Why did U.S. forces capture the Kerama Islands before landing on Okinawa?

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U.S. Marines on Okinawa — Battle of Okinawa U.S. Marines battling for control of a ridge near Naha, Okinawa, May 1945.

U.S. forces captured the Kerama Islands on March 26, 1945, as a preliminary operation to the invasion of Okinawa. The primary reason for this landing was to neutralize a significant threat to the main invasion force: the Japanese had assembled approximately 350 small boats in the Kerama Islands intended for suicide attacks against the American landing fleet. By securing these islands before the main assault on Okinawa, U.S. forces effectively eliminated this specific danger to their naval units.12