Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit read

Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit read about the tunnel construction of the former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters during a Marine Corps Community Services-sponsored tour of historically significant points of interest across southern Okinawa, Japan, July 13, 2018. The tunnels of the headquarters housed roughly 4,000 Japanese defenders during the Battle of Okinawa and opened to the public as a monument and memorial in March 1970. During the tour, Marines and Sailors with the 31st MEU learned about the savage fighting of the Battle of Okinawa, which pitted U.S. Marine, U.S. Navy and U.S. Army forces against the Imperial Forces of Japan. The more than two-month battle claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, both military and civilian, between April and mid-June 1945. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Gunnery Sgt. T. T. Parish/Released)