david horner is the professor - preterhuman.net · seized lonely wake island in the mid-pacific;...

DAVID HORNER is the Professorof Australian Defence Historyat the Strategic and DefenceStudies Centre, AustralianNational University, Canberra.A graduate of the RoyalMilitary College, Duntroon,who served as an infantryplatoon commander in SouthVietnam, Colonel Homer is theauthor of over 20 books onmilitary history and defence,including High Command (1982)and Blarney: The Commander-in-Chief (1998).

PROFESSOR ROBERT O'NEILL,AO D.PHIL. (Oxon), Hon D.Litt.(ANU), FASSA, Fr Hist S,is the Series Editor of theEssential Histories. His wealth ofknowledge and expertise shapesthe series content and providesup-to-the-minute research andtheory. Born in 1936 anAustralian citizen, he served inthe Australian army (1955-68)and has held a number ofeminent positions in historycircles, including theChichele Professorship of theHistory of War at All SoulsCollege, University ofOxford, 1987-2001, and theChairmanship of the Board ofthe Imperial War Museum andthe Council of the InternationalInstitute for Strategic Studies,London. He is the author ofmany books including works onthe German Army and the Naziparty, and the Korean andVietnam wars. Now based inAustralia on his retirement fromOxford he is the Chairman ofthe Council of the AustralianStrategic Policy Institute.

Essential Histories

The Second World War (1)The Pacific

Essential Histories

The Second World War (I)The Pacific

David HornerOSPREYPUBLISHING

First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Osprey Publishing,

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This book is one of six volumes on the Second World War in

the Osprey Essential Histories series

02 03 04 OS 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Introduction

Chronology

Background to war

The expansion of Imperial Japan, 1891 -1941

Warring sides

Powerful Japan faced certain defeat

Outbreak

The slide toward inevitable war

The fighting

The course of the Pacific War

Portrait of a soldier

Thomas Currie Derrick, an Australian soldier

The world around war

A clash of cultures and races

Portrait of a civilian

Gwen Harold Terasaki, an American in Japan

How the war ended

Not necessarily to Japan's advantage

Conclusion and consequences

How the War transformed the Asia-Pacific

Further reading

Index

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Introduction

The Pacific War, the most significant eventin the modern history of the Asia-Pacificregion, was both a part of the Second WorldWar and a distinct entity within it. Of theAxis powers - Japan, Germany and Italy -Japan played the overwhelmingly major rolein the Pacific: Germany and Italy were barelyinvolved. By contrast, all the principal Allies- the United States, Britain, China, Australia,and the Netherlands - were deeply engaged,and the Soviet Union joined the war near itsend. At the highest level, the Allies saw theSecond World War as one conflict, in whichthe Pacific was just one theater. But althoughthe Allied strategic planners had to juggleresources between theaters, the story of thePacific War can be told separately, with thewar against Germany appearing only asnoises off-stage.

The Pacific War began on 7 and8 December 1941 when Japan attacked PearlHarbor, Malaya, and the Philippines, therebyinitiating a war against the USA and Britain.Japan claimed that after the USA appliedcrippling economic sanctions in July 1941 ithad no alternative. But the war owes itsorigins to Japanese expansionism andmilitarism over a period of half a centurybefore 1941. Japan had been at war withChina since 1937, when it invaded centralChina, and earlier, in 1931 and 1932, Japanhad seized the Chinese territory ofManchuria. While one can argue about whenthe war began, however, there can be nodoubt about its conclusion. It ended inAugust 1945 when US aircraft droppedatomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,and Japan formally surrendered in Tokyo Bayon 2 September 1945.

The war was fought over a large part ofthe earth's surface. Land operations stretchedfrom the fog-bound Aleutian Islands in thenorthern Pacific Ocean to the steaming

tropical jungles of the Solomon Islands inthe South Pacific. To the east, Japanese forcesseized lonely Wake Island in the mid-Pacific;to the west, they fought in the jungle hillsbordering India and Burma. Naval operationswere more widespread, reaching east toHawaii, south to Sydney Harbour and westto Madagascar, off the African coast.

It was a war of daring strategic maneuvers,generally in a maritime environment. Theseincluded Japan's astonishing advances duringthe first six months, the key struggles aroundthe perimeter of the so-called Greater EastAsia Co-prosperity Sphere and the Alliedcounteroffensives. It was a war of great navalbattles, such as those in the Coral Sea, atMidway, at Leyte, and in the Philippine Sea.It was also a war of grim jungle battles, suchas in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and Burma.There were bold and bloody amphibiouslandings, large-scale land operations (inBurma and the Philippines), savage guerrillawars, clandestine operations, fearsomebombing attacks, and a bitter submarinecampaign.

The Pacific War saw the application ofnew military capabilities and technologies,such as aircraft carriers, ship-borne air power,submarines, amphibious warfare, and signalsintelligence. Finally, atomic bombs were usedfor the first time. The war was fought bysome famous military commanders -Generals Douglas MacArthur, William Slim,and Yamashita Tomoyuki. and AdmiralsChester Nimitz, William Halsey, andYamamoto Isoruku.

It was an unusual war in that althoughJapan initiated it, it never had a chance ofwinning. The Japanese strategy was to seizesouth-east Asia and hope that the Allieswould grow weary and allow them to keep atleast some of their gains. After the 'infamy'of Pearl Harbor, however, the USA was never

Essential Histories • The Second World War (1)

going to rest until Japan was crushed, andinevitably Japan was overpowered byAmerican industrial might.

Although Japan was crushed, it didachieve some of its aims. Its successessplintered the invincibility of Europeancolonial power, leading eventually toindependence for the former European andAmerican colonies: Indo-China, Burma,Malaya, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Italso contributed to independence for India.Japan had hoped to find easy pickings in aweak and divided China; instead, Chinabecame unified under communist rule,except for the Nationalist bastion in theformer Japanese colony of Taiwan. Japan lostits other colony in Korea, which became twoseparate but warring nations. Andremarkably, Japan rose from the ashes tobecome an economic powerhouse.

Japan waged a pitiless war, including themassacre at Nanking, the brutal treatment

and enslavement of prisoners of war, and theenforced recruitment of euphemisticallycalled 'comfort women'. This left a legacy ofbitterness across the whole region, butespecially in China and Korea. For thosewhose lives were wrecked by the war, it waslittle consolation to learn that Japan alsotreated its own civilians and servicemencruelly. As usual, the burden of war fellheaviest on the ordinary people, withmillions of deaths in Japan, China, India,and south-east Asia.

The Pacific War therefore completelyreshaped political entities in Asia and changednational attitudes. Although more than half acentury has passed since the end of the war,an understanding of it is still crucial if one isto appreciate the problems faced by thedynamic area now known as the Asia-Pacific.

Note: Spellings of places and people inthis book are those used at the time.

Chronology

1931-32 Japan establishes puppet stateof Manchukuo

1933 25 March Japan leaves Leagueof Nations

1936 25 November Japan signsAnti-Comintern Pact with Germany

1937 7 July Beginning of general attack byJapanese forces on China(China Incident)13 August Fighting begins betweenJapanese and Chinese troopsat Shanghai

1939 2 July Japanese forces in Manchukuocross into Outer Mongolia(Nomonhan Incident)16 September Ceasefire with Sovietforces in Manchukuo

1940 17 July Burma Road closed forthree months22 September Japan granted basesin Indo-China27 September Tripartite Pactbetween Germany, Italy, and Japan

1941 24 July Japanese troops land insouthern Indo-China26 July American government freezesJapanese assets in the USA; GeneralMacArthur appointed to commandUS army in Far East27 July Japanese troops startoccupying French Indo-China17 October General Tojo becomesPrime Minister of Japan7-8 December Japanese attackMalaya, Pearl Harbor, andthe Philippines10 December Prince of Wales and

Repulse sunk; main Japanese landingin the Philippines14 December Japanese start invasionof Burma17 December Japanese land inBritish Borneo24 December Wake Island capturedby Japanese26 December Surrender ofHong Kong

1942 23 January Japanese forcesattack Rabaul30 January Japanese forcesattack Ambon31 January Defending forces inMalaya withdraw to Singapore Island15 February SingaporeIsland surrenders19 February Japanese bomb Darwin19-20 February Japanese forces landon Timor27 February Naval battle of Java Sea28 February Japanese forces landin Java8 March Japanese troops enterRangoon; Japanese land in New Guinea17 March MacArthur appointed tocommand South-West Pacific Area5 April Japanese carrier-borne aircraftattack Colombo9 April American forces onBataan surrender18 April Doolittle raid on Tokyo5-8 May Battle of the Coral Sea6 May American forces onCorregidor surrender20 May Allied forces withdrawfrom Burma31 May Attack on Sydney Harbour4-6 June Battle of Midway Island7 June Japanese land inAleutian Islands

10 Essential Histories • The Second World War (1)

21 July Japanese land at Gonaarea, Papua7 August Americans land in Solomons8-9 August Naval battle of Savo Island25-26 August Japanese land atMilne Bay17 September Japanese drive overOwen Stanley Range halted atImita Ridge12-15 November Naval battleof Guadalcanal

1943 23 January Organized Japaneseresistance in Papua ends7 February Last Japanese withdrawfrom Guadalcanal13 February First Chindit operationinto Burma2-4 March Battle of the Bismarck Sea18 April Death of Admiral Yamamoto11 May American forces land on Attuin Aleutian Islands30 June Americans land onNew Georgia1 August Japanese declareBurma independent4 September Australians land nearLae, New Guinea16 September Australian divisionsenter Lae7 October Mountbatten takescommand of South-EastAsia Command14 October Japanese declareindependence of the Philippines1 November American troops landon Bougainville, northern Solomons20 November American forcesinvade Makin and Tarawa in Gilberts15 December Americans land onNew Britain

