VIRTUAL LOSS OF OKINAWA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 7 June 1945, Page 5

VIRTUAL LOSS OF OKINAWA

ADMISSION BY TOKIO "JAPAN MUST FIGHT ON OR BE DESTROYED" New York, June 6. Tokio newspapers have virtually conceded the loss of Okinawa. “Yomiuri Hochi” said Okinawa was now strategically reduced to a mere isolated island and reiterated that Japan must fight on or be destroyed. The paper concluded: “If we fall it will be the end of the Yamato race as our enemies are bent on our complete annihilation.” Admiral Nimitz, in an unusual communique, delayed beyond the usual hour, for the first time omitted all mention of ground operations and reported only scattered air actions against enemy shipping bases.

The end of the Okinawa campaign will come in three or four days if highspeed manoeuvres are maintained, said Admiral Nimitz. The Associated Press of America Guam correspondent sa3*s the complete news blackout on southern Okinawa operations is taken to indicate the possibility of a later announcement reporting the end of organised resistance there. The Japanese at the latest reports, were being compressed into the small southern tip of the island and were losing their grasp of the huge Naha airfield. The Japanese are using a new rocket type of bomb with a distinctive strike, then a moment’s silence before the explosion.