| Description: | US Army tank explodes Japanese land mine on Okinawa. A US army tank uses its cannons to explode a Japanese land mine as the tanks move through the field on Okinawa, clearing a path for American forces advancing on the main Ryukyu Island only 375 miles from Japan. A US soldier crouches beside the tank to avoid the fire of the Japanese snipers. One day after the landing on Okinawa, Marines and infantrymen of the US 10th Army captured Yontan and Katona airfield. By April 8, more than 1/3 of the island was in US hands. As Japanese resistance increased two days later in southern Okinawa, the Americans fought up to the Motobu Peninsula to capture the former major Japanese submarine base at Unton Bay on the islands west coast. Control of the central Ryukyus will give the US forces access to the East China Sea and to the coast of China in the Shanghai area, bringing the important Japanese held ports of Wonchow, Foochow, Changchow, as well as Nanking and Shanghai within striking distance. April 20, 1945. (39583-FPA, National Archives). |
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Okinawa
