Re the article on #3 about bombing Kudamatsu: if you look at Kudamatsu on Google Maps, you can see the L-shaped peninsula to the SW. Switch to Google Earth and you can see a mile-long refinery down the backside of the L, which would have been very easy to bomb, even easier than the nearby Tokuyama bombing earlier in the month that we talked about.
An interesting coincidence: the island across Kasado Bay from the peninsula, called Kasado Island, has its own Mt. Suribachi. Since 'suribachi' 摺鉢 is the Japanese word for a mortar-and-pestle bowl, the name is probably as much a description of the mountain as anything, much like, well, the Grand Tetons.
