The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-06-28

The troops returned to their bass after thoroughly reconnoitering tns islands, which form a 340-mile-lons series of stepping stones extending from Saipan to within HOO miles of Japan.
 Only one shot was fired in the six landings. That was 8 pist0 shot that killed Japanese who re- fused to surrender. Twenty -fosN other Japanese civilians and 38 na- tives, for the most part employea of the Japanese Copra company or shipwreck survivors, were removed from the islands.
 Supplies Left Behind
 Supplies and food was left be- hind for the approximately 260 na- tive Japanese civilians who remain ed on the various islands.
 A Tokyo broadcast said Japana special suicide weapons being pre-. pared to counter an expected Amer ican invasion almost equalled thG total number of tanks and guna which appeared in the European war"
 Military observers here are o the opinion that Japan's special at- tack weapons completed the ex- perimental stage in the OkinaWs campaign and that final, ull-fiedged results will be obtained when United States forces attempt to carry out landing on the Japanese main land" Tokyo said.
 Tokyo said suicide attack baseA had been established throughout Japan and were training man for each of the secret suicide weapons : Another Toky broadcast said "the sooner the enemy comes, the bet ter for us, for our battle array is complete"
 Other developments in the Pacific war included:
 1.-Tokyo announced that l60yO0O bombed-out inhabitants of Japanese cities would be moved to farms to
 help cope with Japan's growing food
 problem.
 l 2. Radio Tokyo said g Super-- | fortresses mined Japan's inland sea, including Osaka Bay, and the Japan Sea approaches to Niigata on the northwest coast of HonShu last night and early today. KY 3. Reconnaissance photographs revealed an additional 3.45 square miles of Japan had been destroyed in recent Superfortress raids on the industrial cities of Kagashima, Flu kuoka and Omuta. This boosted the industrial and Urban area of Japan destroyed or damaged by B-20s to 115 square miles.
 4. American light naval units sailed boldly through the Kurile Is- land chain north of Japan and sank or damaged an entire Japanese con- voy of five ships in the sea of Ok hotsk last Monday.
 5. American planes sank Six other Japanese vessels and damaged five of the coast of Japan and in the Sakashima Islands in the south ern Ryukyus.
 6. Admiral Chester w. Nimitx fixed Navy casualties in the battle of Okinawa and associated fleet op- erationS since March 18 at 4,0O7 dead and 4,824 wounded, bringing total American casualties in the Okinawa campaign to 46,319.
 '. General Joseph w. Stilwell, former chief of D. S. ground forces, took over his new post as com mander of the American 10th Army , on Okinawa, succeeding the late Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar | Buckner, Jr.
 l 8. Nimitz failed to confirm . ; Japanese radio report that Amer , ican troops landed Monday on
 Kume Island, 50 miles west of Okinawa. Radio Tokyo made no fur l ther mention of the report after l saying yesterday that the Japanese garrison was engaged in heavy
 fighting with the invaders. } Radio Tokyo said the estahNih- l ment of a separate army defense command for Tokyo was part of an army program to consolidate and strengthen the defense of the home- land in expectation of an Amer 7 ican invasion.
 Nine Defense Posts Nine such regional defense posts
 now have been created, one in each of the districts represented on civil plane by 8 regional superin- tendent general.
 The system was set up with the
 avowed purpose of insuring con-
 tinuance of governmental authority
 should air raids or invasion isolate
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