Japanese air attacks on the Mariana Islands 27 in preparation for operations against Japan itself. The USAAF bases in the Mariana Islands were within range of a number of Japanese air bases in the Pacific. These included Wake Island to the east, Truk and the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to the southeast, Woleai to the south and Yap to the southwest. To the north the Japanese had air bases in the Nampo Shoto chain of islands and Bonin Islands, which included three airstrips on Iwo Jima. Several of the minor islands in the Mariana chain also remained in Japanese hands, and there were airfields on Rota and
Japanese settlement in the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. The German authorities chased out most of the businessmen in 1900, leaving only a few Japanese in the Micronesian islands. A few Japanese began settling in the islands in 1907 after the German authorities allowed the Japanese traders to establish their enterprises in Pohnpei and Chuuk. Early Japanese settlers consisted of single men, and official statistics showed a gender imbalance with five Japanese males to one female. Many Japanese men took on Micronesian wives and raised mixed Japanese–Micronesian families. Japanese arrivals to Micronesia remained modest until the 1920s, following which the islands experienced a quick increase in the