The crisis was not confined to the ports. Even Naha, the largest city in the Ryukyu Islands, was far from safe at this moment.
Because Australasia attached great importance to the city, it committed most of its paratroopers—more than 4,000 troops—to attack it.
Thanks to the element of surprise, the raid achieved excellent results.
In just over an hour, more than 4,000 paratroopers had successfully occupied Naha's City Government, radio station, and important plazas, while defensive positions had been deployed along all the roads connecting Naha to the outside world.
Their numbers were nearly twice those at the port, which also meant that the paratroopers attacking Naha had more heavy weapons, including greater numbers of machine guns and artillery.
During the assault, these heavy weapons had not played much of a role. But once they settled into defense, the machine guns and artillery displayed their might.
Because Naha was so important, another Type C division chose to mobilize its entire force to protect the largest—and only—city in the Ryukyu Islands.
But the entire Type C division numbered only a little over 20,000 men. With most of its soldiers being recruits who had not undergone long-term training, taking the entire city through an offensive would be extremely difficult.
On top of that, they had support from Australasian aircraft in the sky, making victory through an attack even more difficult.
Forget breaking through the Australasian defensive positions—even approaching Naha was difficult for this Type C division.
Since the Meiji Restoration, the enemies the Japanese had faced—including Russia—had all been at an absolute disadvantage in armaments.
But this time, facing Australasia, they finally understood what true great-power strength looked like.
Australasia had always upheld the principle that human life was more valuable than anything else. It would rather waste extra bullets and shells