed and couldn’t take one more step.
At one point, Irwin said he sat down and wasn’t sure he would be able to get back up. But a song quickly came to mind, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.” To this day, whenever hard times arrive, so, too, do those words.
Fewer comrades remain
He used to gather with men from his platoon every year for a reunion, meeting from California to the East Coast. But their numbers have dwindled. Irwin said there is one other man from his platoon still living. He lives in Battle Creek, Mich.
When the Battle of Okinawa was over, Irwin went to Guam for some much-needed rest. He said an officer came to get him in a Jeep and asked him to come to the firing range and observe. One soldier was on the ground, firing his weapon at a target and missing every time. Irwin said he discovered the young man had never fired a weapon.
The captain told Irwin not to worry, that changes were coming. Two days later the first atomic bomb was dropped. He said when he awoke to the military band playing “California Here We Come” a few days later, he knew the war was over.
Leaving Guam, Irwin thought he was finally going home, but found his next destination to be China. He was at the Japanese surrender there as they laid down their swords. “The band played our national anthem and every Japanese soldier saluted,” he said.
While in China. Irwin was sure he would be on the next boat home. But others kept going ahead of him. He finally asked his colonel about the delay. “I know you are on the list to go home, but we’ve got to have somebody that knows what’s going on,” the colonel told him.
Home sweet home
He did finally get his discharge papers. Irwin went back to the West Coast and made his way back East. He was seen by a doctor at Camp Lejeune upon arrival there. “He felt of me and I was still warm,” Irwin said.
Before taking off for home, Irwin said he was given $100. He had been making $24 a month when he started out and $50 by the time his duty was met.
Back in Blount County, Irwin got a job at ALCOA Inc., and met and married his wife of 65 years, Dee. He later got a job with the U.S. Postal Service, where he retired. The couple has two daughters.
He retrieved a worn envelope with his name and incorrect address scrawled across the front, dated 1990. Inside was a letter from the wife of Irwin’s captain, informing him of Capt. Mabie’s death. Somehow despite having been sent to Knoxville, the letter reached its destination. That letter, Irwin said, means more to him than anything.
There are medals Irwin earned for his bravery, like the Purple Heart. He keeps all of them in boxes, hidden away. Not because he’s unappreciative of them. He just feels like there were too many who never came home.
“The heroes are the ones that are buried on the bottom of the ocean somewhere over there,” he said.
- [S112] Census, 1940.
name: Ralph W Irwin
titles & terms: Jr
event: Census
event year: 1940
event place: Civil District 12, Blount, Tennessee, United States
gender: Male
age: 15
marital status: Single
race (original):
race (standardized): White
relationship to head of household (original):
relationship to head of household (standardized): Son
birthplace: Tennessee
estimated birth year: 1925
residence in 1935: Same House
enumeration district number: 5-25
family number: 266
sheet number and letter: 15A
line number: 12
nara publication number: T627
nara roll number: 3874
digital folder number: 005461280
image number: 00854
Household Gender Age Birthplace
head Ralph W Irwin M 49 Tennessee
wife Bess C Irwin F 49 Tennessee
son Clyde W Irwin M 21 Tennessee
daughter E Ruth Irwin F 16 Tennessee
son Ralph W Irwin M 15 Tennessee
son Robert B Irwin M 12 Tennessee
son Kenneth G Irwin M 9 Tennessee
daughter Betty Jo Irwin F 7 Tennessee
- [S25] Smith Mortuary Company, www.smithmortuary.com, 27 Jan 2013.
Ralph Wallace "R.W." Irwin Jr., age 88, of Maryville, went to be with the Lord on Sunday, January 27, 2013. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Dee; daughters, Linda and Janie, son-in-law, Dr. Wayne Witt; sister, Ruth Burch; many nieces and nephews, and his church family at Everett Hills Baptist Church. He will join in heaven with parents, Bess and Ralph Sr.; brothers, Sam, Clyde, Bob, Kenneth, and sister, Betty Williams. He was a proud Marine and WWII Veteran, then a mail carrier for 30 plus years. The family will receive friends on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. in the Smith Trinity Chapel. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 in the Smith Trinity Chapel with Rev. Alan Raines, Rev. R.M. Everett, Rev. John Franklin, Lt. Commander Nathan Soloman, and Rev. Don Hayes officiating. Interment will follow in Grandview Cemetery. Arrangements by Smith Mortuary, 983-1000, www.Smithmortuary.com
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
name: Ralph Irwin
titles & terms:
event: Marriage
event date: 04 Aug 1912
event place: Blount, Tennessee, United States
age:
estimated birth year:
father:
father's titles & terms:
mother:
mother's titles & terms:
spouse: Bessie Kinnamon
spouse's titles & terms:
spouse's age:
spouse's estimated birth year:
spouse's father:
spouse's father's titles & terms:
spouse's mother:
spouse's mother's titles & terms:
reference number: bk13 pg69 im0951
film number: 2073701
digital folder number: 004646468
image number: 00956
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