War in the Pacific: Midway to Okinawa
Overview
1942-43: Allies take the Initiative in the Pacific - Coral Sea to Guadalcanal
In early 1942, the governments of smaller powers began to push for an inter-governmental Asia-Pacific war council, based in Washington, DC. A council was established in London, with a subsidiary body in Washington. However, the smaller powers continued to push for an American-based body. The Pacific War Council was formed in Washington, on 1 April 1942, with representatives from the U.S., Britain, China, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Canada. Representatives from India and the Philippines were later added. The council never had any direct operational control, and any decisions it made were referred to the US-UK Combined Chiefs of Staff, which was also in Washington. Allied resistance, at first symbolic, gradually began to stiffen. Australian and Dutch forces led civilians in a prolonged guerilla campaign in Portuguese Timor.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the significance of Pearl Harbor and the early campaigns in the Pacific theater and connect the battles for Okinawa and Iwo Jima with the greater American “island hopping” strategy.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Battle of Midway: 4-7 June 1942 naval battle in which the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and the initiative in the Pacific War. This battle demonstrated the dominance of air power in World War II
Guadalcanal Campaign: Aug 1942-February 1943 campaign between U.S. and Japanese forces for control of this south Pacific island. U.S. victory ended Japanese offensive operations in the Pacific, and put Japan on the defensive for the rest of the Pacific War.
Having accomplished their objectives during the First Operation Phase with ease, the Japanese now turned to the second. Japan planned the Second Operational Phase to expand Japan's strategic depth by adding eastern New Guinea, New Britain, the Aleutians, Midway, the Fiji Islands, Samoa, and strategic points in the Australian area. However, limited resources and U.S. naval intervention in March 1942 stopped Japanese expansion across the south Pacific toward Australia. This intervention, along with the U.S. Doolittle bombing raid against Tokyo in April 1942, provoked Japanese leaders to try a series of riskier offensives against the U.S. naval presence in the central Pacific, specifically at Midway Island.
Admiral Yamamoto now perceived that it was essential to complete the destruction of the United States Navy, which had begun at Pearl Harbor. He proposed to achieve this by attacking and occupying Midway Atoll—an objective he thought the Americans would be certain to fight for, as Midway was close enough to threaten Hawaii. A month before the June 1942 Battle of Midway U.S. and Japanese naval forces fought the Battle of the Coral Sea. Although the outcome of the Battle of the Coral Sea in the southwest Pacific was not conclusive, U.S. forces did succeed in stopping the Japanese campaign to capture Australia.
The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first naval battle fought in which the ships involved never sighted each other, with attacks solely by aircraft. During this battle, Japan attacked Port Moresby—the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. From the Allied point of view, if Port Moresby fell, the Japanese would control the seas to the north and west of Australia and could isolate the country. Although they managed to sink a carrier, the battle was a disaster for the Japanese. Not only was the attack on Port Moresby halted, which constituted the first strategic Japanese setback of the war, but all three Japanese carriers that were committed to the battle would now be unavailable for the operation against Midway.
After Coral Sea, the Japanese had four operational fleet carriers—Sōryū, Kaga, Akagi, and Hiryū, and they believed that the Americans had a maximum of two—Enterprise and Hornet. Saratoga was out of action, undergoing repair after a torpedo attack, while Yorktown had been damaged at Coral Sea and was believed by Japanese naval intelligence to have been sunk. She would, in fact, sortie for Midway after just three days of repairs to her flight deck, with civilian work crews still aboard, in time to be present for the next decisive engagement.
Midway
Admiral Yamamoto viewed the operation against Midway as the potentially decisive battle of the war, which could lead to the destruction of American strategic power in the Pacific; this, the Japanese felt, would open the door for a negotiated peace settlement with the United States, favorable to Japan. Through strategic and tactical surprise, the Japanese felt they could knock out Midway's air strength and soften it for a landing by 5,000 troops. After the quick capture of the island, the Combined Fleet would lay the basis for the most important part of the operation. Yamamoto hoped that the attack would lure the Americans into a trap. Midway was to be bait for the US Navy which would depart Pearl Harbor to counterattack after Midway had been captured. When the Americans arrived, he would concentrate his scattered forces to defeat them.
An important aspect of the Japanese scheme was Operation AL, which was the plan to seize two islands in the Aleutians while the attack on Midway was happening. Contradictory to persistent myth, the Aleutian operation was not a diversion to draw American forces from Midway, as the Japanese wanted the Americans to be drawn to Midway, rather than away from it. However, in May, US intelligence codebreakers discovered the planned attack on Midway. At the conclusion of this battle U.S. naval forces had sunk all four Japanese carriers involved in the battle, at a loss of one U.S. carrier. In the aftermath of this battle Japanese forces lost the strategic initiative in the Pacific War, never to regain it.
