This panoramic view shows one of the temporary military cemeteries established on Okinawa following the brutal ground campaign of April-June 1945, in which nearly 12,000 American servicemen were killed. Rows of simple white wooden crosses mark individual graves within a fenced burial ground, overlooked by an American flag. Such cemeteries provided a dignified, if temporary, resting place for the fallen before many remains were later repatriated to the United States or reinterred in permanent military cemeteries. Project: 218478