The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-05-30
Superfort Attack Leaves 250,000 Homeless as
 Fire Bombs Explode CHINESE WINNING OUT
 ON CONTINENTAL ARfAS
Tanks Crash Through CrumbIing Jap De-
 lenses, 0kindwa
By LEONARD MILLIMAN Associated Press War Editor)

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 Tanks crashed through crumbling Japanese defenses of Okinawa Island and Chinese troops reported vic- tories on four continental fronts to- day as Japanese at home coped with the greatest disasters its cities have ever experienced. "
 Enemy breakfasts reported 25O.0o0 Yokohama residents were left home less and uncounted numbers killed by yesterdays Superfortress attack which transformed the port city into a sea of flame.
 More than 51 square miles .of Tokyo-afi area greater than the city of San Frailcisco---has been destroyed in six mass incendiary attacks in the last three months which cost the 2ist Bomber Com mand 50 Superforts. There's noth- ing let in the enemy capital worth fire bombing.
 Okinawa Conquest
 On the doorstep of Nippon's home land, U. s. Marines and infantry men cracked into Okinawa's ancient Shuri fortress, virtually completed conquest of the capital city of Naha, and made deep tllrusts toward the southern and eastern tips of the island
 Japanese fought fiercely in the outskirts of Naha and north of Shuri. but American field officers predicted the southern shore would be reached today and invading ground forces would take at least half of what's left of southern Okinawa within a week.
 In Philippines
 Climaxing months of mountain fighting in the Philippines the 38th Infantry Division captured unde- fended Wawa Dam, the last of Man ila's three reservoirs to be re- claimed. while the 32nd and 25th divisions joined forces for a push into fertile Cagayan Valley on northern Luzon Island.
 Announcement of extensive China gains were coupled with other re- ports of Japanese retreats. The Indo- China corridor was further preached. Chinese columns pressed toward Japanese bases in southern. central and northern China, and swept farther up the coastline north of the recaptured port of Foochow.
 Strategic Bembing
 The destruction of virtually all of industrial Tokyo within three months was described by Associated Press War Correspondent Leif Erickson as .''an unparalleled achievement in strategic bombing "
 Only the blackened skeletons of concrete and steel buildings remain ed in vast scared srea spreading out around the Imperial Palace.
 In this area were Tokyo's great est war industries. her main business section and hundreds of ex-toy fac- tories which had become shadow producers of war materials. Numer- ous buildings in the Imperial Palace grounds were destroyed. but dam- age to the Emperor's Palace was minor.
 Great Devastation
 Seventy-se seven square miles of five of Japan's major Industrial cities have now been devastated by fire bombs. which Mai. Gen. Curtis M. Lemay of the 2lst Bomber Com- mand. says cannot annihilate city.
 This does not include destruction accomplished yesterday in the first incendiary attack on Yokohama, port of Tokyo. Tokyo broadcasts said the communication and trans- portation systems were paralyzed and 60.000 homes burned down. It made no mention of industrial dam age.