Ju Ju Kushu (Ten Ten Air raid) is another name of the large-scale air raid carried out by the US Navy against the Nansei Islands on October 10, 1944. It is also called the “Naha Air Raid” because the devastation suffered in Naha was markedly severe.
The air raid started at about 6:45 in the morning and Okinawa came under attack in a ferocity that Okinawa had never experienced before and was hopelessly inadequate in anti-air raid measures and civic emergency management capabilities. The number of US Navy Carrier-based planes exceeded a thousand and those of Japan’s opposing aircraft was only fifty; and to make matters worse, almost all of the fifty warplanes could not fly due to delayed takeoff timing, thus causing Okinawa to come under intense air strike. The US Navy attack started from the main island of Okinawa, and further extended to the Kerama Islands, Miyako Island, Ishigaki Island, Daito Islands, Okidaito Island, Amami Islands and Tokunoshima Island. The Japanese Millitary met with a crushing defeat, losing the majority of warships and military facilities. Especially, Naha City, having suffered the large-scale fires and the fires lasting to the following day, received major damage with some ninety percent of the city having burned, more than 250 casualties and totaled buildings exceeding 11,000. The Japanese government later made a protest against the US air raid by claiming military attacks against the downtown area being equivalent to war crimes on the grounds of the downtown area being a non-military target. However, this air raid was never put to trial in an international tribunal.

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Okinawa From the main island of Okinawa extending to the Nansei (Southwest) Islands