1944 9 January Allied forces overrunMaungdaw on Arakan front in Burma31 January Americans invadeMarshall Islands15 February New Zealand forcesinvade Green Island29 February Americans invadeAdmiralty Islands

2 March Second Chindit operationlaunched into Burma15 March Japanese Imphal offensivefrom Burma begins22 April Americans land at Hollandiaand Aitape24 April Australians enter Madang27 May Americans land on Biak Island5 June Start of Japanese withdrawalfrom Kohima15 June Americans invade Saipan inthe Marianas; American strategic airoffensive against Japan beginsfrom China19-20 June Battle of the Philippine Sea2 July Americans land on Noemfoor18 July General Tojo falls frompower as Japanese Prime Minister21 July Americans invade Guam30 July Japanese begin withdrawalfrom Myitkyina, Burma15 September Americans land inPalau Islands (Peleliu) and on Morotaiin the Halmaheras10 October US Third Fleetattacks Okinawa20 October Americans land on Leyte23-26 October Naval battle ofLeyte Gulf24 November Superfortresses attackJapan from bases in the Marianas

1945 3 January Allies occupy Akyabin Burma9 January American forces landon Luzon22 January Burma Road reopened19 February American forces land onIwo Jima9 March Japanese seize control inFrench Indo-China9-10 March First fire-bomb attackon Tokyo10 March American forces landon Mindanao20 March British capture Mandalay1 April American forces landon Okinawa1 May Australians invade Tarakan3 May British troops capture Rangoon

Chronology 11

10 June Australians land at Brunei Bay1 July Australians land at Balikpapan7 August Atomic bomb droppedon Hiroshima9 August Atomic bomb dropped onNagasaki; Soviet troopsinvade Manchukuo14 August Emperor Hirohito

announces Japanese forces'unconditional surrender15 August VJ-Day; all offensiveaction against Japan comes to an end17 August Sukarno announcesIndonesia independent2 September Japanese signinstrument of surrender in Tokyo Bay

Background to war

The expansion of Imperial Japan

The Pacific War was caused by theexpansionist ambitions of Imperial Japanand the train of events that led to it can bedescribed fairly easily. It is much harder toexplain why Japan initiated a war against theone country that had the power to crush it -the USA. The answer is perhaps found inJapan's unique culture and history. Havingnot experienced defeat for a thousand years,and believing in the superiority of their race,culture, and spirit, the Japanese could notconceive of defeat. Somehow, trusting in theliving-god Emperor, they would win, even ifmany would die in the process.

The origins of the war therefore lie inJapan's emergence after more than twocenturies of isolation from the outside world.To protect itself from foreign influences, inthe early seventeenth century Japan hadexpelled all foreigners and had severelyrestricted foreign access. This isolation wasshattered in 1853, when four Americanwarships appeared in Tokyo Bay and theircommander, Commodore Matthew Perry,began negotiations that led eventually to acommercial treaty between the USAand Japan.

Thereafter the Japanese moved rapidly tomodernize their country. The power of thefeudal warlords collapsed and in 1868 thenew Emperor announced a policy of seekingknowledge from around the world. Japanadopted a vaguely democratic constitutionwith an elected parliament or Diet.Compulsory education was introduced,although with heavy emphasis on obedienceto the Emperor. Asked by their teachersabout their 'dearest ambition,' schoolboyswould answer, 'To die for the Emperor.' TheJapanese craved European technology andexpertise, but did not have the time or theinclination to absorb Western ideas ofdemocracy or liberalism.

Japanese insecurityand expansionism

The Japanese were acutely conscious of theirvulnerability. Over the preceding centuries,European powers had seized colonies in theAsia-Pacific area. Britain held Malaya, Burma,and India, the French were in Indo-China,the Dutch owned the East Indies (nowIndonesia) and Germany had part of NewGuinea. The Europeans and the Americanshad also won concessions from a weak anddisorganized China. If Japan were to survive,it had to establish a powerful and modernarmy, and a capable navy, and to supportthese forces it had to begin a rapid process ofindustrialization. Lacking natural resourcesbut possessing a large, industriouspopulation, Japan had to secure supplies ofraw materials and find markets for its goods.

The Japanese observed that the Europeanpowers had gained economically byexploiting their military and diplomaticpower in Asia. Taking this lead, in 1894Japan initiated a short and successful warwith China over access to Korea, and thefollowing year China ceded Formosa(Taiwan) and the Liaotung peninsula insouthern Manchuria, which included thefine harbor of Port Arthur. Under pressurefrom Russia, Germany, and France, Japan wasforced to withdraw from Manchuria. Russiamoved into Manchuria, while Germany andFrance grabbed further concessions in China.To the enraged Japanese, it seemed that therewas one rule for the European powers and adifferent rule for Asian countries. Three yearslater the USA took control of the Philippines.

The Japanese were determined to gaincontrol of those areas that they saw as vitalto their economic survival. In 1904 Japanblockaded Port Arthur, and moved troopsinto Korea and Manchuria. In a bloody war

Background to war 13

with heavy casualties on both sides, theJapanese defeated the Russian army inManchuria and destroyed the Russian fleetsent to relieve Port Arthur (see OspreyEssential Histories, 'The Russo-Japanese War1904-1905). For the first time, an Asianpower had defeated a European power, andthe Japanese army gained in prestige andpower. Japan took control of the Liaotungpeninsula and stationed troops to protect theManchurian railroad. By 1910, Japan hadannexed Korea.

Japan obtained tremendous advantagesfrom the First World War. As one of theAllies, it seized Germany's possessions inChina and the Pacific, but never sent landforces to Europe. Fueled by the demands ofthe war, Japanese industries continued toexpand and Japan built up its merchant navy.

In the postwar settlement, Japan retainedthe former German Pacific colonies under amandate from the League of Nations, butwas upset by the Allies' refusal to endorse astatement about nonracial discrimination.Japan was thus confirmed as a principalpower in the Pacific, but was viewed withsuspicion by both the USA and Britain. At aconference in Washington in 1921-22, theUSA, Britain, and Japan agreed to limit theircapital ships according to a ratio of 5:5:3,and the USA and Britain undertook not tofortify their Pacific possessions. Japan wasaggrieved at apparent restrictions to its navy,but as both Britain and the USA alsodeployed their forces in the Atlantic, Japanwas left as the most powerful navy in thewestern Pacific. Still suspicious of Japan, in1923 Britain decided to establish a naval baseat Singapore, to which it would send itsmain fleet in time of crisis in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, the Japanese economy andsociety were coming under great strain.During the 1920s numerous earthquakes -the largest striking Tokyo in 1923 - shatteredcities and factories. As the world economicsystem began to falter, Western countriesapplied trade restrictions that hurt Japaneseindustries. The Great Depression is generallythought to have begun with the Wall Streetcrash in 1929, but by 1926 more than

The Japanese Emperor Hirohito, came to the throne in1926, aged 25. He had traveled in Europe and was anamateur marine biologist of repute. He exercised littlepower, but historical debate still continues over whetherhe encouraged the militarists. A Japanese nationalist, heseemed fatalistically to accept the inevitability of war(AKG Berlin)

three million Japanese industrial workers hadlost their jobs. The Japanese governmentcame under increasing pressure frommilitant nationalistic groups, often led byyoung army officers. This was a similarenvironment to that which led to the rise ofNazism in Germany, fascism in Italy andcommunism in various countries. In Japan ahomegrown militarism built on the Japanesepeople's belief in their national uniquenessand their heaven-granted mandate to assumeleadership in east Asia.

In Manchuria and northern China, Japanwas facing new challenges. The Soviet Unionwas likely to oppose Japanese ambitions inthe Far East. And in China, nationalist forceswere being consolidated under ChiangKai-shek. Fiercely nationalistic Japan ignored


the nationalist aspirations of other Asiancountries such as China and Korea.

The Japanese semiautonomous KwantungArmy, policing the Manchurian railroad, wasa highly political organization that attractedthe best and most ambitious Japaneseofficers and dominated commercialdevelopment in the ostensibly Chineseprovince. On 18 September 1931, officers ofthe Kwantung Army falsely accused theChinese of sabotaging the PortArthur-Mukden railroad. Against the wishesof both the Japanese government and thecommander of the Kwantung Army, Japaneseforces attacked the numerically strongerarmies of the local Chinese warlords andquickly overran Manchuria. Powerless, theJapanese government acquiesced, and thefollowing year Japan established a puppetstate - Manchukuo - nominally ruled byEmperor Pu Yi, but actually controlled by theJapanese commander of the Kwantung Army.In 1932 the Japanese seized the nearby-province of Jehol and added eastern Chaharin 1935. Manchukuo had a population of34 million, of whom 240,000 were Japanese(increasing to 837,000 in 1939).

This so-called Manchurian Incidentmarked the beginning of full-scale Japaneseaggression in Asia. The US Secretary of Statecondemned Japan, and after an investigationthe League of Nations branded Japan as theaggressor. In response, in March 1933 Japanwithdrew from the League of Nations. TheJapanese War Minister, General Araki Sadao,complained that the League of Nations didnot respect Japan's 'holy mission' to establishpeace in the Orient, but vowed that the daywould come when 'we will make the worldlook up to our national virtues.'

