Third and fourth terms of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt well-defended island of Iwo Jima, taking control of that island the following month. On April 1, the U.S. landed on Okinawa Island, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. The Japanese allowed the Americans to land on the island before launching a fierce attack that included "kamikaze" suicide attacks by Japanese aircraft. Japanese forces on Okinawa held out until June 1945; U.S. forces suffered over 60,000 casualties during the operation. In late 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed to meet to discuss strategy and post-war plans at the Tehran Conference, which marked Roosevelt's first face-to-face meeting with Stalin. At the conference,
Japanese invasion of Batan Island Japanese invasion of Batan Island The Japanese invasion of Batan Island (Filipino: "Paglusob ng mga Hapones sa Isla ng Batan") was the first step in their invasion of the Philippines, an American colony. The purpose was to obtain control of local air strips, which could be used as forward bases by fighter aircraft for operations further south in the Philippines. The attack on Batan Island was the first of several other advance landings; the other landings took place at Aparri, Vigan, Legaspi, Davao, and Jolo Island. The Japanese had been officially planning a strike on the American fleet at their