Easter Sunday (except for Greek Orthodox Christians) in 1945 fell on April Fools’ Day. But for thousands of American soldiers timorously landing that day on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryuku Islands and the last stop before the Japanese mainland, the celebration of Easter and the antics of April Fools’ Day – mostly a day for children but also one for accommodating adults – were not to be marked together. It is not that common for these two days, one religious and the other secular, to coincide.

The last instance of this was 2018 and the one prior to this was 62 years before in 1945. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox (around March 20th), with April Fools’ Day always celebrated on the first day of that month. (Since 1900 the day of the Resurrection and the day of pranks have occurred on the same date only 5 times, with the next confluence being in 2029.)

Participating in the largest amphibious landing in the Pacific Theater, the soldiers landing on Okinawa Island between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea must have thought that the enemy was pranking them: there was no opposition to greet them as there had been on countless other landings on various atolls during their island hopping. The response of the enemy was very muted, if at all. It was not until April 6, five days after the landing, that heavy gunfire was exchanged between the competing sides. The conquest was completed on June 22, 1945, with 12,000 Americans, 100,000 Japanese, and 100,000 civilians dead.

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May there never again be the loss of so many lives – and the concomitant injuries – on any calendar date, regardless of whether it’s Easter or April Fools’. On this Easter Sunday at whatever church we attend, let us remember the accomplishments and valor of so many on this Pacific Island thousands of miles away from their loving homes waiting either for the return of their loved ones in uniform or to meet with them again on Judgment Day when, according to the stirring, prophetic hymn I Am the Bread of Life, “and I will raise you up on the Last Day.”