Two Marines pick their way through the cratered, shattered landscape surrounding Shuri Castle during the Battle of Okinawa, 1945. Once the seat of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Shuri Castle anchored the formidable Shuri Line, a network of Japanese defenses that Allied forces spent weeks reducing through naval gunfire, artillery, and infantry assault. The devastation seen here reflects the intensity of one of the Pacific War's costliest campaigns, fought island by island in the final months before Japan's surrender. Project: 218500