 He had 8,000 men, but only about half of them were soldiers; a large fraction of the rest were Korean laborers.To defend Kwajalein, Akiyama planned to use an aerial counterstrike with his 110 aircraft to weaken the American landing forces.However, on 29 January 1944, American carrier aircraft from carriers "Yorktown", "Lexington", and "Cowpens" destroyed 92 Japanese fighters and bombers.