Despite these belligerent statements, theJapanese government was actually in disarray- what one commentator described as'government by assassination.' In November1930 the Japanese Prime Minister was gunneddown for accepting allegedly humiliatingconditions at a naval conference in London.In February 1932 two leading politicians wereassassinated by members of the BloodBrotherhood - modernday samurai warriors

who were prepared to sacrifice themselves forthe good of Japan. In May 1932 theymurdered the Prime Minister for criticizingJapanese aggression in Manchuria. Theassassins, described by War Minister Araki as'irrepressible patriots,' received jail terms thatwere later commuted.

In February 1936 radical army officersattempted a coup d'etat, murdering severalleading government ministers. The coupattempt failed, but the army gained even morepower. In 1937 the War Minister (a servingarmy officer) submitted a bill to parliament togive the government absolute control overindustry, labor, and the press. The Diet meeklyvoted its approval. Also the governmentinitiated a plan to expand its heavy industriesto enable it to wage a total war for three years,and it stepped up the naval building program.In November 1936 the army had negotiatedthe Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany andItaly. It was directed squarely against theSoviet Union, which was supporting China.

The Sino-Japanese War

On the night of 7 July 1937, shots were firedat a Japanese detachment on maneuvers afew miles from Peking. Japanese and Chineseforces had engaged in frequent skirmishesduring the previous six years, but this timethe Nationalist Chinese leader, ChiangKai-shek, believed that he could no longertolerate Japanese provocation. To somehistorians the 'China Incident', as theJapanese called it, marks the true beginningof the Second World War. China and Japanwere to remain at war until 1945.

On 14 August 1937, Nationalist Chineseplanes struck Japanese warships at Shanghai.The Japanese deployed 10 divisions to northChina and five to Shanghai. When, inOctober, President Roosevelt finallycondemned Japan's aggression, a leadingJapanese, Matsuoka Yosuke, soon to beForeign Minister, retorted: 'Japan isexpanding and what country in itsexpansion era has ever failed to be trying toits neighbours?' In November the Japanese


Japanese troops in a victory pose at a captured Chineseartillery camp, Shanghai, November 1937. From August toearly November the Chinese resisted Japanese attempts totake the city. After it fell, the Japanese moved quickly andsecured Nanking on 13 December (AKG Berlin)

army drove the Chinese out of Shanghai andnext month took the Nationalist capital,Nanking, where it engaged in an orgy ofkilling, rape, and looting. More than aquarter of a million civilians wereslaughtered.

Contemptuous of Western public opinion,Japanese planes and shore batteries sank anAmerican gunboat, USS Panay, which wasevacuating diplomatic staffs from Nanking,and the American government chose toaccept a Japanese apology. Nonetheless,Western observers in China, many of themAmerican missionaries, publicized stories ofJapanese atrocities, and the Americangovernment gradually sought ways to assistthe Nationalist Chinese.

Thrusting deeper into China, by the endof 1938 Japan had captured large areas ofnorthern China, the Yangtze valley, and

pockets along the coast. Chiang Kai-shekwithdrew his government to the inland cityof Chungking and tried to come to acooperative arrangement with the ChineseCommunists under Mao Tse-tung. TheCommunists conducted guerrilla warfareagainst the Japanese, who had established apuppet Chinese government in their area ofoccupation. Meanwhile, the NationalistChinese were working hard to winAmerican support.

The Japanese now faced a dilemma. Theycould not conquer all of China, but the warwas a heavy drain on their resources, fuel,and finances. Japanese army leaders hopedto resolve the war in China so that theycould deal with their principal enemy, theSoviet Union. But to conclude the war, Japanneeded fuel and other resources fromsouth-east Asia. If Western countries wouldnot supply this fuel then Japan would haveto seize it. The Japanese navy leaders realizedthat expansion to the south would bringwar, with the USA as their principal enemy.Japan now stepped up preparations for amajor war.


Japanese soldiers entering Nanking in December 1937.Japanese commanders unleashed days of wantonslaughter in the city, the notorious Rape of Nanking.(AKG Berlin)

troops. In the midst of this campaign, theJapanese were shocked to learn of theNazi-Soviet Pact. They quickly arranged aceasefire in Manchuria.

Towards the end of 1938 the JapanesePrime Minister, Prince Konoye Fumimaro,spelt out Japan's plans for a New Order forEast Asia, involving the eradication ofEuropean and American imperialism and alsoof communism from east Asia. Later theJapanese would declare their nationalobjective to be the setting up of a Greater EastAsia Co-prosperity Sphere. In effect, the Asiancountries would be subservient to Japan,providing it with raw materials and markets.

Meanwhile, Soviet support for theChinese precipitated several clashes betweenthe Kwantung Army and Soviet forces.Finally, in July 1939 the Kwantung Armycrossed into Mongolia. A Soviet armymounted a counteroffensive near Nomonhanthat killed more than 18,000 Japanese

Japan looks south

Bogged down in China and checked by theSoviet Union, the Japanese were unsure oftheir next step. Then, in September 1939Germany invaded Poland, and Britain andFrance declared war on Germany. TheGerman invasion of France in May 1940suddenly offered Japan new opportunities tocut China's overseas supplies. Chased out ofEurope and hammered from the air, Britainwas not strong enough to resist Japan'sdemand in July 1940 to close the road fromRangoon in Burma to Chungking, which wassupplying the Nationalist government withvital supplies. Nor could the Vichy Frenchgovernment, formed after the German


occupation, resist demands to close the portof Haiphong and to give access to bases innorthern Vietnam from which Japaneseplanes could attack southern China.

But the German occupation of France alsospurred the Americans into action. In May1940 the Americans decided to station theirPacific Fleet at Hawaii and the followingmonth they began a large naval expansionprogram so that their navy could operate inboth the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. InSeptember the US Congress agreed to apeacetime draft, and in December it made$100 million in credit available to theChinese Nationalist government. TheJapanese imperial navy reacted by ordering afull mobilization - a process that would becompleted by December 1941.

Thus, by the second half of 1940, warbetween Japan, the USA, and Britain hadbecome increasingly likely. Britain, the USA(concerned for the security of the Philippines),Australia, and the Netherlands considereddefensive plans in south-east Asia. Belatedly,Britain built up its garrison in Malaya and

The Japanese War Minister, General Tojo Hideki (centre),and the Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke (second fromright), join German and Italian officials to toast theTripartite Pact signed between the three countries inSeptember 1940. The Pact recognized the leadership ofJapan in establishing a new order in Greater East Asia. A'none-too-intelligent professional soldier',Tojo becamePrime Minister in October 1941 and took Japan into thewar. Later, with the additional portfolio of Home MinisterTojo, known as 'the Razor', directed the arrest of hispolitical opponents. (Australian War Memorial)

Singapore with British, Indian, and Australiantroops. But preoccupied by events in Europeand the Middle East, Britain did not give thedefence of Malaya high priority.

The German attack on Russia on 22 June1941 fundamentally changed the situation.Japan could either fall on Russia's Far Eastempire while Russia was fighting for its lifein Europe or it could continue its southernexpansion secure in the knowledge thatRussia would be too preoccupied to attack inManchuria. In April, Japan had signed anonaggression pact with the Soviet Union.On 2 July, Japan decided to strike south.


The expansion of Japan 1920-1941

Warring sides

Powerful Japan faced certaindefeat

Any comparison of the military andindustrial strengths of the Japanese Empireand the Allies must conclude that Japan hadno chance of winning. While Japan coulddeploy more than a million soldiers, three ofits enemies could do likewise. And whileJapan possessed the world's third largestnavy, it was opposed by the even strongerAmerican and British navies. Yet Japan beganthe war with considerable advantages. Byseizing the initiative, it severely damaged theUS Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, eliminatedthe dangerous US bombing force in thePhilippines, and threw the British forces inMalaya off-balance. Once the USA lost itswestern Pacific bases, it had to crossthousands of miles of ocean to take the fightto the Japanese. The USA also had to divideits forces between the European and Pacifictheaters. To an even greater extent, Britainconcentrated on Europe, and it could notdeploy its naval strength fully until the lastyear of the war.

Japan's military strength

In 1937 Japan was a strong, technologicallyadvanced nation with a population of70 million. During the 1930s its open,market-oriented economy had beentransformed into a directed war economy, butit weakness was its heavy dependence onoverseas supplies of oil, raw materials, andrice.

By 1941 the Japanese army consisted of31 divisions, with a further 13 in theKwantung Army. Each division generallynumbered about 18,000 men. By Westernstandards, much of the army's heavyequipment was obsolete, but the troops werewell trained and experienced from years ofoperations in China. By the end of the war,

Japan had raised 170 infantry, 13 air, fourtank and four anti-aircraft divisions in a forcenumbering 2.3 million. The lack of adequatetanks and heavy artillery was not animportant factor in jungle and island warfare,although the army's defeat by Soviet forces in1939 had revealed its inadequacy against awell-equipped enemy in open terrain.

One of the strengths of the Japanesearmed forces was the Bushido code of honor- the way of the warrior. All members of thearmed forces were responsible directly to theEmperor. Military instructions emphasizedabsolute obedience to orders and forbaderetreat in any circumstances. These attitudesled to fanatical resistance, often resulting insuicidal banzai charges, with the troopsshouting the battle cry, 'Long live theEmperor!' Later in the war, Japanese aircraftpilots conducted suicidal kamikaze attackson Allied ships. Another outcome was theatrocious treatment of Allied prisoners ofwar. But life was also hard and disciplinebrutal for the conscripted Japanese soldiers.

