Eighty years ago today, on March 27, 1945 (February 14, 1945 lunar calendar), the US naval blockade of Japan. During the Pacific War, the US military carried out a large-scale naval blockade operation against the Japanese mainland. In the spring of 1945, the US military broke through the internal defense of the Japanese "absolute defense circle" in the Pacific battlefield, attempting to capture Okinawa and then land on the Japanese mainland. In order to destroy the will of the Japanese army to resist, the US military decided to implement a naval blockade against the Japanese mainland while large-scale air raids on major cities. Japan is an industrially developed but resource-poor island country. Strategic materials, including grain, looted from overseas need to be transported back to the country by sea. More than 75% of the transportation between the Japanese mainland islands is also carried out by water transportation. The US military believes that the use of aerial mine-laying, supplemented by submarine hunting and other means to implement a naval blockade is of great strategic significance for the complete defeat of Japan. The aerial mine-laying operation began on March 27, 1945, and was codenamed the "Hunger Campaign". The mine-laying mission was mainly carried out by the strategic aviation (B-29 heavy bombers of the 20th Army Air Force). In coordination with tactical aviation and submarines, more than 1,500 aircraft were dispatched and about 120,000 mines were dropped. The main areas of mine-laying were the Shimonoseki Strait, the Seto Inland Sea, and the ports of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, and Sasebo. During the four-and-a-half-month mine-laying operation, the US military basically achieved the purpose of blockading the Japanese mainland at a small cost of losing 15 B-29 bombers. From May 27 to June 24, nine US submarines broke into the Sea of Japan to carry out diplomatic activities. The US lost one submarine, sank one Japanese submarine, and 28 merchant ships, weakening Japan's shipping capabilities. The US naval blockade of Japan damaged a total of 670 Japanese ships (nearly 1.40 million tons), turned Japan's main ports into abandoned ports, and cut off the sea lines of communication between mainland Japan and South East Asia, as well as the Chinese mainland and Korea. As a result, Japan's military production came to a standstill, supplies were interrupted, aircraft and ships were suspended, the country was in a state of starvation, and the national strength and combat effectiveness of the army fell sharply.