World War Two: Biggest Show in the Pacific Theatre
World War Two: Biggest Show in the Pacific Theatre
World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind. However, the half century that separates the conflict of World War II from the modern day has exacted its toll on first hand experiences of the war. While World War II continues to absorb the interest of military scholars and historians, as well as its veterans, a generation of Americans have grown to maturity largely unaware of the political, social, and military implications of a war that, more than any other war united America as a people with a common purpose.
The Central Pacific Campaign opened abruptly on 7 December 1941, when carrier-based planes of the Japanese imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. No one expected the attacks to come at a relatively early time in the war. “Most that I encountered on the base thought that the US would stay out of the war in Europe and with Japan,” said Ted Sweeney of the US Navy. Following the attack it was widely believed that the heart of the U.S. Pacific Fleet had been rendered ineffective after the Japanese aircraft had destroyed or damaged eight of the fleet’s ships. Mr. Sweeney recounted in a personal interview about the aftermath of the attacks “The smoke rose for what seemed like miles in the sky. Our ship was silent as our radios set to autoscan looking for open stations, but the only thing that was found was fuzz. Pearl Harbor appeared as if it were completely destroyed.” As the war unfolded in the Pacific, the Navy turned to its aircraft carriers, all of which had been at sea on 7 December, as the capital ships that would carry the war to the enemy. Although the assault on Pearl Harbor was only one of many simultaneous attacks by the Japanese armed forces against the United States and its Allies in the Pacific, it was the one that struck a nerve in the American public and prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to demand, and receive, an immediate declaration of war from Congress. To declare war is a feat in and of it’s self, but to carry the fight to the enemy is quite another. America had been dealt a moral and physical blow, and she would need time for recovery.
While the United States organized itself for war, Japan continued to expand its empire. For five months the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet moved across the Pacific with virtual impunity. After Pearl Harbor it managed to sink 5 Allied battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 2 cruisers, and 7 destroyers; damage a number of capital ships; and destroy thousands of tons of merchant shipping and fleet auxiliary vessels. The cost to Japanese forces was relatively small: a few planes and experienced pilots from its aircraft carriers; 23 small naval vessels, the largest being a destroyer; and about 60 transports and merchant ships. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet and a firm advocate of carrier operations, intended to cap this naval campaign with a decisive blow to the crippled U.S. Pacific Fleet. He proposed coordinated attacks in the Aleutians and on the island of Midway that would force Nimitz into a fleet engagement in the open sea, where the Japanese could finish the job of destroying American naval power they had started at Pearl Harbor. While the Japanese plan included the invasion and occupation of the Aleutian Islands and Midway, the decisive defeat of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was the real goal. As long as the American fleet remained intact, any Japanese success in Midway or in the Aleutians would be a hollow victory at best.
The Japanese took a daring shot at the United States. They decided that if they could nullify the US carrier fleet, based at Midway Island, they would win the war. Once again the American Intelligence detected the plan and the Americans were fully prepared. The Japanese planned a quick heavy strike on the island with land forces moving in after the strike. The Japanese underestimated the strength of the United States, and did not bring adequate aircraft. The Japanese were defeated after a heavy resistance from the Midway.
Following the Battle of Midway General Douglas MacArthur assumed full command of American forces in the Pacific. Although 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. However, the Japanese struck before the Philippine Army could be completely trained or properly equipped. This was a crippling blow to America’s Pacific campaign.
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, commanded the so-called U.S. Forces in the Philippines, although General MacArthur remained the nominal commander. MacArthur left the Philippines stating, “I shall return.” Despite MacArthur's poor showing in the Philippines, President Roosevelt knew he could not 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 MacArthur sat in Camp Brisbane and John F. Wiggins recalls his time there. “Well we went to a little place called Brisbane, tiny, tiny place, really, but all around it was a huge military base. Huge! Cause, General MacArthur had his headquarters there and such.” The world watched as MacArthur’s 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 single-minded drive and resourcefulness made it one of the two prongs in the Allied drive to roll back the Japanese.
October 23, 1944, The Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest (3-days) naval battle of World War II, resulted in heavy Japanese naval losses and the loss of the U.S. aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Princeton. Admiral Kinkaid's US 7th Fleet escorts the first landing-parties from General Krueger’s 6th Army to Leyte. There was little resistance from Japanese 16th Division; the first day about 130.000 US troops came ashore. MacArthur was 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, as John F. Wiggins recounts, “Well we sailed up to Corregidor and this time I did take part in the landing, and after we cleared the beach, the general waded ashore, and I was about, oh, 10 feet away from him when he finally got out of the surf and said that he had returned.” In the following months MacArthur and the Sixth liberated the rest of the Philippines.
For another year the U.S. forces gallantly surged forward in the Pacific, taking Wake Island, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima. The Japanese ships had been forced to harbor in the home islands of Japan. The U.S. and Britain closed in on the Japanese ships with the intention of evening the strike on Pearl Harbor. In July 1945 the Allies effectively destroyed the Japanese Navy with little resistance. On August 6, 1945 America’s B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, dropped the first of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Japan. While the Japanese still wavered on the topic of surrender America dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later.
The Japanese then surrendered unconditionally, and on September 2, 1945 General Douglas Macarthur accepted the surrender of the country of Japan aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Just like Europe Japan’s population and cities had been decimated; just like in Europe the Allies stepped in to help rebuild the shattered nation.
Works Cited
- “Leyte Gulf: Fight for the Pacific” Wilfreid Database. http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/1944.htm
- Sweeney, Ted D. Personal Interview, 19 April 2006.
- Whitten, Chris. “The Pacific Theatre” World War II History and Information
- May 2004. World War II History and Information. 20 April 2006
- Wiggins, John F. Personal Interview, 14 April 2006.
- Pacific Theater in World War Two, Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Theater_of_Operations>
By: Connor Nolan Andrew Bosway