The Day American Battleships Shelled Japan's Homeland

The Day American Battleships Shelled Japan's Homeland February 1945. Task Force 58 — the most powerful carrier fleet ever assembled — closes to within 60 miles of Tokyo. Not to drop a few bombs and escape like Doolittle. To stay. Sixteen carriers, eight battleships, seventeen cruisers. The battleships move in and open fire on the Japanese coast directly — the first time enemy guns have fired on the home islands since the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The aircraft hit the Nakajima aircraft factories outside Tokyo, the airfields, the industrial targets Japan believed were beyond reach. The Japanese interceptors that come up are overwhelmed. For two days, American ships operate freely in waters Japan considered its own backyard. The psychological damage outlasts the physical. If a fleet this size can sit off Tokyo in February 1945, the question is no longer whether Japan can win. It's whether anything can stop what's coming.