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
Smith Volcano Smith Volcano is one of the probably five Pleistocene-to-Holocene volcanic centers on Babuyan Island (also known as Babuyan de Claro Island) with Smith, the youngest volcano on the island. The largest on the island is Babuyan Claro (also known as "Mt. Pangasun"), an active stratovolcano with two well-preserved summit craters in diameter, located in the center of the island. Babuyan Claro is about peak-to-peak southeast of Smith Volcano, which is the north-westernmost summit on the triangular-shaped island. Smith Volcano has erupted six times, the last of which was in 1924. A team of volcanologists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology