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 in Chicago the war, the number of ethnic Japanese increased to 20,000. Unlike on the west coast, the Japanese had freedom of movement and could work. Japanese worked in factories making materials to support the war, including aircraft and electronics. The Japanese Americans in Chicago largely relied on each other and avoided support from civic organizations, church organizations, and the WRA. Charlotte Brooks, author of "In the Twilight Zone between Black and White: Japanese American Resettlement and Community in Chicago, 1942-1945," wrote that Chicagoans did not perceive the Japanese-Americans as being "Japanese", but rather as non-White, and being "Orientals" but not black.