Okinawa, Japan

One of the largest islands off the coast of Japan, Okinawa is an island, a prefecture, and a city. The island was annexed by Japan in 1879 under the Meiji Government, and is currently one of Japan's most popular beach and surf destinations, laying is it does between the Pacific Ocean to the west and the the East China Sea to the east. Okinawa was also the location for one of the bloodiest battles in World War II, one that lasted 82 days and resulted in the deaths of 95,000 members of the Imperial Japanese Army and 12,510 American soldiers. During this battle a majority of the communications were handled by the Navajo Code talkers, a group of Navajo men recruited to use their language as a code during the war.