Sugar Loaf Hill. A casual glance at the name might take your mind to one of those special squares on a Candy-Land board. You know, those special cards you draw where you move forward or backward a bunch of spaces – the Molasses Swamp or the Dew-Drop Inn or whatever - that add a little excitement to the game. It sounds sweet and happy, like a vacation destination for Strawberry Shortcake or a place where My Little Pony can prance and play. Sugar Loaf Hill exudes all that is cotton-candy nice and right with the world.
That’s what you
might think. The real-life Sugar Loaf Hill is none of those things.
As the
Battle of Okinawa (the final battle fought by the U.S. in World War II) worked through
its second month, the Sixth Marine Division was tasked with moving down the west side of the island to sever Japanese lines and then move eastward behind the heights of Shuri. On top stood the bombed-out, shelled-out ruins of
Shuri Castle, the visible part of elaborate network of tunnels and pillboxes that comprised General Mitsuru Ushijima’s main defensive fortifications on the island.
