After two years of island-hopping, the Allies gradually approached the Japanese mainland and planned to use Okinawa, an island only 340 miles away from the Japanese mainland, as a forward combat base to implement a strategic plan to attack Japan's territory.

Once the US military occupy Okinawa Island, it will become an ideal springboard for the Allied forces and directly threaten Japan's local security.

Under the experience and lessons of many battles, the Allies were very aware of the stubbornness and cruelty of Japanese imperialism. Unless they were completely defeated, they would never surrender unconditionally.

Therefore, the Allies have long been prepared for both sides, not only to step up research and development and production of the atomic bomb, but also to fiercely and fiercely, and to prepare for war to land on the Japanese mainland.

Therefore, in order to paralyze the Japanese economy to the greatest extent and destroy its war potential, the United States began to officially implement the "Battle of Hunger" in early 1945.

The so-called "Hunger Battle" was a large-scale mine blockade campaign carried out by the United States in the late World War II to force its unconditional surrender. It was the largest blockade campaign during World War II and the only blockade campaign in the history of world wars that specifically used mines.

During World War II, Japan was an island country with developed industries but poor resources. 92% of Japan's oil, 100% of rubber and cotton, 87% of iron ore, 90% of coke, 20% of grain and other strategic materials needed to be imported from abroad, and most of the domestic material transportation was also transported through inland shipping.

It can be said that the maritime transportation line is Japan's "lifeline". As long as Japan's maritime transportation line is destroyed, it can weaken its economic production capacity and destroy its war machines.

The plan was released at the end of 1944, but during the preparations for the battle, the US military discovered that neither the navy nor the army aviation troops could complete the mission alone.

The main reason was that the Japanese army's local air defense force was still very strong at that time, and the naval fleet also had considerable combat effectiveness. The entire battle was postponed until early 1945.

The focus of the US military's blockade is the only way for Japan to transport ships - the Shigaguan Strait. At the same time, mines were also laid on Hiroshima and Sasebo to block the Japanese fleet and clamp down its mine-sweeping forces.

Before the Okinawa Battle began on April 1, the US military had already released 3,000 tons of mines. In addition to the Shigakuen Strait, there were also important ports such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka, as well as the main waterways of the Seto Inland Sea, cutting off the maritime traffic between major industrial areas in Japan and the entire transportation network of the Japanese inland sea channel.

For the first time, the US military has used water pressure mines on a large scale. This mine is a non-trigger mine that detonates by using changes in the pressure on sea water during navigation.

There is currently no reliable cleaning equipment for this kind of mine, which is easy to cloth and difficult to sweep, which makes the Japanese army sigh and helpless when they look at the thunder.

Before the end of March, only 200 ships were sunk or injured by mines in the Xiaguan Strait, forcing ships loading supplies from North Korea and Northeast China to enter the Seto Inland Sea directly through the Xiaguan Strait.

The Japanese fleet could only detour to the ports on the northwest and west coast of Honshu and unload as much as possible, and transport as much food, industrial and military supplies to survive.

The Seto Inland Sea, which is the main shipping waters in Japan, has actually become the "Dead Sea". Only small wooden boats and barges can be passed through the Seto Inland Sea, resulting in a serious shortage of resources in Japanese industrial cities and national production is on the verge of a halt.

In order to ensure the smooth flow of waterways and ports, Japan organized 349 minesweeping ships and more than 20,000 people to carry out large-scale minesweeping operations.

Although the Japanese minesweeper ships lost three-quarters and cost huge amounts, spending 35.71 million yen in the Seto Inland Sea, they still cannot break through the US military's blockade.

Japanese ships dared not go to sea easily, and a large amount of supplies were difficult to transport back to China, so Japan gradually fell into a state of paralysis and hunger.

Through extensive mine laying, 19 of Japan's 22 shipyards were paralyzed, and ships damaged by the bomb were not repaired in time, and maritime traffic was on the verge of pause.

Due to the extreme lack of food, coal and other raw materials, transport ships were forced to take risks, regardless of the danger of being touched by lightning at any time, and attempted to forcibly break through the US military's blockade.

But the effect is not good. As almost all transportation lines leading to foreign countries were cut off, Japan fell into a state of complete paralysis.

The US military implemented the aviation mine-blocking operation code-named "Aircraft mine-blocking" to achieve the expected strategic and combat purposes, which dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese Empire, both materially and spiritually, and accelerated the complete collapse of Japanese militarism.

In April, the US military focused its targets at the naval bases of Wu Port and Sasebo, and the Hiroshima military loading and unloading port was used to lay mines to block the remaining Japanese ships from supporting Okinawa's operations through the west coast of Kyushu.

It can be said that in addition to playing a lasting strategic blockade, the "Battle of Hunger" also played a role in supporting the Battle of Okinawa.

Before this, the Japanese government had long expected that the day when the troops would face the siege, and the local government would definitely suffer a devastating blow.

Therefore, during the Battle of the Mariana Islands, the Japanese Empire began to organize industrial relocation, transfer important industrial systems to Manchuria and the Far East, and made the worst plan to use the land as a frontier blocking position.

However, they really did not expect that the US military would be so cruel and so "despicable"!

The US military not only launched a protracted large-scale strategic bombing on the mainland, but also bombed dozens of cities, including Tokyo, into ruins, and millions of Japanese people suffered a catastrophe.

Now, the US military threw mines everywhere under their noses, blocking the entire Japan. Not only is it difficult for strategic materials to reach the local area, but even food supplies are almost interrupted.

The Japanese Empire naturally could not bear this extreme humiliation of being pressed on the floor and rubbed to death, and could not swallow the anger no matter what.

Therefore, stimulated by these factors, the annoyed Japanese base camp did not give up Okinawa Island in a straightforward way according to the original idea, but instead made an extremely stubborn decision to "defend the enemy outside the country" and give the US military a good look here.

In order to ensure the defense of Okinawa, the Japanese base camp formulated a decisive air combat plan code-named "Sky Warfare" in March 1945.

Japan concentrated a total of 2,990 combat aircraft in the Army and Navy, including 1,230 suicide aircraft, deployed in Taiwan, Ryukyu and Kyushu and other regions, preparing to launch fierce assaults on US fleets and transport ships when the US military landed on Okinawa Island, and cooperated with the 32nd Army on the island to smash the US military's landing.

The Japanese Navy also deployed hundreds of suicide motorboats and man-operated torpedoes on Okinawa and its nearby islands, which will carry out surface and underwater special offensive operations against the US military.

According to the Sky combat plan, the Yamato battleship of the combined fleet, the Yamato cruiser and eight destroyers formed a special offensive fleet at sea, carrying only one-way fuel and conducting suicide attacks, heading to Okinawa Island to counter the landing of the US military, and attempting to burn its boats to fight to the death with the US fleet.

However, when this special attack fleet sailed out of the Fenghou waterway and arrived at the east coast of Kyushu, it was discovered by American submarines.

At dawn on the 7th, the special attack fleet entered the high seas south of Kyushu, and the US patrol planes targeted the Japanese fleet.
Chapter completed!