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The Battle of Okinawa was one of the most brutal and unforgiving battles of World War II. Among the many stories of heroism that emerged from this blood-soaked battlefield, none is more famous than that of Desmond Doss, the medic who saved 75 men without carrying a weapon. But a lingering question remains for those who have watched Hacksaw Ridge: Why didn’t the Japanese simply cut the rope ladder used by American troops to scale the sheer cliff?
On the surface, it seems like an obvious tactic. The Maeda Escarpment—better known as Hacksaw Ridge—was a 400-foot cliff that U.S. forces had to climb using cargo net ladders secured at the top. If the Japanese defenders had cut these ladders, the Americans would have been stranded, making an attack nearly impossible. So why didn’t they?
The answer lies in the nature of the battle, the tactics employed, and the realities of warfare. The Japanese defenders were not merely passively waiting for Americans to climb up. They were deeply entrenched in a sophisticated defensive network of tunnels, caves, and bunkers. Their strategy was not to prevent the Americans from reaching the top but to let them come up and then annihilate them in close-quarters combat, where the Japanese excelled. Cutting the ladder would not have stopped the invasion—U.S. forces had naval artillery, flamethrowers, and overwhelming manpower. The Japanese needed to inflict maximum casualties before they were eventually overrun.
Another crucial factor was the unpredictable nature of the battle. The Japanese defenders often launched counterattacks at night, sometimes even allowing enemy troops to take positions only to ambush them later. If they had destroyed the ladder too early, they might have cut off their own ability to maneuver, retreat, or even launch surprise counterattacks.
There’s also the matter of timing. Cutting a heavy rope or cargo net under fire is not as easy as it sounds. By the time the Americans were using the ladders, the Japanese were likely focused on killing the troops already reaching the top rather than running out to sever the ropes while exposed to enemy fire. And even if they had cut the ladders, the Americans could have simply replaced them with new ones in a matter of hours.
The Battle of Hacksaw Ridge was a brutal war of attrition, where the Japanese aimed to make every yard as costly as possible. Their goal was to kill, not to block. And in the end, despite their fierce resistance, they were overwhelmed. Desmond Doss’s heroic actions in rescuing wounded soldiers from that hellscape were all the more remarkable because of the carnage around him. The rope ladder remained intact, not because of an oversight, but because it simply wasn’t the priority in a battle where every moment was a fight for survival.