The joint Japanese-American defense of Okinawa was nearly as vigorous as the defense of the Japanese Home Islands. The only difference was that the defenders knew they would fail long before it started. Every single one of them was a volunteer, and they handed their dog tags to those who left on the ships. They were dead men walking and they knew it. Twilight dramatized that scene for America and then showed us the last of the Japanese mecha, thousands of American servicemen, and an entire squadron of American warships holding the line against the Chinese invasion as the evacuation fleet set sail. And true to life, none of them ever returned home.