What similarities and differences do you see between the Okinawa civilian perspective and Japanese-American (Nisei) perspective? Have your thoughts or opinions regarding the Battle of Okinawa changed after studying it from various perspectives?

The Battle of Okinawa took place between April 1 and June 22, 1945. What was meant to be the Allies' final push toward the Japanese mainland quickly devolved into disaster for combatants on both sides. By its end, more people lay dead in Okinawa than in any other battle in the Pacific theater. The level of opposition American troops faced during the Battle of Okinawa contributed greatly to the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 (a fact not lost on either Okinawan civilians or Nisei).
Historians estimate the Okinawan civilian casualties to be over 100,000; between one third and one half of the entire population in 1945 died during the 81-day battle. Okinawa lies only 350 miles from the major islands and was to be the base from which the final Allied assaults were waged upon the capital. Many Okinawan civilians have expressed their belief that the population of Okinawa was sacrificed in order to prolong the ground war and delay American troops from reaching the mainland by air. Knowing that holding Ryukyu was a lost cause, supplies were withheld from the Japanese Imperial Army on Okinawa to maintain material stock for the coming assault on larger cities. Japanese military commanders expressed hope that soldiers and civilians would nevertheless fight with ferocity as their homeland was invaded (as Americans were driven to fight after the attack on Pearl Harbor).
Where the Japanese Imperial Army’s supplies were insufficient, the civilians's supplies were nonexistent. Too afraid to surrender to the Americans, who they were told would rape and kill them, many Okinawan civilians starved while taking cover from the bombardments in caves throughout the island. Civilians as well as military tacticians knew that by the time American troops reached Okinawa, the war was lost. They came to view the battle as little more than a preservation of honor for military commanders on Kyushu.
Nisei, especially along the West Coast of the United States, spent much of the war in internment camps. Their status as American citizens was undermined by Executive Order 9066, and many Nisei attested that their feelings about the military assault on Japan were complicated by the erosion of their American citizenship. On one hand, they were glad that the war was coming to an end and proud of the American victory; on the other, they were being told that they were Japanese and not American. For them, the war was lost either way.