Every year on Okinawan Memorial Day, thousands of people -- Okinawans as well as Americans -- come to pay tribute to the more than 230,000 military and civilians who died during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. This veteran is pausing in front of one of the many stone monuments engraved with the names of the 12,000 American soldiers who were killed serving their country on the island. The United States suffered a total of 47,000 casualties during the three-month camapign, the bloodiest of the war in the Pacific.