During the Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, did the Japanese have any air support?

Outside of incessant kamikaze attacks against American shipping during both battles, the only other attacks that occurred which could be considered "support of ground forces" were attempts to disrupt American tactical air support operations carried out by Japanese aircraft based on the home island of Kyushu (about 550 miles away) during the Battle of Okinawa. Okinawa was first attacked in October 1944 by carrier-based aircraft of the U.S. Third Fleet, which concentrated on attacking airfields on the main island as well as Ie Shima. The island was not directly attacked again until January 1945. It was observed that Japanese aircraft were being flown into Kadena Airfield (one of the two main airfields on the island) as late as 31 March 1945 (the day before the main attack on Okinawa), but no aerial opposition was encountered, and the airfields, which had been abandoned by the Japanese, were in American hands by the end of the first day of the landings.

The Japanese flew about 1,900 sorties, the vast majority being kamikaze, during the battle, coming in two phases; immediately after the American landings, and slowly decreasing in intensity until a brief spurt at the end of May which coincided with the American attack on the inner Japanese defense ring on southern Okinawa.

Date of Attack	Total	Navy Planes	Army Planes
6-7 April	355	230	125
12-13 April	185	125	60
15-16 April	165	120	45
27-28 April	115	65	50
3-4 May	125	75	50
10-11 May	150	70	80
24-25 May	165	65	100
27-28 May	110	60	50
3-7 June	50	20	30
21-22 June	42	30	15
TOTAL	1,465	860	605

Chapter 12 of Appleman et al's Okinawa: The Last Battle has a section dedicated to describing Japanese air attacks on American land and naval forces at Okinawa. I hav highlighted a particularly daring operation.

While the ground fighting was largely stalemated by rain, the air battle between the Americans on Okinawa and the enemy pilots from the Japanese home islands went on unceasingly....the Japanese air forces in May kept on unremittingly with their attacks. They were directed against two targets--the ships off shore and the airfields on Ie Shima and at Yontan and Kadena. During the latter half of May the Japanese air attacks on these targets reached a peak and included some of the severest strikes which the enemy delivered during the air fighting of the entire campaign. The American Tactical Air Force not only engaged in routine support of the ground forces--a support limited in effectiveness by the location of the enemy in deep underground positions--but also attempted to ward off the Japanese air attacks from the home islands. Thunderbolts and Corsairs of the Tactical Air Force made daily sweeps over the waters between Okinawa and southern Kyushu, intercepting enemy planes, and often continuing over Kyushu to bomb, rocket, and strafe targets there....

Japanese air raids reached a peak during the latter part of May. On the 20th, thirty-five planes raided the American fleet; twenty-three were shot down. On 22 and 23 May, Japanese planes came over Okinawa again. Beginning on 24 May, the enemy stepped up the tempo of the attack on American units ashore and afloat. The evening of the 24th was perfect bombing weather....The air alerts started about 2000 and it was 2400 before an all-clear sounded. In that interval there were seven distinct air raids on Okinawa. In the first raid planes penetrated through to bomb Yontan and Kadena. The third, fourth, and sixth groups of raiders also succeeded in dropping bombs on the airfields.

The seventh group consisted of five low-flying two-engine bombers, called "Sallys," that came in about 2230 from the direction of Ie Shima. Antiaircraft batteries immediately engaged them, and four planes crashed in flames near Yontan airfield. The fifth came in and made a belly landing...on Yontan. At least eight...Japanese rushed out of the plane and began tossing grenades and incendiaries into American aircraft parked along the runway. They destroyed 2 Corsairs, 4 C-54 transports, and 1 Privateer. Twenty-six other planes--1 Liberator bomber, 3 Hellcats, and 22 Corsairs--were damaged.

In the wild confusion that followed the landing of the Japanese airborne troops, two Americans were killed and eighteen injured. At 2338, forces arrived at Yontan to bolster the air-ground service units and to be on hand if enemy airborne troops made subsequent attempts to land. In addition to the thirty-three planes destroyed and damaged, two 600-drum fuel dumps containing 70,000 gallons of gasoline were ignited and destroyed by the Japanese....it was found that ten Japanese had been killed at Yontan; three others were found dead in the plane....The other four "Sallys" each carried fourteen Japanese soldiers, all of whom died in the flaming wrecks. Sixty-nine bodies in all were counted....Yontan airfield was non-operational until 0800 of 25 May because of the debris on the runway. This was the enemy's only attempt to land airborne troops on Okinawa during the battle.

While the attack on Yontan was in progress, twenty-three enemy planes conducted a raid against the field at Ie Shima. The bombing did not seriously damage the field itself but caused sixty casualties. During the night, antiaircraft fire shot down eleven enemy planes over Okinawa and sixteen over le Shima.

The air assault of 24-25 May was not confined to the airfields of Okinawa and Ie Shima. At the same time a large Kamikaze attack was under way against American ships. It was estimated the next day that 200 enemy planes had engaged in the attack. The enemy scored thirteen Kamikaze hits on twelve ships off shore. In repelling an attack during the morning of 25 May, American fighter planes intercepted and destroyed seventy-five enemy planes north of Okinawa. Altogether, on 24-25 May, more than 170 Japanese planes were brought down. During the week ending 26 May, the Japanese lost at least 193 planes in the Okinawa area.

The period of torrential rains was interrupted on 27-28 May by a night of clear weather with a bright moon. The Japanese air force and Kamikazes again came in force. Between 0730 of 27 May and 0830 of 28 May there were 56 raids of from 2 to 4 planes each, the total of enemy planes being estimated at 150. A vigorous effort was made by the enemy to penetrate the transport defense area and reach the heavy ships. The Kamikazes struck at both the Hagushi area and at Buckner Bay....During the night of 27-28 May nine ships were hit by Kamikazes. One of them, the destroyer Drexler, hit at 0705 on 28 May, sank within two minutes. Including the Kamikazes, 114 enemy planes were destroyed during this attack. There were only two other Kamikaze attacks during the rest of the campaign, at the beginning and the end of June, both of much smaller scale than any preceding.

The total Japanese air effort was far greater than that encountered in any other Pacific operation. The proximity of airfields in Kyushu and Formosa permitted the employment by the enemy of all types of planes and pilots. Altogether, there were 896 air raids against Okinawa. Approximately 4,000 Japanese planes were destroyed in combat, 1,900 of which were suicide planes. The intensity and scale of the Japanese suicide air attacks on naval forces and shipping were the most spectacular aspects of the Okinawa campaign. Between 6 April and 22 June there were ten organized Kamikaze attacks, employing a total of 1,465 planes....In addition, sporadic small-scale suicide attacks were directed against the American fleet by both Army and Navy planes, bringing the total number of suicide sorties during the campaign to 1,900.

The violence of the air attacks is indicated by the damage inflicted on the American forces. Twenty-eight ships were sunk and 225 damaged by Japanese air action during the campaign. Destroyers sustained more hits than any other class of ships. Battleships, cruisers, and carriers also were among those struck, some of the big naval ships suffering heavy damage with great loss of life. The radar picket ships, made up principally of destroyers and destroyer escorts, suffered proportionately greater losses than any other part of the fleet. The great majority of ships sunk or damaged were victims of the Kamikaze. Suicide planes accounted for 26 of the 28 vessels sunk and for 164 of the 225 damaged by air attack during the entire campaign.

Source:

Appleman, Roy E., James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and John Stevens. U.S. Army in World War II, The War in the Pacific, Okinawa: The Last Battle. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1948.