About 6,000 Japanese troops are based on Yap, two runways are built and about 3,000 islanders are moved inland.

What happened

The troops, mostly air units, built two runways in expectation of fighting in the Marianas. Yap was never invaded, but cut off from supplies and crowded with soldiers, it faced food shortages; Japanese Wikipedia says soldiers and islanders worked together at farming and fishing. Yapese remember these years as a time of bombing, labor drafts and suffering.