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 air attacks on the Mariana Islands the operation was not called off after this raid, it did not go ahead after the Japanese surrender on 15 August. The Japanese military also developed a plan to attack Saipan using Mitsubishi Ki-167 suicide aircraft during August, but nothing came of this. The Japanese attacks on the Mariana Islands during 1944 and 1945 did not seriously disrupt the USAAF's strategic air campaign against Japan. They did, however, force the United States to allocate forces to defend the islands in order to prevent further losses of expensive B-29s. Moreover, due to the high cost of the heavy bombers, the ratio