This somber photograph from a 345th Bombardment Group airman's personal album records the grim aftermath of combat in the Ie Shima and Okinawa area during the closing months of World War II. Skeletal remains and discarded field gear, arranged near a supply crate, reflect a documentary practice common among Allied servicemen of photographing the harsh realities encountered in former battle zones. The 345th Bombardment Group, a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber unit known as the 'Air Apaches,' relocated to Ie Shima in mid-1945 to strike targets on the Japanese home islands during one of the Pacific War's fiercest and final campaigns. Images such as this offer an unflinching, firsthand record of the human cost of the fighting that preceded Japan's surrender. Project: 218235