174 - The Pacific, August 1945
The WW2 Podcast
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The Planning Stage for the Occupation of Okinawa
The planning stage for Operation Downfall was very well advanced. Changes were being made on a daily, then probably weekly basis as more signals intelligence radio decrypts came to the allied headquarters. The most immediate reason for taking Iwo Jima was for land-based Army fighters and P-51s in escort of heavy bombers over Japanese mainland. But beyond that Iwo JimA and the Bonin Islands generally were seen as a logical logistics base to support the massive supplies that were going to be needed once the allied troops were ashore at Japan.
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