World War II in the Pacific

Starting in the early 1930’s, the Japanese began to display their great imperialistic dreams with ambition and aggression. Their goal was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" where they controlled a vast empire in the western Pacific.1 In September of 1939, Japan signed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Treaty, allying themselves with Germany and Italy in an effort to safeguard their interests in China from the Soviet Union. Japan’s only major obstacle left lay in the significant size of the United States Pacific Fleet. To rid themselves of this, Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet in hopes of crippling it enough to prevent any further hindrance from the

Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign (April 1—June 22, 1945) involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan ("Battle of Okinawa," 1996). The Battle of Okinawa remembered more for its iconic photograph of US Marines raising the US flag on Okinawa more so than any other war or battle ever fought. Okinawa the largest of the Ryukus islands played a major role in the American forces overall strategic efforts to advance to the mainland’s of Japan. Because it was the last major battle of WWII, the battle of Okinawa used lessons learned and TTP’s from all previous

The battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa were two of the most important American operations in the Pacific Theatre against the Empire of Japan during World War Two. The goal of the two operations was to secure strategically important islands close to Japan to use for bombing campaigns. The battles for Iwo Jima(February-March 1945) and Okinawa f(April-June 1945) killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians and helped to win the war for the United States.

he Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest and fiercest battles of the Second World War in which the US Armed Forces captured the Iwo Jima Island from the Japanese. More than 6800 American servicemen lost their lives in the battle and thus the battle has come to known as the deadliest battle in Marine Corps history. Iwo Jima was an island strategically positioned and highly fortified as its three airfields were used to stage attacks on the US at the Pacific War. It was therefore Americas target to capture the island and use it to stage attacks on Japans mainland and use the airfields as emergency landing strips for the US Navy planes damaged during war. According to The Washington Post a small group gathered on Thursday February 18th

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an engagement between the United States Pacific Fleet and the Japanese navy in World War II. This Battle occurred started on June 19 and ended on June 20 in 1944. The Japanese goal at the very beginning of this conflict was to discourage American forces by incurring such great damage to the military that the public majority would become weary of the war and discontinue its support of the war. The loss of support from the public would then cause the US Government to retract its forces from Japan.( Willmott, H.P. June 1944. New York, NY: Blandford Press, 1984. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8) Willmott 1984, p. 143.)

From 1853 to 1941, Japan changed from being a reclusive, isolated nation that kept to itself to an imperialistic power openly attacking and conquering surrounding territories and peoples.

Samoa, and other small islands. Japan was very vulnerable to a naval attack by America and

in the region. America’s presence in Guam and the Philippines and its support of China posed

Okinawa, Japan was the site of the largest amphibious battle of World War II. The Battle of Okinawa resulted in the death of over 12,000 American and 100,000 Japanese soldiers, which lasted from late March through June 1945. The Battle of Okinawa was one of the main reasons President Harry Truman dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The main reason for the bombing was to put a stop to the American death toll. Approximately two months later on August 6, 1945, the massive nuclear weapon was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb destroyed about four square miles of the city and also caused the death of 65,000 Japanese citizens. Because of this bombing, the Japanese government surrendered a week later.

The trade embargo by US had caused an uproar in Japan, and this led into the question, “To what extent was the trade embargo by the USA responsible for Japanese military actions in 1941?” Some historians claimed that the trade embargo had forced Japan to use their military to attack Pearl Harbor, but why? The embargo appointed Japan to felt threatened to performed their ideology, situated Japan in an untenable position since they’re intensely relied on US imports, and produced a panicking atmosphere for their country’s survival. Japan viewed the embargo as a threat to achieved their ideology. Japan in the 19th century had strived for nationalism and embarked on modernization, which caused them to acquired an aggressive expansion plan, starting

The military had a unique plan created by General MacArthur “to island-hop all the way to Japan, capturing each of those islands as they went” (Page 55). In Sioux Code Talkers of World War II, Page explains all the different islands throughout the world that the United States had to take back from the Axis Powers like New Guinea, Leyte, Luzon, and the Philippines. The United States also saved many people that had been captured by the Axis Powers. The Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Philippines was a huge victory when they were able to save all the people captured within being deprived of food, water, and shelter; “Go to Manila, Go around the nips, bounce off the Nips, but go to Manila, MacArthur insisted” (Page 77). The United States traveled from island to island fighting the Axis Powers and saving innocent people from dying.

The biggest target of all though for Japan was definitely the battle ships. The biggest battleship there at the time was a battleship known as the “USS Arizona” which was built in 1915. Today the USS Arizona still stands upright under water, the USS Arizona still holds 500,000 gallons of fuel right now. All in all, the USS Arizona defied all odds to sink,and still stand up-right. Leaking around 9 quarts of fuel every day.(“Arizona”)

In the beginning of war, Japanese victory in Pacific terrified West Cost Americans. Partial victory for Americans appeared when Japanese capital Tokyo was bombed. It was less of a material loss but huge in terms of psychological attack. It was followed by the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942 and after that the decisive Battle of Midway Island took place. U.S. aircraft carriers destroyed three out of four Japanese carriers that sabotaged their further plans of invasion and they adopted a defensive strategy.

In 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the United States. As a result, Japan lost 88% of its imported oil. They needed large amounts of oil to run their war machines. Japan’s response to the embargo was to continue its occupation of Southeast Asia to control their rubber and tin production. This was a major blow to the west since they imported materials from the east.

The U.S. wanted to negotiate with the Japanese, but then they broke all relations with the U.S.