Quaking Islands

On theB-29 route between the Marianas and Japan, the surface of the ocean is broken by a pimple called Iwo Jima or Sulphur Island. There the Japanese have maintained three airfields, also a radar station to detect the B-29s and flash word to Tokyo, 750 miles away, giving more than two hours' warning of the bombers' approach. By last week, U.S. planes had bombed little Iwo for 66 consecutive days.

Meanwhile the B-29s picked a new target on Japan and (by Jap account) followed a new roundabout course to reach the Tokyo area. About 100 of the Superfortresses took as their target the huge Nakajima Ota aircraft factory, 40 miles northwest of the capital. A half-dozen major buildings were splattered with bomb bursts. While the attack was going on, Japan's central island of Honshu shuddered also from a natural earthquake.

In the whole vast Pacific Ocean Areas of Fleet Admiral Nimitz, there was no offensive in progress at the turn of the week. But a naval spokesman in Washington, weighing his words, admitted: "I think you can say the Marines are ready."

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