New Guinea and the Solomons
Japanese land forces continued to advance in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. From July 1942, a few Australian reserve battalions, many of them very young and untrained, fought a stubborn rearguard action in New Guinea, against a Japanese advance along the Kokoda Track, towards Port Moresby and over the rugged Owen Stanley Ranges. The militia, worn out and severely depleted by casualties, were relieved in late August by regular troops from the Second Australian Imperial Force, who were returning from action in the Mediterranean theater. In early September 1942 Japanese marines attacked a strategic Royal Australian Air Force base at Milne Bay, near the eastern tip of New Guinea. They were beaten back by Allied forces (primarily Australian Army infantry battalions and Royal Australian Air Force squadrons, with United States Army engineers and an anti-aircraft battery in support). On New Guinea, the Japanese on the Kokoda Track were within sight of the lights of Port Moresby but were ordered to retreat to the northeastern coast. Australian and US forces attacked their fortified positions and after more than two months of fighting in the Buna–Gona area finally captured the key Japanese beachhead in early 1943. This was first on land defeat of Japanese forces in the war.
Guadalcanal
At the same time major battles raged in New Guinea, U.S. and Japanese forces fought for control of Guadalcanal, in the Guadalcanal Campaign. With Japanese and U.S. forces occupying various parts of the island, over the following six months both sides poured resources into an escalating battle of attrition on land, at sea, and in the sky. US air cover based at Henderson Field ensured American control of the waters around Guadalcanal during daytime, while superior night-fighting capabilities of the Imperial Japanese Navy gave the Japanese the upper hand at night. By late 1942, Japanese headquarters had decided to make Guadalcanal their priority. Contrarily, the US Navy hoped to use their numerical advantage at Guadalcanal to defeat large numbers of Japanese forces there and progressively drain Japanese manpower. Ultimately nearly 20,000 Japanese died on Guadalcanal compared to just over 7,000 Americans. In February 1943, after a six-month campaign of attrition, the Japanese evacuated Guadalcanal.
Allied Offensives 1943-44
Midway proved to be the last great naval battle for two years. The United States used the ensuing period to turn its vast industrial potential into increased numbers of ships, planes, and trained aircrew. At the same time, Japan lacked an adequate industrial base or technological strategy, a good aircrew training program, and adequate naval resources and commerce defense; this, of course, caused them to fall further and further behind. In strategic terms the U.S. began a long movement across the Pacific, seizing select islands. Not every Japanese stronghold had to be captured; some, like Truk, Rabaul, and Formosa, were neutralized by air attack and bypassed. The goal was to get close to Japan itself, then launch massive strategic air attacks, improve the submarine blockade, and finally (only if necessary) execute an invasion.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the significance of Pearl Harbor and the early campaigns in the Pacific theater and connect the battles for Okinawa and Iwo Jima with the greater American “island hopping” strategy.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
island-hopping: U.S. strategy of seizing select Pacific islands in the war effort against the Japanese in the Pacifc Theater
In its drive westward across the Pacific the US Navy did not seek out the Japanese fleet for a decisive battle. Because of superiority in resources the U.S. could advance westward across the Pacific through attrition, specifically relying on submarines to sink Japanese transports. The Japanese could only stop the U.S. advance with victory in a large-scale naval attack and battle. Oil shortages, brought about by submarine attacks, made such a battle impossible.
Allied Offensives on New Guinea and up the Solomons
The Allies then seized the strategic initiative for the first time during the War in the South Western Pacific. And, in June 1943, they launched a series of amphibious invasions to recapture the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Ultimately, isolating the major Japanese forward base at Rabaul. These landings prepared the way for the final stage of Nimitz's island-hopping campaign towards Japan.
Allied Submarines in the Pacific War
US submarines, as well as some British and Dutch vessels, played a major role in defeating Japan in the Pacific Theater, even though submarines made up a small proportion of the Allied navies—less than two percent in the case of the US Navy; they operated from bases at Cavite in the Philippines (1941 – 42); Fremantle and Brisbane, Australia; Pearl Harbor; Trincomalee, Ceylon; Midway; and later Guam. Submarines strangled Japan by sinking its merchant fleet, intercepting many troop transports, and cutting off nearly all the oil imports essential to weapons production and military operations. By early 1945, Japanese oil supplies were so limited that its fleet was virtually stranded. Allied submarine operations were an important component of the island-hopping strategy employed against the Japanese in the Pacific War.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the significance of Pearl Harbor and the early campaigns in the Pacific theater and connect the battles for Okinawa and Iwo Jima with the greater American “island hopping” strategy.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Pacific Theater: a major theater of the war between the Allies and Japan defined by the Allies Powers' Pacific Ocean Area command
island-hopping: U.S. strategy of seizing select Pacific islands in the war effort against the Japanese in the Pacific Theater
The Japanese military claimed its defenses sank 468 Allied submarines during the war. In reality, only 42 American submarines were sunk in the Pacific due to hostile action, with 10 others lost in accidents or as the result of friendly fire. The Dutch lost five submarines due to Japanese attack or minefields, and the British lost three.