In December 1941 Japan's navy numbered391 warships, including 10 battleships and10 aircraft carriers. It was a well-trainedforce; its gunnery was good and itsnavigators were skillful. Some ships werenew, with modern weapons - the LongLance torpedo was exceptional - but otherswere older. Its strength was the naval airforce, with its 1,750 fighters, torpedobombers, and bombers, operating from bothaircraft carriers and island bases.

The Japanese army's air force was basedmainly in China, but units were later deployedto larger islands such as New Guinea and thePhilippines. While Japan's considerableindustrial capacity allowed it to constructalmost 70,000 aircraft between 1941 and 1945,it was not able to sustain the constanttechnological improvements that marked the

Warring sides 21

The Japanese Zero - the Mitsubishi A6m2 Navy Type 0carrier fighter - was one of the outstanding aircraft ofthe war Armor plating and self-sealing tanks weresacrificed to give the Zero maximum speed andmaneuverability. It could outperform most Allied aircraftin 1941 and was flown by well-trained and experiencedpilots. (US National Archives)

Allied industrial effort. As the war progressed,the Allies had increasingly superior aircraft.

Theoretically, Japanese military operationswere directed by Imperial GeneralHeadquarters (formed in 1937), but inpractice, the army and navy headquartersstaff operated independently. Armyoperations were generally controlled by theChina Expeditionary, SouthernExpeditionary or Kwantung armies. Belowthis level were the area armies; thesenormally included several armies (equivalentto Western corps) and an air army. MostJapanese warships came under the CombinedFleet, headed in 1941 by Admiral YamamotoIsoruku. This was subdivided into fleets withvarious compositions, such as the battleshipforce and the striking force.

Japan's military operations often sufferedfrom a lack of clear strategic direction,caused by lack of cooperation between armyand navy leaders. More generally, however,the Allies' main advantage lay in theindustrial power of the USA.

The USA's military strength

At the outbreak of war, the Americanpopulation of 141 million was about twicethat of Japan, but its industrial capacity wasconsiderably greater. For example, in 1937the USA produced 28.8 million tons of steel,while Japan produced 5.8 million. Thisindustrial strength and large populationenabled the USA to expand its armed forcesat an unprecedented rate and to manufacturehuge quantities of equipment and warmateriel not only for its own forces but alsofor Allied forces.

The USA fought a war in Europe, but stilldeployed massive forces in the Pacific. In early1940 the US army numbered only 160,000,but after conscription was introduced inSeptember 1940, it grew rapidly: in Decemberits strength was 1.6 million; by March 1945 ithad reached 8.1 million. These figuresincluded the US Army Air Force (USAAF),which grew from 270,000 to 1.8 million inthe same period. In April 1945 the US armyhad 5 million soldiers deployed overseas;1.45 million of these were in the Pacific andChina-Burma-India theaters. The USA alsodeployed 11 field armies. Two remained inthe USA, six went to the European theater,and three were in the Pacific - the Sixth andEighth in the South-West Pacific Area, and the


Tenth at Okinawa. Each army consisted oftwo or more corps, and each of these had twoor more divisions. During the war the USarmy formed 90 divisions. General George C.Marshall remained the Chief of Staff of theUS army throughout the war.

Of the USAAF's 16 air forces, seven servedin the Pacific and the China-Burma-Indiatheaters. In September 1939 the USAAF had2,470 aircraft; at its peak in July 1944,79,908. The USA's strength was its capacityto construct aircraft - almost 300,000 duringthe war - and its ability to improve aircraftdesigns each year. Although the USAAF wastheoretically part of the army, it acted as anindependent service and its chief, GeneralHap Arnold, was one of the four members ofthe US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

While the US army and USAAF weredivided between Europe and the Pacific, theUS navy deployed the majority of its strengthin the Pacific. Like the other services, it toounderwent a huge expansion. In July 1940 its

Mass-produced Liberty ships under construction in anAmerican shipyard. In 1940 Britain ordered 60 simplydesigned ships, described as being 'built by the mile andchopped off by the yard'. The following year the USAordered 200 of these 7,126-ton, 11 -knot ships. A totalof 27,103 were constructed in the USA during the war(US National Archives)

strength was 160,997; by August 1945 it was4.5 million. In December 1941 the PacificFleet, based at Pearl Harbor, included ninebattleships, three carriers, 21 heavy and lightcruisers, 67 destroyers, and 27 submarines.The Asiatic Fleet, based at Manila, had threecruisers, 13 destroyers, 29 submarines, twoseaplane tenders, and 16 gunboats. The totalforce was inferior to the Japanese navy andthis disparity was increased by the loss ofbattleships at Pearl Harbor.

However, the USA's immense shipbuildingprogram, begun in the late 1930s and 1940,soon changed the balance. During the warthe USA constructed 88,000 landing craft,215 submarines, 147 carriers, and 952 otherwarships. The aircraft carriers included large,fast-strike carriers transporting up to90 aircraft, and numerous, smaller, escortcarriers with 16 to 36 aircraft. The US navyincluded a strong air force (it grew from11,000 in 1940 to 430,000 in 1945) and theUS Marine Corps, which deployed sixdivisions, all in the Pacific. Admiral ErnestKing was appointed Commander-in-Chief ofthe US fleet in March 1942 and remained incommand throughout the war.

The British Empire

By December 1941 Britain had been at warfor more than two years. Its army had beenforced to evacuate France in 1940 and hadfought a series of debilitating campaigns inthe Middle East. Its air force had defendedBritain from air attacks, which were stillcontinuing. The Royal Navy was fighting thebattle of the Atlantic against German U-boatsand was supporting Britain's forces in theMediterranean. Few military resources couldbe spared for the Far East. The imperial troopsin Malaya included two Indian divisions andan understrength Australian division, whilemost of the aircraft there were inferior tothose of the Japanese. There were few majornaval units and no aircraft carriers.

British forces in south-east Asia werealways afforded a low priority for men andequipment, and operations would have been

Warring sides 23

impossible without the assistance of forcesraised in India. Of the 1 million troops thatlater served in South-East Asia Command(formed in August 1943), 700,000 wereIndian, 100,000 were British, and about90,000 came from British colonies in westand east Africa. The equivalent of about17 Indian divisions served outside Indiaduring the war; of these, two served inMalaya and 11 in Burma.

Britain provided a larger proportion of theair forces. In December 1943, for example,Air Command South-East Asia had aneffective strength of 67 squadrons. Of these,44 were from the Royal Air Force, 19 fromthe USAAF, two from the Royal Indian AirForce, one from the Royal Canadian AirForce, and one from the Royal NetherlandsAir Force.

The British Eastern Fleet operated in theIndian Ocean but was not a strong forceuntil 1944. In November 1943 it had onebattleship, one escort carrier, seven cruisers,two armed merchant cruisers, 11 destroyers,13 escort vessels, and six submarines. In

Indian artillery troops training in Malaya in 1941. In 1939the Indian army included about 200,000 Indian soldiers, afurther 83,000 from the princely states, and 63,000British troops. The Indian army expanded rapidly and bythe end of the war numbered 2.5 million - allvolunteers. The Indian units were mostly staffed withBritish officers, and Indian brigades usually included aBritish battalion. (Imperial War Museum. London, printfrom MARS. Lincs)

1945 the British Pacific Fleet was formed tooperate with the Americans in the Pacific.With two battleships, four carriers, fivecruisers, and 14 destroyers it was the largestand most powerful British fleet of the war.

Australia and New Zealand

Before the war Australia had a minusculeregular army with about 80,000 part-timevolunteers in the militia. The air force was alsovery small with about 160 mostly obsoleteaircraft. Only the navy, with six cruisers, fiveold destroyers, and two sloops, was even closeto being ready for battle. The army and air


force expanded through voluntary enlistmentand, with navy units, they operated withBritish forces in the Middle East and Europe.After the outbreak of war in the Pacific, mostof these units returned to Australia, wherethey became part of the South-West PacificArea under General MacArthur.

By mid-1942 Australia had 11 divisions inAustralia, and during 1942 and 1943Australia provided the majority of the Alliedland forces in the South-West Pacific Area. Atits largest, the army numbered 500,000 froma population of 7 million, and six divisionsserved on operations in the south-westernPacific. The army was divided between thevolunteers of the Australian Imperial Force,who could serve in any area, and the militia,which included conscripts and could serveonly in Australia and its territories. The airforce, with more than 50 squadrons, flyingboth American and Australian-built Britishaircraft, provided a useful supplement to theAllied air forces, although Australia alsomaintained a large contribution to the Alliedstrategic bombing campaign in Europe. Thenavy formed a strong squadron with theAllied naval forces, but had no carriers.Considering its limited population andindustrial base, Australia made a substantialcontribution to the Pacific War.

New Zealand made a much smallercontribution, preferring to leave its largestexpeditionary division in Europe. A smallNew Zealand division, along with air andnaval units, fought in the Solomon Islands.

China

The Chinese armed forces were dividedbetween those under the control of the

Nationalist government, those organized bythe Communist Party, and those undervarious warlords. The Nationalist armyexpanded from a force of about 1.2 millionin 1937 to one of 5.7 million in August1945, organized into 300 divisions. Itwas composed of conscripts, who wereusually treated badly. Poorly equippedand inadequately trained, the Chinesedivisions had generally a low level ofcapability. Several Chinese divisions foughtunder American command in Burma,where they performed creditably. TheChinese air force was organized andflown by American volunteers. The mainCommunist army expanded from about92,000 in 1937 to 910,000 in 1945. Itconcentrated on guerrilla warfare andon establishing good relations with peasantcommunities.

