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 Marshall Islands reportedly explored some of the nearby atolls before paying a visit to Labon Kabua, one of the principal chief in the Marshall Islands. Before Goto and Suzuki returned for Japan, they induced Kabua to raise the Japanese flag over his house at Ailinglaplap. The Japanese government subsequently ordered the two envoys to return to the island to haul down the flag upon the envoys' return. During the German colonial era, there were occasional reports of Japanese fishermen making landfalls in the atoll, and there was at least one other incident which Japanese fishermen were also killed by the islanders. A