By October 1944 the war had changed dramatically and turned against Japan. The United States thought that the air force bombing of Japans island home land would bring them to their knees but the U.S. Army knew that a ground attack was necessary. Once the island of Iwo Jima was captured the next step to Japan main land was the largest of a group of island called the Ryukyu Archipelago. The island was only 340 miles from Taiwan and the Japanese home land town of Kyushu; 900 miles from Leyte, and 1200 miles from the islands of Ulithi and Guam which earlier in 1945 were the three closest…
