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Show IN JAPAN'S FRONT YARD The light resistance to the first stage of the landing on Okinawa offers no index to the importance of the island to the Allies or of its loss to the Japanese, fleet Admiral Nim-ita Nim-ita indicated the weight of expected opposition when he borrowed bor-rowed a whole corps from the army to add to the Third Marine Ma-rine Amphibious corps. The new Tenth army thus has put around 100,000 men into the landing operations. There are several possible explanations of the enemy's weak defense of the beaches in contrast to his behavior at lwo Jima. Okinawa has well over 200 miles of shore line. There was but one narrow beach at lwo. The Japanese could not have known exactly where the landing was to be made until the tremendous bombardment started. It is possible also that Okinawa, while undoubtedly fortified, has not been made into another Pacific Gibraltar. The shelter systems which would enable the defenders to weather the preliminary bombardment may not be near the beaches. Ilowever, we must expect the enemy to make a bitter fight for the island, on terrain of his own choosing. The ' Japanese know that thousands of Allied bombers await only the early collapse of Germany to move from their bases in Europe to the Pacific theatre. Okinawa is big enough to pro-, pro-, vide facilities for swarms of them. The island is near enough to enable the Foils, the Liberators, the Lancasters, and the Stirlings to strike over most of the home islands, and with lighter escort, Kyushu, Formosa, and hundreds of miles of ... the China coast. Christian Science Monitor. |