American submarines accounted for 56% of the Japanese merchantmen sunk; mines or aircraft destroyed most of the rest. American submariners also claimed 28% of Japanese warships destroyed. Furthermore, they played important reconnaissance roles, as at the battles of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) and Leyte Gulf (October 1944) (and, coincidentally, at Midway in June 1942), when they gave accurate and timely warning of the approach of the Japanese fleet. Submarines also rescued hundreds of downed fliers, including future US president George H. W. Bush.
Allied submarines did not adopt a defensive posture and wait for the enemy to attack. Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, in retribution against Japan, Roosevelt promulgated a new doctrine: unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan. This meant sinking any warship, commercial vessel, or passenger ship in Axis-controlled waters, without warning and without aiding survivors. At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, Dutch admiral Conrad Helfrich, who was in charge of the naval defense of the East Indies, gave instructions to wage war aggressively. His small force of submarines sank more Japanese ships in the first weeks of the war than the entire British and US navies together, an exploit which earned him the nickname “Ship-a-day Helfrich.”
While Japan had a large number of submarines, they did not make a significant impact on the war. In 1942, the Japanese fleet submarines performed well, knocking out or damaging many Allied warships. However, Imperial Japanese Navy (and pre-war US) doctrine stipulated that only fleet battles, not guerre de course (commerce raiding), could win naval campaigns. So, while the US had an unusually long supply line between its west coast and frontline areas, leaving it vulnerable to submarine attack, Japan used its submarines primarily for long-range reconnaissance and only occasionally attacked US supply lines. The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia in 1942 and 1943 also achieved little.
As the war turned against Japan, IJN submarines increasingly served to resupply strongholds which had been cut off, such as Truk and Rabaul. In addition, Japan honored its neutrality treaty with the Soviet Union and ignored American freighters shipping millions of tons of military supplies from San Francisco to Vladivostok, much to the consternation of its German ally.
The US Navy, by contrast, relied on commerce raiding from the outset. However, the problem of Allied forces surrounded in the Philippines, during the early part of 1942, led to diversion of boats to "“guerrilla submarine" ” missions. Basing in Australia placed boats under Japanese aerial threat while en route to patrol areas, reducing their effectiveness, and Nimitz relied on submarines for close surveillance of enemy bases. Furthermore, the standard issue Mark 14 torpedo and its Mark VI exploder both proved defective, problems which were not corrected until September 1943. Worst of all, before the war, an uninformed US Customs officer had seized a copy of the Japanese merchant marine code (called the “maru code” in the USN), not knowing that the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) had broken it. The Japanese promptly changed it, and the new code was not broken until 1943. Thus, only in 1944 did the US Navy begin to use its 150 submarines to maximum effect: installing effective shipboard radar, replacing commanders deemed lacking in aggression, and fixing the faults in the torpedoes.
Japanese commerce protection was “shiftless beyond description,” and convoys were poorly organized and defended compared to Allied ones. These issues were a product of flawed IJN doctrine and training, a fact concealed by American faults as much as Japanese overconfidence. The number of American submarines patrols (and sinkings) rose steeply: 350 patrols / 180 ships sunk in 1942, 350 / 335 in 1943, and 520 / 603 in 1944. By 1945, sinkings of Japanese vessels had decreased because so few targets dared to venture out on the high seas. In all, Allied submarines destroyed 1,200 merchant ships, which equates to about five million tons of shipping. Most were small cargo carriers, but 124 were tankers bringing desperately needed oil from the East Indies. Another 320 were passenger ships and troop transports. At critical stages of the Guadalcanal, Saipan, and Leyte campaigns, thousands of Japanese troops were killed or diverted from where they were needed. Over 200 warships were sunk, ranging from many auxiliaries and destroyers to one battleship and no fewer than eight carriers.
Underwater warfare was especially dangerous; of the 16,000 Americans who went out on patrol, 3,500 (22%) never returned; this was the highest casualty rate of any American force in World War II. The Joint Army–Navy Assessment Committee assessed US submarine credits. The Japanese losses were higher: 130 submarines in all.
