1. Whitten, Chris. “The Pacific Theatre” World War II History and Information May 2004. World War II History and Information.  20 April 2006 http://www.worldwar2history.info/pacific/  

• “In the first seven months after Pearl Harbor the Japanese, at a surprisingly low cost, had gained control over a huge area extending from Burma to the Gilbert Islands and from the Aleutians to the Solomons.”
• Japanese had overextended
• The Japanese forces were still strong, but American concentrated efforts on single victories rather than large efforts.

2. Curley, John. “World War II: The Early Years” 27 August 1999. National Archives of College park.  20 April 2006
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/photos/WWII/ErlyYrs/WW2-ErlYrs.htm

• Casualties were transported on flat amphibious boats called Lighters
•  S-1/4

3. “Timeline of Events: 1941-1945”  1999.  The History Place.  20 April 2006 http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/timeline.htm

• December 8, 1941 - U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Japanese land near Singapore and enter Thailand.
• February 1, 1942 - First U.S. aircraft carrier offensive of the war as YORKTOWN and ENTERPRISE conduct air raids on Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.
• March 24, 1942 - Admiral Chester Nimitz appointed as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific theater.
• May 7-8, 1942 - Japan suffers its first defeat of the war during the Battle of the Coral Sea off New Guinea - the first time in history that two opposing carrier forces fought only using aircraft without the opposing ships ever sighting each other.
• June 4-5, 1942 - Turning point in the war occurs with a decisive victory for the U.S. against Japan in the Battle of Midway as squadrons of U.S. torpedo planes and dive bombers from ENTERPRISE, HORNET, and YORKTOWN attack and destroy four Japanese carriers, a cruiser, and damage another cruiser and two destroyers. U.S. loses YORKTOWN.
• April 18, 1943 - U.S. code breakers pinpoint the location of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto flying in a Japanese bomber near Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Eighteen P-38 fighters then locate and shoot down Yamamoto.

4. Parshell, John.  “Imperial Japanese Navy” August 2000. 20 April 2006  http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

• At the beginning of the Second World War, the Japanese Navy (or, in the Japanese language, Nihon Kaigun, or even Teikoku Kaigun, the Imperial Navy) was arguably the most powerful navy in the world. Its naval aviation corps, consisting of 10 aircraft carriers and 1500 topnotch aviators, was the most highly trained and proficient force of its kind
• At the begining of World War II, the Imperial Navy had created the finest naval aviation corps in the world
• Japanese aircrews were superbly trained and had been battle tested in the conflict in China during the late 1930's. When war tore across the Pacific in December 1941, the IJNAF was more than a match for any of its opponents. It is not surprsing, then, that Japanese aviators scored victory after stunning victory during the first six months of the war, from the attack on Pearl Harbor, through the sinking of the British men-of-war Prince of Wales and Repulse, to the fearsome raids on northern Australia and the IJN's rampage through the Indian Ocean in April 1942.
• Yamato class Battle Ships

5. “Department of the Navy” 15 January 2001. 21 April 2006 http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/pearlhbr/pearlhbr.htm

• The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December
• These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition
• 

6. “The Fall of the Philippines Bataan and Corregidor” http://www.worldwar2history.info/Bataan/
At the time of Pearl Harbor, General MacArthur's ground forces consisted of the Philippine Army of 10 divisions and supporting troops, with a total strength of about 100,000, and a U.S. Regular Army contingent of more than 25,000. Of the latter force, the largest unit was the Philippine Division, consisting of one American regiment and two Philippine Scout regiments. The Japanese struck before the Philippine Army could be completely trained or properly equipped. S – top
 On March 12, 1942, General MacArthur was ordered by the President to leave for Australia. His successor in command was Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright who, for a short period (21 March to 6 May 1942), commanded the so-called U.S. Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), although General MacArthur remained the nominal commander.S – ¾

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Theater_of_Operations
2. S – top

• Wiggins, John F.  Personal Interview, 14 April   2006.
• Sweeney, Ted E.  Personal Interview  20 April 2006.
• American Army troops of the 163rd Infantry Regiment storm the beach during the invasion of Wake Island, New Guinea. May 17, 1944.
• http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/index.html  S – ½

7. 23 October 1944The Battle of Leyte Gulf, was the biggest (3-day) naval battle of WW II, results in heavy Japanese naval losses and the sinking of the U.S. aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton. Admiral Kinkaid's US 7th Fleet escorts the first landing-parties from General Kruegers's 6th Army to Leyte. There was little resistance from Japanese 16th Division, the first day about 130.000 US troops came ashore.http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1944.htm S - 5/6
But despite MacArthur's poor showing in the Philippines, President Roosevelt knew he couldn't let America's most famous general fall to the enemy, and ordered him to withdraw to Australia. Although it ran counter to his notion of a soldier's duty, MacArthur left his men facing sure destruction, comforted only by the belief that he might lead an army back to rescue them. For the next three years, the world watched as his personal quest -- "I shall return" -- became almost synonymous with the war in the Pacific. Although MacArthur's path through the dense jungles of New Guinea was hardly imagined in the initial war plans, his singleminded drive and resourcefulness made it one of the two prongs in the Allied drive to roll back the Japanese.
Simultaneously fighting a two front war -- one with the Japanese, the other with the U.S. Navy, who understandably saw the Pacific as theirs -- MacArthur slowly gained momentum. In October of 1944 the world watched as he dramatically waded ashore at Leyte, and in the following months liberated the rest of the Philippines.http://www.empereur.com/G._Douglas_MacArthur.html S 5/6

 

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