Japanese seaplane destroyed by U.S. forces at Saipan. U.S.

Japanese seaplane destroyed by U.S. forces at Saipan. U.S. soldiers look at the wreckage of a four-engined Japanese seaplane caught at Tanapag harbor on Saipan Island, by the bombardment of Allied warships and planes during the landings of U.S. forces on June 14, 1944. U.S. troops routed the Japanese from carefully fortified positions, driving the enemy into a trap on the northern end of the island where organized resistance was ended on July 8. Control of the island in the Marianas of the Central Pacific not only cuts the supply line for hundreds of thousands of enemy troops to the south, but also gives the Allies a strategic base within the enemy's inner defense system, less than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from Japan. General Hideki Tojo, who vacated his post as Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army, after the U.S. conquest of Saipan, said that Japan faces an "unprecedently great national crisis as a result of the loss of Saipan".