Final Allied Offensives in the Pacific, 1944-45
During the final stage of the U.S. approach toward Japan, U.S. forces in the south Pacific proceeded toward the Philippines, while U.S. forces in the central Pacific proceeded toward Japan itself. The Allies sought the unconditional surrender of Japan, while incurring the smallest number of casualties among their own forces possible. These efforts went along with the Allied efforts to drive the Japanese out of Asia. In the Pacific Theater the main U.S. operations were the Philippines and the Iwo Jima and Okinawa Campaigns.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the significance of Pearl Harbor and the early campaigns in the Pacific theater and connect the battles for Okinawa and Iwo Jima with the greater American “island hopping” strategy.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Iwo Jima and Okinawa Campaigns: U.S. campaigns for theses Japanese-held islands near the Japanese home islands in the first half of 1945 the length and heavy casualties of each hinting at the high cost of an invasion of the Japanese home islands, which led to the decision to detonate atomic bombs over Hiroshima
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: U.S. detonation of atomic bombs over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, which forced Japan to surrender, ended World War II, and ushered in the atomic age
Potsdam Declaration: Allied statement of surrender terms to be imposed on Japan, drafted at the 17 July-2 August 1945 Potsdam Conference of Allied leaders
The main objective was to liberate the Philippines Luzon—the largest and most populous island in that archipelago. In all, ten US divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest campaign of the Pacific War, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France. Other Allied forces in the Luzon campaign included a Mexican fighter squadron, as part of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana (FAEM—"Mexican Expeditionary Air Force”); this squadron was attached to the 58th Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Force that flew tactical support missions. 80 percent of the 250,000 Japanese troops defending Luzon, died. And the remainder of the Philippine islands were liberated by Allied forces in April 1945. In one sense the war for Japan ended when the last remaining Japanese soldier in the Philippines—Hiroo Onoda—surrendered on 9 March 1974.
Iwo Jima
Although the Marianas were secure and American bases firmly established, the long 1,200 miles (1,900 km) range from the Marianas meant that B-29 aircrews on bombing missions over Japan found themselves ditching in the sea if they suffered severe damage and were unable to return home. Attention focused on the island of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, about halfway between the Marianas and Japan. American planners recognized the strategic importance of the island, which was only 5 miles (8.0 km) long, 8 square miles (21 km2) in area and had no native population. The island was used by the Japanese as an early-warning station against impending air raids on Japanese cities. Additionally, Japanese aircraft based on Iwo Jima were able to attack the B-29s on their bombing missions on route to their missions and on the returning leg home, and even to attack installations in the Marianas themselves. The capture of Iwo Jima would provide emergency landing airfields to repair and refuel crippled B-29s in trouble on their way home and a base for P-51 fighters escorts for the B-29s. Iwo Jima could also provide a base from which land-based air support could protect the US Naval fleets as they moved into Japanese waters along the arc descending from Tokyo through the Ryukyu Islands.
In response to the U.S. advance toward Iwo Jima the Japanese strengthened their defenses on Iwo Jima with additional bunkers, hidden guns, and underground passageways during the latter half of 1944. The Japanese were determined to make the Americans pay a high price for Iwo Jima and were prepared to defend it to the death. The Japanese commander on Iwo Jima, Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, knew that he could not win the battle, but he hoped to slow the U.S. advance on Japan by inflicting heavy casualties on U.S. forces. By the end of 1944 a number of Japanese leaders didn’t expect to triumph over the Americans, but they sought to improve Japan’s bargaining position in peace negotiations by slowing the U.S. advance. In February, a total of 21,000 Japanese troops were deployed on Iwo Jima.
The American operation to capture the island (“Operation Detachment”) involved three Marine divisions of the V Amphibious Corps, which was a total of 70,647 troops under the command of Holland Smith. From mid-June 1944, Iwo Jima came under American air and naval bombardment, this continued until the days leading up to the invasion.
An intense naval and air bombardment preceded the landing but did little more than drive the Japanese further underground, making their positions impervious to enemy fire. The hidden guns and defenses survived the constant bombardment virtually unscathed. U.S. conquest of the island took from February 19 through March 26, 1945, at a cost of 6,821 Americans killed and 19,207 wounded. The Japanese losses totaled well over 20,000 men killed, with only 1,083 prisoners taken.
Okinawa
The largest and bloodiest battle fought by the Americans against the Japanese came at Okinawa. The seizure of islands in the Ryukyus was to have been the last step before the actual invasion of the Japanese home islands. Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, was located some 340 miles (550 km) from the island of Kyushu—the most southerly of the main Japanese islands The capture of Okinawa would provide airbases for B-29 bombers to intensify aerial bombardment of Japan and for direct land-based air support of the invasion of Kyushu. The islands could also open the way for tightening the blockade of Japanese shipping and be used as a staging area and supply base for any invasion of the home islands.
