WWII - War In The Pacific

After Pearl Harbor, American and British planners adopted a “Europe First” strategy, but fierce fighting in the Pacific quickly brought major Allied setbacks as Japan conquered much of the region and turned it into what one American admiral called “a Japanese lake.” In the Philippines, outnumbered American forces held out until May 1942 under General Douglas MacArthur, who then left for Australia after promising, “I shall return.” The tide began to shift in May 1942 when American forces fought Japan in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval battle fought entirely by carrier-based aircraft, and stopped Japan’s southward expansion despite heavy losses on both sides. A greater turning point came on June 4, 1942, at Midway, where Americans who had broken Japanese code surprised the attackers and destroyed over three hundred Japanese planes and four aircraft carriers, a blow from which Japan never fully recovered. That victory allowed the U.S. to take the offensive through a two-pronged advance toward Japan: MacArthur moved through the South Pacific toward the Philippines, while the U.S. Navy, marines, and soldiers under Admiral Chester Nimitz captured selected islands in the central Pacific, bypassing stronger positions so they would “wither on the vine” after their supply lines were cut. Nimitz’s campaign secured the Marianas by August 1944, giving the U.S. bases close enough to bomb Japan regularly, while MacArthur returned to Leyte Island in October 1944 and the Battle of Leyte Gulf followed, the largest naval battle in history, leaving Japan with over sixty ships lost and ending its run as a great naval power. The Americans reclaimed the Philippines in July 1945 at the cost of sixty thousand casualties, then fought increasingly ferocious resistance on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where Japanese troops fought from caves and used kamikaze attacks, with the two battles costing about seventy thousand American casualties combined. Okinawa was intended as the base for an invasion of Japan, but after five years of development the United States used atomic bombs instead: President Harry Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing eighty thousand people instantly, and Nagasaki on August 9 after Japan still refused unconditional surrender. Japan then agreed to surrender with the condition that Hirohito remain emperor, the Allies accepted that condition, and the formal surrender took place on September 2, 1945, ending World War II.

Gonzales, Louisiana · United States