Conclusion

Japan, the USA, China, and India eachdeployed armies of more than 1 millionsoldiers. In addition, the Soviet Union couldalso deploy millions of troops. But with afew exceptions, these forces were neverengaged in intense, large-scale landoperations for long periods. The geographicspread of operations across the maritimeareas of the Pacific meant that air and navalforces played a major role. It was here thatthe industrial strength of the USA gave theAllies a significant advantage. Indeed by theend of the war, the US navy in the Pacificwas the largest in history. Once the Alliescould apply their naval and air strength tothe fullest extent, their final victory wasinevitable.

Outbreak

The slide toward inevitable war

Internal Japanese politics played a crucial rolein shaping the events that led to war inDecember 1941. The most fanatical memberof the government was the Foreign Minister,Matsuoka, who, after Germany attackedRussia, wanted Japan also to attack Russia. Hecould not persuade his colleagues and on2 July 1941 they decided to seize bases insouthern Indo-China. On 16 July the JapanesePrime Minister, Konoye, dropped Matsuokafrom the Cabinet, but the Cabinet could stillnot agree over the extent to which it shouldpursue negotiations with the Americans. TheWar Minister, General Tojo Hideki, waspessimistic about the outcome of negotiationsand was adamant that Japan had to go to warbefore the end of the year, when tropicalmonsoons would make operations difficult.Konoye wanted to negotiate for as long aspossible. All agreed, however, that Japan couldnot withdraw from China.

These tensions partly explain the differentdiplomatic signals emanating from Tokyoduring the following months. But theAmerican and British governments werereluctant to take the Japanese overtures atface value. In an amazing feat of ingenuityand persistence US naval cryptanalysts hadbroken the Japanese diplomatic ciphers andthe resulting intelligence, known as Magic,gave the Americans clear insight intoJapanese intentions. Japan's decision on2 July to strike south was known within a fewdays in Washington, London, and Canberra.

President Roosevelt also learned fromMagic that the Japanese planned to continuediplomatic efforts while they secretlyprepared for a military offensive. He wastherefore well prepared when on 24 July theJapanese moved into southern Indo-China.Two days later the USA, in agreement withthe British and the Dutch, froze Japaneseassets and applied a further embargo that

reduced trade with Japan by three-quarters.That same day General Douglas MacArthur, aretired American officer commanding thePhilippines Army, was recalled to the colorsand appointed commander of the US armyin the Far East. On 1 August, Rooseveltordered an embargo on high-octane gasolineand crude oil exports.

These embargoes had a devastating effecton the Japanese economy. In June 1941 ajoint army-navy investigating committeeconcluded that Japan would run out of oil inmid-1944. Neither the Japanese governmentnor the Japanese people were willing toaccept the massive loss of face that wouldhave resulted from withdrawing fromIndo-China and ultimately from China.There was no alternative but to seize theresources they needed from Malaya and theDutch East Indies. The Japanese navy'splanners also knew that the USA would notremain neutral, and that with its forces inthe Philippines the USA would strike at theflanks of the Japanese invasion fleets.

The Japanese armed forces had beenpreparing for war with the USA from thebeginning of the year. The Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Fleet, AdmiralYamamoto Isoruku, had served in the USA forseveral years and knew the power of theAmerican industrial base. He was opposed towar, but became convinced that Japan's onlyhope was to destroy the US Pacific Fleet witha daring pre-emptive strike at its base at PearlHarbor, Hawaii. The plan was approved andthe Japanese navy secretly began training itspilots to undertake low-level torpedo attacksagainst ships in a remote bay similar to that atPearl Harbor. Yamamoto finally selected thedate for the attack - the morning of Sunday7 December - when most of the US fleet,including its aircraft carriers, were usually inport for the weekend.


On 6 September the Japanese Cabinet metwith Emperor Hirohito and decided tocontinue negotiations, while preparing to goto war if the negotiations were not successfulby 10 October. When 10 October passedwithout progress in the negotiations, theWar Minister, Tojo, indicated that he hadlost confidence in Konoye, who thenresigned. On 17 October Tojo became PrimeMinister, while retaining his post as WarMinister. Tojo was determined to establishJapanese primacy in the Far East, to defeatthe Western nations that had colonies in theFar East, to incorporate China into Japan,and to establish the East Asia Co-prosperitySphere in the countries of south-east Asia.

On 2 November Tojo appeared before theEmperor and argued that Japan had to seizethe moment. Three days later the Japanesegovernment issued war orders and gave itsdiplomats until 25 November to solve theproblem. On 7 November the USA decipheredJapanese diplomatic messages that showedthat 25 November was a key date. Meanwhile,Japan offered not to seize any of theoil-producing islands if the USA agreed not to

Admiral Yamamoto Isoruku, Commander-in-Chief of theJapanese navy's Combined Fleet, had served in the USAfor several years and knew the power of the Americanindustrial base. In September 1940 he told PrimeMinister Konoye:'If we are ordered to [go to war withthe USA] then I can guarantee to put up a tough fightfor the first six months but I have absolutely noconfidence about what would happen if it went on fortwo or three years.' (US National Archives)

interfere in China. Aware that Japan hadalready set a course for war, on 26 Novemberthe US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull,restated the USA's conditions - that Japanwithdraw from both Indo-China and China,accept the legitimacy of Chiang Kai-shek'sgovernment, and, in effect, withdraw fromthe Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy.

Already Japanese forces were on the move.On 17 November the ships that were toattack Pearl Harbor left their ports and begangathering at an anchorage in the remotenorthern Kurile Islands. On 26 NovemberYamamoto sent Vice-Admiral NagumoChuichi, commander of the carrier strikeforce, a coded message: 'Climb MountNiitaka.' It was the order to set sail for war.Nagumo's force included six of Japan's bestaircraft carriers, two battleships, two cruisers,a destroyer screen and eight support ships.Once they left the Kuriles they were to applystrict radio silence and to sail through the farnorthern Pacific Ocean, well away fromshipping lanes.

The Allies had no knowledge of the carrierforce's progress, but the Japanese could notkeep their other war preparations secret. On26 November Roosevelt was given intelligencethat a large Japanese convoy carrying50,000 troops was at sea south of Formosa.Next day Admiral Harold Stark, chief of USnaval operations, sent a 'war warning' toAdmirals Husband Kimmel and Thomas Hartof the Pacific and Asiatic fleets at Pearl Harborand Manila. The message said thatnegotiations with Japan had ceased and thatan 'aggressive move' by Japan was 'expectedwithin the next few days.' Indications werethat the Japanese might launch amphibiousattacks against the Philippines, Thailand,Malaya, or possibly Borneo.

Outbreak 27

Although the Japanese intended to strikewithout warning, they still played out thediplomatic charade of presenting the USAwith an ultimatum to rectify a list ofgrievances. This diplomatic note was to bepresented to the US Secretary of State at1.00 pm on Sunday 7 December. As soon asthe 14-part message was transmitted fromTokyo to Japan's Washington Embassy, it wasdeciphered by the Americans and on Sundaymorning it was passed to Roosevelt, whoremarked, 'This means war.' The JapaneseEmbassy failed to decipher and translate thecable as quickly as the Americans and theJapanese diplomats were not able to presentthe note formally to Cordell Hull until2.30 pm. By then both Roosevelt and Hullknew that Hawaii had been under air attackfor more than an hour. Japanese surprise hadbeen complete.

The attack on Pearl Harbor

Before dawn on 7 December the Japanesefleet was 275 miles (440km) north of Hawaii,while five midget submarines were already

approaching Pearl Harbor. At 6.00 am theJapanese aircraft began to take off from thepitching decks of the aircraft carriers, and ledby the veteran aviator Commander FuchidaMitsuo, 183 planes gathered in formation:49 Val bombers carrying armour-piercingbombs, 40 Kates with the deadly Long Lancetorpedoes, and 43 Zero fighters to provideprotection and to attack surface targets. Asthe Japanese aircraft made their way throughthe hills of northern Oahu, the air base andport lay unprepared on a sleepy Sundaymorning. At anchor was almost the entireUS Pacific Fleet. All that was missing werethe two carriers, at sea with their escorts,including most of the heavy cruisers. Atabout 7.55 am the Japanese dive-bombersstruck, followed 45 minutes later by a further176 aircraft.

For the loss of 29 aircraft the Japanesesunk six battleships and damaged two. Threedestroyers, three light cruisers, and fourother vessels were also sunk or damaged. On

At 6.00 am on 7 December Japanese planes began totake off from six carriers sailing about 275 miles (440km)north of Hawaii. (US National Archives)


The battleship Arizona in its anchorage in Pearl Harborafter the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941. Anexplosion in the forward magazine killed 1,103 crewmen,most being trapped below decks. The destruction of theAmerican battleships forced the US navy to rely on itscarriers. (US National Archives)

the airfields 164 aircraft were destroyedand another 128 damaged. Altogether,2,403 servicemen and civilians were killed.

It was a tactical victory, but not thestrategic victory for which the Japanese hadhoped. In due course, all but three shipswere repaired and returned to service. Andthe Japanese failed to destroy the US navy'sextensive oil storage facilities, with a reserveof 4.5 million barrels. Had the oil and otheressential dockyard facilities been destroyed,the US navy would have been forced toretreat to the West Coast. Further, whileeight battleships had been put out of action,the carriers and heavy cruisers had escapeddamage. Vice-Admiral Nagumo might wellhave ordered another attack later in the day.But he went for safety first and headed forhome, loath to remain near to Hawaii, where

he might come under attack from theAmerican carriers. The chance to inflict acrushing blow was lost.

