United States Army Air Forces in Okinawa - Airfield Development

Airfield Development

With the conquest of Okinawa, the United States obtained a key location to launch an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, planned for November 1945. Base development plans were drawn up to provide for 18 runways on Okinawa and three on Ie Shima, instead of the eight and two originally planned respectively for the two islands. Construction of airfields on Okinawa was to center on the provision of facilities for B-29 Superfortress operations, while Ie Shima was to be developed primarily as a base for Very Long Range (VLR) P-47N Thunderbolt and P-51H Mustang fighter escorts.

Work on fighter airfields was initially given the highest priority in order to provide land-based air cover during the assault. By 10 April Kadena and Yontan airfields had been reconditioned for successful operations. By the end of May construction was in progress on ten different bomber and fighter runways on Okinawa and Ie Shima. Of these only the fields at Yontan and Kadena and one of the fighter runways on Ie Shima were near completion. The first American runway built on Okinawa was the 7,000-foot medium bomber runway at Yontan, completed on 17 June. By the end of June a 7,500-foot VLR strip at Kadena was 25 percent complete, two 5,000-foot fighter runways at Awase and Chimu for Navy use were ready for operation, an 8,500-foot VLR runway at Bolo Point was 15 percent complete, and construction was under way for VLR and a medium-bomber runway at Futema.

By the end of the Okinawa campaign the full realization of the plans for the development of major air bases in the Ryukyus lay in the future. Most of the airfields would not be completed for two or three months, although fighters were flying from some to attack Kyūshū.