The U.S. carrier airmen took thousands of photographs. Okinawa was a populous island, they knew, with a 1940 population of 800,000—but now, as they looked down, they saw few people at all. Nimitz’s intelligence analysts had estimated Japanese troop strength on the island at 65,000. The actual number was closer to 100,000—but from the air it was difficult to pinpoint the locations of blockhouses and gun emplacements.
