During the Battle of Okinawa, about 1,780 schoolchildren between the ages of 14 and 17, who were boy soldiers, were mobilized to the front lines as the Iron-Blooded Imperial Guard. About half of the Iron-Blooded Cadets were killed in action, either in suicide bombings against tanks or in guerrilla activities.

• 　　During the Battle of Okinawa, about 1,780 schoolchildren between the ages of 14 and 17, who were boy soldiers, were mobilized to the front lines as the Iron-Blooded Imperial Guard. About half of the Tekketsu-kinhoto were killed in suicide bombings against tanks or in guerrilla activities.
• 　The Imperial Japanese Army mobilized approximately 1,780 students between the ages of 14 and 17 to the front as the Iron-Blooded Cadets. The female Himeyuri Cadets and others were organized into a nursing corps. This mobilization was carried out not by law, but by an Army Ordinance. This ordinance formally mobilized students as volunteer soldiers. In practice, the military authorities ordered the schools to make almost all students volunteer as soldiers. Sometimes the necessary documents were forged. About half of the Iron-Blooded Cadets were killed in action, either in suicide bombings against tanks or in guerrilla activities.
• 　Of the 21 secondary schools for boys and girls in Okinawa that made up these student corps, about 2,000 students died on the battlefield. The female students were involved in the harsh conditions of the Battle of Okinawa, working primarily as nurses for Japanese soldiers.
• 　It was around the time of the Battle of Okinawa that the Japanese military began using boy soldiers as the Iron-Blooded Imperial Guard. It was the first and only operation in which civilians participated on the Japanese mainland. Okinawa became the next target of the U.S. military, and the Japanese military began to conscript children. The Japanese military began drafting youth from both junior high and high schools. Japan's advanced public school system made it easy to draft Okinawan youth. Many high school boys were already drafted. The Army did not enlist them in elementary school. Junior high school implied boys 13 years of age and older. Middle school did not include 13-year-old boys. Military officials assumed that young teens were drafted around the very late part of 1944. One of the boys was drafted on March 29, 1945, just three days before American troops landed on Okinawa. He enlisted wearing a new military uniform and large boots that did not fit. The War Department ordered the mobilization without legal authority; the formality was an ordinance. The military ordered schools to force children and young people to volunteer. Necessary documents were forged. In many cases, the military forced conscripts to register their younger brothers as well.
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