U.S. troops interrupt Japanese tea.

U.S. troops interrupt Japanese tea. An American infantryman looks at the lunch abandoned by Japanese soldiers hurrying to escape U.S. forces who on June 22, 1944, captured the Aslite airstrip on Saipan Island of the Marianas group in the Southwest Pacific. U.S. forces then drove ahead to liberate the Japanese-held city of Garapan, bringing freedom to 60 per cent of the island on July 4, 1944. Saipan, a key base in Japan's inner defense system, is only 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the enemy homeland, within range of the new U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers. American strategic operations in the Marianas have cut off hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops to the south from receiving naval support and supplies.