Although the Japanese attack failed tocripple the US Pacific Fleet, it was atremendous blow to American military pride.Admiral Kimmel was struck on the chest by aspent bullet while watching the attack fromhis office. 'It would have been merciful hadit killed me,' he admitted to a fellow officer.Kimmel and Lieutenant-General WalterShort, commanding the US army on Hawaii,were relieved of their commands. Over thenext four years there were seveninvestigations to discover why the Americanshad been caught by surprise.

After the war a joint Congressinvestigation revealed that the USA hadbroken some of the Japanese codes and thatinformation was available that might haveindicated that the Japanese were going toattack Pearl Harbor. Blame was notapportioned to any individuals, but Kimmeland Short believed that they had been madescapegoats for the errors of others.

Outbreak 29

On 8 December 1941 the US President, FranklinRoosevelt, asked Congress to declare war His openingwords were memorable: 'Yesterday, December 7 1941 -a date which will live in infamy - the United States ofAmerica was suddenly and deliberately attacked. Thesurprise attack thus ensured that the USA would notrest until it had crushed Japan. (US National Archives)

In the ensuing years, some historianssuggested that Roosevelt either deliberatelyprovoked the Japanese or at least knew thatthey were going to attack Pearl Harbor, anddid nothing, thereby ensuring that the USAentered the war without firing the first shot.Historians have not generally accepted thisview. One of the most perceptive analysts,Roberta Wohlstetter, wrote in 1962: 'Wefailed to anticipate Pearl Harbor not for wantof the relevant materials but because of aplethora of irrelevant ones.'

The conspiracy theory would not die,fueled by further revelations about thesuccess of the Allied code-breakers. ButRear-Admiral Edwin Layton, chief intelligenceofficer at Pearl Harbor throughout the war,argued in 1985 that the intelligence debaclewas caused by intra- and inter-servicesquabbles in Washington. By the evening of6 December the leaders in Washington knewthat Japan would launch into war in a matterof hours rather than days, but there was noevidence that anyone suspected that PearlHarbor would be a target.

Several authors have claimed that Britishintelligence broke the Japanese fleet code,used by Yamamoto to signal instructions toNagumo, and that the British Prime Minister,Winston Churchill, failed to pass theinformation on to Roosevelt, ensuring thatthe USA entered the war and thus savingBritain from defeat. There is no evidence toprove this theory.

Malaya and the Philippines

While the Pearl Harbor attack was atremendous surprise, elsewhere there wasclear warning of Japanese intentions, eventhough the exact destination of theirinvasion convoys could not be determined.Soon after midnight on 7-8 December, butbecause of the time difference several hoursbefore the attack on Pearl Harbor, aJapanese invasion fleet began bombardingKota Bharu in northern Malaya. Duringthe morning, troops began landing thereand at other locations along the Thai andMalayan coast.

The Japanese knew that they would haveto deal with the 35 US B-17 bombers at ClarkField in the Philippines, but fog on Formosaprevented their aircraft from taking offbefore dawn to attack Clark. GeneralMacArthur had been advised of the attack onPearl Harbor, but failed to act decisively.When the main Japanese attack forcereached Clark soon after midday, it caughtmost of the American aircraft on the ground.In a disaster to rival that at Pearl Harbor, theAmericans lost half of their B-17 fleet and86 other aircraft.

In less than 14 hours the Japanesehad attacked Malaya, Hawaii, Thailand,the Philippines, Guam Island, Hong Kong,and Wake Island, and in that order.The speculations of diplomats andmilitary staffs about Japanese intentionshad ended.

The fighting

The course of the Pacific War

Between December 1941 and March 1942Japanese forces conducted one of history'smost successful series of military campaigns.Perhaps the most remarkable campaign tookplace in Malaya. It began on 8 December withthe landing in north-east Malaya of troopsfrom the Japanese Twenty-Fifth Army, underLieutenant-General Yamashita Tomoyuki.Yamashita's force of 60,000 men was opposedby 88,000 British, Australian, Indian, andMalayan troops under Lieutenant-GeneralArthur Percival, but the Japanese naval andland-based aircraft completely outnumberedand outclassed the British air force. On10 December the British suffered a devastatingblow when Japanese aircraft sank thebattleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse in the South China Sea.

Advancing more than 600 miles(1,000km), by 31 January 1942 the Japanesehad driven the Commonwealth forces back

to Singapore. Although they had sufferedheavily, the Commonwealth forces had,however, been reinforced and nownumbered 85,000. Yamashita attacked with35,000 troops, crossing the Johore Strait onthe night of 7/8 February. On 15 FebruaryPercival surrendered his force. Described byWinston Churchill as the 'worst disaster inBritish military history,' the fall of Singaporeshattered British prestige in the Far East.

Elsewhere, the Japanese were conductingsimilar campaigns. During the second weekof December they landed in the Philippines,with the main landing on 22 December 1941

General Percival (right), accompanied by a Japaneseofficer, makes his way to meet General Yamashita tosurrender his forces at Singapore on 15 February 1942.More than 130,000 Commonwealth troops becameprisoners of war during the campaign. Yamashita'scasualties numbered about 5,000. (Imperial WarMuseum. London, print from MARS, Lincs)

The fighting 31

The conquest of Malaya, December 1941-February 1942

32 Essential Histories • The Second World War

by Lieutenant-General Homma Masaharu'sFourteenth Army, at Lingayen Gulf onLuzon. Realizing that his American andFilipino troops were no match for theJapanese, General MacArthur declaredManila an open city and withdrew into theBataan peninsula, with his headquarters onCorregidor Island in Manila Bay. TheJapanese occupied Manila on 2 January1942. The troops on the Bataan peninsularesisted stoutly but were short of food andammunition. On orders from PresidentRoosevelt, on 12 March MacArthur leftCorregidor by PT boat and, after transferringto an aircraft at Mindanao, continued toAustralia. The force on Bataan surrenderedon 9 April, and MacArthur's successor,Lieutenant-General Jonathan Wainwright,surrendered on Corregidor on 6 May.

The Japanese attacked Hong Kong on8 December 1941. The garrison of4,400 troops, including 800 Canadians,continued the resistance until ChristmasDay. Also on 8 December, Japanese planesbombed the US Pacific base at Wake Island.Shore batteries and US Marine fighter aircraftdrove off an invasion force, but on23 December a larger Japanese forceoverwhelmed the defenders.

With victory in sight in Malaya and thePhilippines, the Japanese turned theirattention to the Netherlands East Indies. Tocoordinate their defenses, on 15 January1942 the Allies established ABDA(American-British-Dutch-Australian)Command with its headquarters on Java. Itscommander, General Sir Archibald Wavell,was responsible for the defense of the areafrom Burma, through Singapore, to the EastIndies and northern Australia, but his forceswere not large enough and Alliedcoordination was poor.

Japanese forces seized Tarakan, off Borneo,on 11 January, crushed the Australian garrisonat Rabaul in New Britain on 23 January,landed at Balikpapan, Borneo, on the sameday, and reached the Celebes on 24 January.The Japanese struck at Ambon on 31 January,and in three days captured the Dutch andAustralian garrison. On 14 February Japanese

paratroops landed on Sumatra, where theywere joined by seaborne troops. Japanese airattacks on the Australian port of Darwin on19 February provided protection for theirinvasion of West (Dutch) and East(Portuguese) Timor the following day.

On 27 February in the Java Sea, fiveAmerican, British, Dutch, and Australiancruisers with nine destroyers, all underDutch Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman, triedunsuccessfully to intercept the Japaneseinvasion fleet bound for Java. In the firstfleet action of the Pacific War, the Allies losttwo cruisers and three destroyers, andDoorman was killed. Next night thesurviving cruisers, the Australian Perth andthe USS Houston, engaged another Japaneseinvasion fleet in the Sunda Strait. They sanktwo ships before they too were sunk. Theway was now clear for the Japanese invasion.The ABDA forces in Java formallysurrendered on 12 March, although Wavelland other senior officers had been evacuatedearlier. It was the end of ABDA Command.

The Japanese landed in southern Thailandon 8 December to facilitate their Malayancampaign. Next day, the Thai Prime Ministerordered his forces to cease resistance andThailand declared war on Britain and theUSA the following month. In mid-Januarythe Japanese Fifteenth Army in Thailandcrossed into Burma. The British had twodivisions (one Burmese and the otherIndian), but they could not prevent theJapanese taking Rangoon on 7 March. Fearfulthat the Burma Road - its supply lifeline -was being cut, China sent forces into Burma,but the Japanese were superior. Theyseparated the Chinese and British forces, andby 20 May had driven the British out ofBurma and back to India. Meanwhile, tostrengthen their hold over their westernflank, Admiral Nagumo's carrier fleet, whichhad attacked both Pearl Harbor and Darwin,entered the Indian Ocean and struck theBritish base at Colombo. Two British cruisersand several other ships, including a carrier,were sunk between 5 and 9 April.

Japan's rapid success caught their plannersunprepared. On 5 January 1942, when it

The fighting 33

looked as they though would achieve alltheir targets by the middle of March, theChief of Staff of the Japanese CombinedFleet wrote in his diary: 'Where shall we gofrom there? Shall we advance into Australia,attack Hawaii; or shall we prepare for thepossibility of a Soviet sortie and knock themout if an opportunity arises?' For twomonths Imperial General Headquartersdebated these questions.

The Japanese army resisted the navy's planto invade Australia, as it could not spare thenecessary 10 or perhaps 12 divisions fromChina or Manchuria. If the Red Armycollapsed before the German blitzkrieg, Japanmight launch an invasion of Siberia. Evenmore crucially, a major assault on Australiawould require 1.5-2 million tons of shipping;most of this shipping was required totransport the newly won raw materials fromsouth-east Asia to Japan. Instead, the armypreferred an offensive in Burma and India.

