The Philipines to Midway

The Philippines

On December 8, 1941, Japan attacked an air base near the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Shortly after, Japanese forces forced the US troops to flee to nearby Bataan. The troops fought for some months in the jungles of Bataan. Many people got diseases and died. The next day, December 9, 1941, the British warship Prince of Wales and a cruiser Repulse were destroyed by Japanese planes. The two ships were large and had a lot of gun power but the Japanese planes easily sunk them showing their strength. On April 9, 1942, the United States soldiers at Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. The Japanese decided that they could take their prisoners to holding camps farther north. The Japanese soldiers forced the soldiers on a death march. The Japanese beat the prisoners with their guns and bayoneted them if they fell or if they did not like the prisoners. Some US soldiers had to dig their graves and then were buried alive. Of the 76,000 prisoners at the beginning of the march over 22,000 died. Before the US soldiers surrendered, General Douglas MacArthur was taken from the Philippines to protect him. He then became the Commander of operations in the Pacific. Before he left he said to his troops “I shall return."

U.S. troops on the death march

The Doolittle Raid

On April 18, 1942, James Doolittle lead an attack force of sixteen B-25 bombers toward Japan’s capital, Tokyo. These pilots had been on special training for several months. They were forced to fly very low, only a few feet over the water to avoid detection by Japanese radar. When the planes reached Tokyo they bombed several military industries and ship yards. The raid was a total surprise and the planes meet little resistance.

The raid helped to boost US moral and showed Japan that they were vulnerable to attack from the US.

On their way back to their aircraft carrier the sixteen planes ran into a storm and ran out of fuel. The pilots had to abandon their planes. Seventy-one out of eighty crew members made it back to the US.

Battle of the Coral Sea

The Coral Sea separates Australia from the Solomon Islands. A Japanese fleet of ships moved into the sea. This was a strategic move for the Japanese because they cut off the Australian forces from the New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and from the rest of the war. Also Australia had a base on New Guinea on Port Moresby which they did not want to fall into Japan’s hands. Unlike all the battles before this in the Pacific the battle at Coral Sea was not ship to ship. Only aircraft were used in the fighting.

The allied forces over powered the Japanese forces and soon they retreated. This was the first loss for Japan in the South Pacific. Japanese forces lost twenty-five ships during the battle.

Battle of Midway

In hopes to wipe out the entire US navy in the Pacific, Japanese leaders made planes to capture Midway Island. Midway Island is the westernmost tip of the Hawaiian Islands. It is near the center of the Pacific Ocean and is owned by the United States.

Japan sent a large task force of two hundred ships and six hundred planes to make a surprise attack on the army base at Midway. The United States army intelligence, broke Japanese codes and ciphers. They learned that the Japanese fleet was going to attack Midway Island.

In June 1942, United States Admiral, Chester W. Nimitz decided to take the remaining US fleet to Midway Island. The Japanese did not know that their surprise was ruined. They thought the US fleet was still at Pearl Harbor (its last confirmed whereabouts) and continued to head for Midway. Japan had four aircraft carriers but the US only had three. Japan attacked Midway Island inflicting only minor damage to the base and they did not destroy the airfield. While the Japanese planes were out, US torpedo planes attacked the Japanese fleet. The US forces sunk four of the seven Japanese carriers and shot down two hundred planes while only one US carrier and one hundred and fifty planes were destroyed by Japanese forces. After the attack the Japanese fleet retreated with the US fleet in pursuit. Some people call the battle of Midway the turning point in the war in the Pacific.

Island Hopping

From the end of 1943 to the fall of 1944, the US army employed island hopping tactics. Island hopping is when there is an amphibious invasion and conquest of a series of islands. The first targets were the Gilbert Islands. The first island in the Gilberts was a small island called Tarawa. After four days of fierce fighting the US finally captured the island. The Japanese lost around 4,500 troops and only 17 were left after the battle. The US had over 3,000 casualties, but learned much about amphibious landings and had fewer casualties the following battles.

The US forces jumped or leapfrogged across the central Pacific. The next target which was taken in February 1944, were the Marshall Islands. After the US captured the Marshalls they moved to the Mariana Islands. After the Mariana Islands were captured, Nimitz used the islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinain as bases which he could use to bomb Japan.

Recapturing the Philippines

In the fall of 1944 Allied forces started their campaign to recapture the Philippine Islands. By March of 1945, Allied forces captured Manila the capital. During the campaign, Japan lost about 350,000 troops. US causalities were 14,000 dead and 48,000 wounded. Japan was clearly close to defeat but they would not surrender.

Extra special thanks to Zach Burgman

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