Over 75,000 Japanese troops defended Okinawa, augmented by thousands of civilians. 183,000 troops participated in the U.S. conquest of Okinawa. The British Pacific Fleet also operated as a separate unit from the American task forces in the Okinawa operation. Its objective was to strike airfields on the chain of islands between Formosa and Okinawa, to prevent the Japanese reinforcing the defenses of Okinawa from that direction.
The Allied operation to capture Okinawa began with a week-long bombardment in late March 1945. The land campaign took three months, beginning on April 1 and not being formally declared over until July 2. The battle for Okinawa proved costly and lasted much longer than the Americans had originally expected. The Japanese had skillfully utilized terrain to inflict maximum casualties. Total American casualties were 49,451, including 12,520 dead or missing and 36,631 wounded. Japanese casualties were approximately 110,000 killed, and 7,400 were taken prisoner. 94% of the Japanese soldiers died along with many civilians. Kamikaze attacks also sank 36 ships of all types, damaged 368 more and led to the deaths of 4,900 US sailors, for the loss of 7,800 Japanese aircraft.
The Borneo campaign of 1945 was the last major campaign in the South West Pacific Area. In a series of amphibious assaults between 1 May and 21 July, the Australian I Corps, under General Leslie Morshead, attacked Japanese forces occupying the island. Allied naval and air forces, centered on the US 7th Fleet under Admiral Thomas Kinkaid. The Australian First Tactical Air Force and the US Thirteenth Air Force also played important roles in the campaign. Although the campaign was criticized in Australia at the time, and in subsequent years as pointless or a “waste of the lives,” it did achieve a number of objectives: increasing the isolation of significant Japanese forces occupying the main part of the Dutch East Indies, capturing major oil supplies, and freeing Allied prisoners of war, who were being held in deteriorating conditions. At one of the very worst sites, around Sandakan in Borneo, only six of some 2,500 British and Australian prisoners survived the tortuous conditions of their captivity.
Landings in the Japanese Home Islands (1945)
Hard-fought battles on the Japanese islands of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and others resulted in horrific casualties on both sides,. Of the 117,000 Okinawan and Japanese troops defending Okinawa, 94 percent died. Faced with the loss of most of their experienced pilots, the Japanese increased their use of kamikaze tactics in an attempt to create unacceptably high casualties for the Allies. The US Navy proposed to force a Japanese surrender through a total naval blockade and air raids. Many military historians believe that the Okinawa campaign led directly to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a means of avoiding the planned ground invasion of the Japanese mainland. This view is explained by Victor Davis Hanson:
because the Japanese on Okinawa ... were so fierce in their defense (even when cut off, and without supplies), and because casualties were so appalling, many American strategists looked for an alternative means to subdue mainland Japan, other than a direct invasion. This means presented itself, with the advent of atomic bombs, which worked admirably in convincing the Japanese to sue for peace [unconditionally], without American casualties.
Towards the end of the war, a new command for the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific was created to oversee all US strategic bombing in the hemisphere, under United States Army Air Forces General Curtis LeMay. This happened because the role of strategic bombing came to be seen as more important. B-29 firebombing raids took out nearly half of the built-up areas of 67 cities, which caused Japanese industrial production to plunge. For example, on 9 – 10 March 1945 General Curtis LeMay oversaw Operation Meetinghouse, which saw 300 Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers drop 1,665 tons of bombs on the Japanese capital, mostly 500-pound E-46 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bombs. This attack is seen the most destructive bombing raid in history and killed between 80,000 – 100,000 people in a single night, as well as destroyed over 270,000 buildings and left over 1 million residents homeless. In the ten days that followed, almost 10,000 bombs were dropped destroying 31% of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe.
LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation, in which the inland waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air, which disrupted the small amount of remaining Japanese coastal sea traffic. On 26 July 1945, the President of the United States Harry S. Truman, the Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek and the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill issued the Potsdam Declaration, which outlined the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. This ultimatum stated that, if Japan did not surrender, it would face “prompt and utter destruction.”
Attributions
Images Courtesy of Wikipedia Commonds
Title Image - photo of the burning Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu in the Battle of Midway. Attribution: Naval History & Heritage Command, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Provided by: Wikipedia Commons. Location:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway#/media/File:Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Hiryu_adrift_and_burning_on_5_June_1942_(NH_73065).jpg. License: Creative Commons CC0 License.
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"The Pacific War"
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