ABOVE Admiral Chester Nimitz (left). Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet and the Pacific OceanArea. After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt told Nimitz to 'getthe hell out to Hawaii and don't come back until the waris won.' Easygoing and affable, he could be tough whennecessary, was willing to take risks and was anoutstanding strategist. (US National Archives)

The navy was not unanimous about theneed to invade Australia. Admiral Yamamotowanted to attack Midway, in the centralPacific, to draw the US Pacific Fleet intobattle. A compromise was reached: theinvasions of Australia and India were putaside and on 15 March it was agreed tocapture Port Moresby and the southernSolomons, and 'to isolate Australia' byseizing Fiji, Samoa, and New Caledonia. TheJapanese planned to form a defensive ringaround their Greater East Asia Co-prosperitySphere; if Australia could be isolated, itwould no longer be a base for an Americancounteroffensive.

Coral Sea and Midway

In the midst of the Japanese offensive, theAllies struggled to reshape their Pacificstrategy. Global strategy was to bedetermined by the Combined Chiefs of Staff,consisting of the American and British Chiefsof Staff. Priority was given to the war withGermany. The Pacific War was left in thehands of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. The keyfigure was the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the US navy, Admiral ErnestKing, who, despite the focus on Germany,

FOLLOWING PAGES Map1. 7 December 1941, Japanese carrier-borne aircraftattack Pearl Harbor2. 8 December 1941. Japan invades Malaya: 15 February1942, Singapore surrenders3. 8-25 December 1941, invasion of Hong Kong4. 10 December 1941,Japanese invade Philippines;surrendered 6 May 1942

5. 24 December 1941, Wake Island captured by Japanese6. 11 January 1942-8 March 1942, invasion of DutchEast Indies7. 19 January-15 May 1942, invasion of Burma8. 23 January-6 August 1942, invasion of New Britain,Solomons, New Guinea, and part of Papua9. 19 February 1942, Japanese carrier-borne andland-based aircraft attack Darwin

10. 5 April 1942, Japanese carrier-borne aircraftattack Colombo11. 4-8 May 1942, Battle of the Coral Sea12. 31 May-1 June 1942, Japanese submarines attackSydney Harbour13. 3-6 June 1942, Battle of Midway14. 6-7 June 1942, Japanese land in Aleutian Islands


Japan's conquests December 1941-August 1942

The fighting 35

36 Essential Histories • The Second World War ( I )

ABOVE The crew of the USS carrier Lexington, abandonship while a destroyer maneuvers along side, during theBattle of the Coral Sea, 8 May 1942. Leaking fuel fumesset off an uncontrollable fire and explosions. After shewas abandoned. American destroyers finished her off.Only 216 of her total complement of 2,951 were lost.(US Navy/MARS, Lincs)

was anxious to revitalize Pacific strategy.Admiral Nimitz, with his headquarters atPearl Harbor, had only three aircraft carriers,but was determined to take the fight to theJapanese as early as possible. GeneralMacArthur became Commander-in-Chief ofthe South-West Pacific Area, with hisheadquarters in Melbourne, Australia. Hiswas an Allied command and included all ofAustralia's combat forces as well as relativelysmall numbers of American ships, planes,and combat troops.

Nimitz moved quickly and during Februaryand March planes from his carriers raidedJapanese bases in the Gilbert and MarshallIslands and Japanese shipping near NewGuinea. On 18 April 16 B-25 bombers fromthe USS Hornet, under Colonel JamesDoolittle, raided Japan. The raid did little

damage, but Admiral Yamamoto now won hisargument that he should strike at Midway.

Meanwhile, a Japanese invasion force setsail from Rabaul to seize Port Moresby, onthe south coast of New Guinea. Warned bysignals intelligence, Allied naval forces,including the carriers Lexington and Yorktown,rushed to intercept the Japanese in the CoralSea. On 7 and 8 May, in the first naval battlein which opposing ships never sighted eachother, American aircraft sank the smallcarrier Shoho and damaged the large carrierShokaku. The Americans lost the Lexington,while the Yorktown was damaged.

Although the Japanese had achieved aslight tactical victory, they called off theirsea-borne invasion of Port Moresby,awaiting the conclusion of their attack onMidway in early June. Equally importantly,Japanese losses meant that Yamamoto'sforces would be reduced for the Midwaybattle. The absence of one fleet carrier wasperhaps critical to the outcome of thatbattle. The Battle of the Coral Sea gave theAllies vital breathing space in which tobuild up the force in New Guinea. It was the

The fighting 37

end of an unbroken run of successfulJapanese invasions.

The Battle of Midway was the crucialbattle of the Pacific War. When Americancode-breakers discovered that AdmiralNagumo's strike force of four carriersintended to attack Midway, Nimitz deployedhis limited forces. Yorktown limped back toPearl Harbor, was quickly repaired in anoutstanding feat of engineering, and joinedthe American carrier task force of Enterpriseand Hornet, under the careful, clear-thinkingRear-Admiral Raymond Spruance. Notexpecting to encounter American carriers, on4 June the Japanese were caught off-guard.By the end of the battle on 7 June, theJapanese had lost all four fleet carriers, whileYorktown was damaged and finally sunk by aJapanese submarine. It was the first decisive

American dive-bombers moving in to attack Japanesecarriers during the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.American torpedo bombers had carried out futileattacks, losing 35 of 41 aircraft in the first attack. Thisexposed the Japanese fleet to US dive-bombers thatsoon reduced three carriers to burning wrecks.(US National Archives)

defeat inflicted on the Japanese and changedthe naval balance in the Pacific.

Japan now postponed its plans to seizeNew Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa; instead, thecapture of Port Moresby became even moreurgent. With the loss of the carriers, anamphibious operation was no longerpossible, and on 7 June Lieutenant-GeneralHyakutake Harukichi in Rabaul was orderedto plan a land approach over the forbiddingOwen Stanley Ranges to Port Moresby.Strategically, the tide of war was beginning


to turn, but the Japanese were still capable ofmounting a deadly offensive.

Guadalcanal and New Guinea

The US navy's success at Midway encouragedthe US Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington,and on 2 July 1942 they ordered an offensivein the New Guinea-Solomon Islands area torecapture Rabaul. Because of jealousybetween the US navy and the US army, theoffensive was to be shared. In June theAmericans had received reports that theJapanese were building an airstrip onGuadalcanal in the southern SolomonIslands. US naval forces under Vice-AdmiralRobert Ghormley were ordered to seizeseveral islands in the southern Solomons,

US Marines on the march to Matanikau, west ofHenderson Field on Guadalcanal. The Matanikaubattle began toward the end of September andthe position was not secured until late October1942. following a fierce Japanese counterattack.(AKG Berlin)

including Guadalcanal, for which he wasallocated the 1st US Marine Division. Oncethe Marines had landed on Guadalcanal,MacArthur planned to occupy the Buna areaon the north coast of Papua, where airstripswould be prepared to support his advancetoward Rabaul.

Unfortunately for these plans, theJapanese moved first. Their advance troopslanded at Buna on the night of 21 July, to bemet by only light resistance. The JapaneseSouth Seas Detachment was now ordered toattack Port Moresby over the mountains.Belatedly, MacArthur began to sendreinforcements to New Guinea.

The Japanese were thrown off-balance bythe landing of the US Marines at Guadalcanalon 7 August. Not pleased to be pushed offtheir new airstrip, the Japanese attacked theAmericans with aircraft based at Rabaul.Vice-Admiral Jack Fletcher therefore withdrewhis three carriers, exposing the remainingforces to the Japanese ships. On the night of8/9 August, in the Battle of Savo Island,Japanese cruisers sank the Australian cruiser

The fighting 39

Canberra and three American cruisers.Following up this victory, the Japaneselanded 1,000 men on Guadalcanal, but on21 August they lost heavily in an attack onthe perimeter of Henderson airfield. Whilethe Americans held the airstrip theycontrolled the surrounding seas by day; butat night the Japanese dominated, bringing inmore reinforcements in an attempt to seizethe vital airstrip.

In Papua, MacArthur's Australian forcesfaced a similar challenge. The Japaneseoffensive began on 26 August with twosimultaneous attacks - one on the KokodaTrail that wound over the Owen StanleyRanges, and the other a landing by JapaneseMarines at Milne Bay on the south-east tip ofNew Guinea. Fearful for his own position,MacArthur tried to blame the Australians fortheir allegedly poor fighting ability. But by6 September two Australian brigades at MilneBay had defeated the Japanese, forcing themto evacuate. On the Kokoda Trail, however,Australian troops conducted a desperatewithdrawal. Eventually the Japanese failed;

the track was much more difficult thanexpected and they had made insufficientprovision for supplies. Importantly, theGuadalcanal campaign caused the Japanesehigh command in Rabaul to divert resourcesto that area, and eventually to order a halt tothe Owen Stanley offensive.

