The First of April carries a significance other than the day for practical jokes. Bill Federer:
60,000 U.S. troops landed on the Island of Okinawa this day, April 1, 1945, in the largest amphibious attack mounted by the Americans in the Pacific war. One of the bloodiest campaigns, it cost Americans 12,000 dead, 36,000 wounded and 400 ships sunk or damaged. Though Japan's losses exceeded 100,000, their kamikaze suicide attacks grew more intense, not relenting until the bombing of Hiroshima. After receiving Japan's surrender in Tokyo Bay, General Douglas MacArthur stated "Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always."
A peace we know will only be possible between peaceable men.