The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-06-16

and Kokura, but insisted that dam age was negligible" aside from two or three fires which were ex. tainguished immediately"
 A Domei dispatc hsaid the Japan Iron company plant at Yawata was hit by "a few bomb fragments which "caused no damage to plant facilities" It said two workers had received slight injuries.
 The broadcast also admitted that the railway line between the cities of Orio and Hakata was slightly damaged" but that 1t was repaired at once at 10 o'clock and trafac service has been resumed without any hitch."
 "The Japanese air command" the communique said, intercepted the enemy and after shooting down part of the raiders repulsed the re- mainder. Losses on our side were very light" Later broadcasts claimed seven U. S. planes downed and three damaged.
 Insisting that the attack "came as no surprise" Tokyo said the American planes took of from a China base, flew "by way fo An- tung, situated on the Manchukuo- Chosen border and descended on their targets Friday morning (Japan time).
 A later Domei dispatch said the B-2o's were presumed to have taken of from Sian in Shensi province, China"
 Japanese Broadcast
 Japanese broadcastS said the big United States planes hit the suburbs of Kokura, midway between Yawata and Moki, indicated that the aerial assault blanketed the principal cen- ters of the closely packed industrial area of northern Kyushu.
 Moi is the site of the Mitsui zinc plant, the Mitsui Mike coal mine and other Mitsui properties. The bomber area includes the big Yawata iron and steel works at Yawata-Shi, largest producing unit of the Japan Iron and Steel Man. ufacturing Co.,, Ltd.
 The enemy broadcastS sought re- peatetdly to minimize the damage and revived the propaganda claim made after the first U. S. attack on Japan by Jimmy Doolittle's flight of 16 B-25s-that schools also had been hit.
 "The majority of the bombs were dropped in the sea, showing that this raid. like the one of April IS, Q942) did not work according to the original plans of the enemy" Tokyo said.
 A Japanese dispatch to the con- trolled newspapers of Japanese occupied East Asia said that 'the guerrilla raid strategy of the Amer ican Air Force in China which at- tempted to raid our mainland with the new B-29s ended in complete failure just as the raid on our cap. ital the year before last"
 The dispatch, transmitted tc Romanized Japanese by the Domei Agency, was reported to the oftice of War Information by United 0LhVCS BOVCI luLlCuL A1iO1l1VO1os
 Three Damaged
 'The three planes which were damaged suffered heavy damage to important parts of the planes" the Domei wireless dispatch said, "and had difficulty returning to bases on the China continent. Thus 1t seems almost certain that they were forced to land on their way. However, our loss was three dead and three wounded among the ground forces"
 The Domei dispatch then added:
 Further, according to a report from the branch of1lce of the Nip pon bank in that area, since the loss was extremely slight, there is absolutely no necessity of applying the emergency financing measures which were decided upon by the fi- nance ministry"
 The raids were in suspicious first mission for the big new B-29s which the Army Air Forces devel- oped with a special eye to the war on Japan. As Secretary of War Henry L. Stamson put it yester- day. the B-29s-which carry the greatest bomb loads faster, far ther and higher than any other plane in existence-brought "the heart of Japan under the guns and bombs of the Army Air Forces"
 Gems. George 0. Marshall, Army chief of staff. and H. H. Arnold, air force commander. also hailed the work of the B-29's and their crews as shorten the road to Tokyo.
 The War Departments first re- port was a terse, one sentence aIi- 'B-2o Superfortresses of the U. s. Army Air Forces Bomber Command bombed Japan today"
 Far Flung Bases
 It also revealed that the mann moth new bombers operated from the China Burma India area, with out mentioning the specific place. But dispatch from John R. Nor ris, United Press eastern manager now in New York. said the bases ''are far back in territory securely held by the Chinese, yet for the new bombers are within practical range of the most vital military and industrial centers of Japan"
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