The fighting on and around Guadalcanalturned into a campaign of attrition. DuringSeptember and October the Japanese maderepeated efforts to recover Hendersonairfield. In the Battle of Bloody Ridge2,000 Japanese attacked in massed waves,and some came within 3,000ft (900m) of theairfield. If they had taken it, they might wellhave won the campaign. Lieutenant-ColonelMerrit A. Edson, commanding the forcedefending the ridge, was awarded theCongressional Medal of Honor. The

Australian soldiers of the 39th Battalion on the KokodaTrail in August 1942. Short of supplies, the Australiansconducted a fighting withdrawal in the Owen StanleyRanges that bought time for reinforcements to arriveand caused the Japanese to exhaust their supplies.(Australian War Memorial)


defenders were supported by Marine aircraftof the 'Cactus Air Force' operating from theairfield, but in October Japanese shipsbombarded the airfield, putting ittemporarily out of action. As reinforcementsarrived, the Marines gradually widened theirperimeter, meeting strong resistance fromthe Japanese on the surrounding hills and inthe jungle-filled valleys.

Naval battles continued aroundGuadalcanal and Fletcher was relieved of hiscommand. One American carrier was sunkand another damaged. On 18 OctoberVice-Admiral William Halsey relievedGhormley of command of the campaign. Inthe Battle of Santa Cruz, the carrier Hornetwas lost and Enterprise was damaged. Thenaval battle of Guadalcanal began on12 November and lasted for three days; in

Admiral William (Bull) Halsey assumed command of theGuadalcanal campaign in October 1942 and remained incommand of the Solomons campaign until March 1944.He and Admiral Spruance then alternated as commanderof the Pacific Fleet's main operational force, known as theThird Fleet when under his command, and the Fifth Fleetwhen under Spruance. (US National Archives)

the first 24 minutes the Americans lost sixships and the Japanese three, including abattleship. Eventually the odds began to tilttoward the Americans.

In New Guinea the 7th AustralianDivision advanced back over the KokodaTrail to the north coast, where it was joinedby the US 32nd Division. Exhausted, sickand with little support, the Australians andAmericans were confronted bywell-constructed Japanese defenses in jungleand swamp. MacArthur unreasonablydemanded a swift victory, telling theAmerican corps commander,Lieutenant-General Robert Eichelberger, 'totake Buna, or not come back alive.' By thetime the Japanese had been driven into thesea at Sanananda on 22 January 1943, theyhad suffered more than 13,000 killed. TheAustralians lost more than 2,000 killed andthe Americans more than 600. Almost20,000 Australian and American troops weresick from malaria.

The Japanese faced a similar outcome onGuadalcanal, but in one of the crucialdecisions of the Pacific War their highcommand decided to move to the strategicdefensive and ordered an evacuation. Thistook place in February. During the campaignthe Japanese lost perhaps 24,000 killed,while American fatal casualties numberedsome 1,600. The Japanese had lost many oftheir best trained pilots and their naval airforce never recovered from these losses.

The campaigns in New Guinea andGuadalcanal were fought in thick tropicaljungles and fetid swamps. Resupply wasdifficult and in New Guinea the Allies reliedon native porters and airdrops. Tropicalillnesses were as deadly as the enemy's bullets.

The Japanese made one last offensivethrust, toward Wau in New Guinea, but thiswas thwarted when an Australian brigade wasflown into the area. Seeking to build up theirdefenses, the Japanese created the EighteenthArmy and planned to reinforce New Guinea.Warned by signals intelligence andreconnaissance aircraft, the commander ofthe Allied air force in the South-West PacificArea, the highly capable Lieutenant-General

The fighting 41

Japanese shipping under attack by American andAustralian aircraft during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea,fought between 2 and 4 March 1943. The Japaneselost eight transports and four destroyers; of almost7,000 troops on the transports, about half perished.(Australian War Memorial)

George Kenney, ordered the convoy to beintercepted in the Bismarck Sea.

Allied code-breakers also gave warningthat Admiral Yamamoto would be visitingBougainville in the northern Solomons.American P-38 Lightnings from HendersonField were directed to his destination and on13 April 1943 they downed his aircraft inflames. It was a further blow to the Japanese,who were already on the defensive inthe south-west Pacific. Yamamoto wassucceeded by Admiral Koga Mineichi asCommander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet.

Aleutian Islands campaign

On the night of 6 June 1942 the Japaneselanded 1,200 troops on remote Attu Island,at the western end of the Aleutian Islands -

an island chain that projected 1,000 nauticalmiles from Alaska into the northern PacificOcean. Next day a small force took Kiska,another westerly island. The islands wereundefended and had few inhabitants. TheJapanese operation was partly to prevent theAmericans using the islands as a base for anattack on northern Japan, but mainly adiversion for the Midway operation. TheJapanese occupations posed little threat, butas the islands were American territory therewas public agitation for their recovery.

In response, the US Eleventh Air Forcemounted a protracted bombing campaign,while American warships tried to prevent theJapanese from reinforcing their garrisons.These were extremely difficult operations asthe islands were often shrouded in fog andrain. In March 1943, in one of the PacificWar's few 'fleet actions' in open seas, Americanand Japanese cruisers pounded each other,with the Americans lucky to survive. But theJapanese fleet turned back and the Japaneseadmiral was dismissed from his command.

On 11 May 1943 the US 7th InfantryDivision landed on Attu, where it faced fierce


opposition, culminating in a suicidalJapanese bayonet charge on 29 May. TheUSA lost 600 killed; only 28 Japanese werecaptured and 2,351 bodies were counted.

In a daring operation, on the night of28/29 July 1943, under cover of fog, theJapanese navy evacuated its garrison of morethan 5,000 troops from Kiska. The 34,000American and Canadian troops who landedthere on 15 August took several days todiscover that they faced no opposition. Forthe Japanese, the campaign had been adisastrous waste of men and materiel whenthey had been under increasing pressure inthe south and south-west Pacific.

The advance toward Rabaul

In January 1943 Roosevelt and Churchill metwith their senior military advisers atCasablanca, Morocco, to set the strategicdirection for the coming year. Although theleaders relegated the Pacific War to fifth onthe list of priorities (after the Atlantic, Russia,the Mediterranean, and the UnitedKingdom), the directive of 2 July 1942 tocapture Rabaul remained unchanged. Againthe tasks were shared. Forces from the SouthPacific Area, under Admiral Halsey, wouldadvance from Guadalcanal toward Rabaulwith the intermediate objective ofBougainville in the northern Solomons.Meanwhile, MacArthur's forces would seizethe Huon peninsula in New Guinea and thewestern end of New Britain. The totaloperation was known as OperationCartwheel.

Opposing the Allied forces wasLieutenant-General Imamura Hitoshi'sEighth Area Army with its headquarters atRabaul. Lieutenant-General Hyakutake'sSeventeenth Army defended the Solomonsand New Britain with three divisions, whileLieutenant-General Adachi Hatazo'sEighteenth Army, also with three divisions,was in New Guinea. The Japanese strengthwas between 80,000 and 90,000, but theycould be reinforced by about 60,000 withinthree weeks. The Japanese had about

RIGHT MapLand operations

1. 7 August 1942, Americans land at Guadalcanal; Japanesewithdraw on 7 February 1943

2. 25 August-6 September 1942. Japanese landing at MilneBay is defeated by Australians

3. 26 August-2 November 1942 Japanese advance over theKokoda Trail to within 97 miles (60 km) of Port Moresbyand are then driven back to Kokoda by the Australians4. 16 November 1942-22 January 1943, US and Australiantroops defeat Japanese at Buna. Gona, and Sanananda5. 28 January-11 September 1943, Japanese attack Wauand are driven back to Salamaua by the Australians

6. 30 June 1943, Americans land on New Georgia7. 30 June 1943, Americans land at Nassau Bay

8. 15 August 1943, Americans land on Vella Lavella9. 4 September 1943, Australians land at Lae10. 5 September 1943, Australians land at Nadzab andlater advance up Markham Valley

11. 22 September 1943, Australians land at Finschhafen12. 1 November 1943, Americans land on Bougainville

13. 15 and 26 December 1943, Americans land onNew Britain

14. 15 February 1944, New Zealanders land at GreenIsland

15. 2 January 1944, Americans land at Saidor

16. 29 February 1944, Americans land on Los Negros17. 20 March 1944, Americans land at Emirau

18. 22 April 1944. Americans land at Hollandia and Aitape19. 24 April 1944, Australians enter Madang

Naval battles

A Savo Island, 9 August 1942Cape Esperance. 11 October 1942

Guadalcanal, 12-15 November 1942

Tassafronga, 30 November 1942B Eastern Solomons, 24 August 1942C Santa Cruz Island, 26 October 1942D Bismarck Sea. 2-4 March 1943E Kula Gulf. 5-6 July 1943F Kolombangara, 12-13 July 1943G Vella Gulf, 6-7 August 1943H Vella Lavella. 6-7 October 1943I Empress Augusta Bay, 2 November 1943

320 combat aircraft, while about 270 otherscould be flown in within 48 hours.

The Cartwheel operation began on30 June 1943 when Halsey's troops madetheir main landings on New Georgia andRendova. The New Georgia landing soonturned into a hard-grinding battle, withthree American divisions deployed underMajor-General Oswald Griswold. Meanwhilethe Japanese dispatched reinforcements fromRabaul, escorted by warships that clashed

Allied operations in N

ew G

uinea and the Solom

ons,A

ugust 1942-April 1944

Th

e fig

htin

g

43

Essential Histories • The Second World War (1)

with the US navy. Superior in night fighting,the Japanese navy sank or damaged severalAmerican and Australian ships. But in oneengagement three Japanese transports weresunk with the loss of perhaps 1,500 mendrowned. By mid-September, when theJapanese withdrew from New Georgia, theyhad lost more than 2,000 killed; Americandeaths exceeded 1,000. American forcesjumped to Vella Lavela, and by October,American and New Zealand troops had landedon several islands near to Bougainville.

On 1 November the 3rd US MarineDivision landed at Empress Augusta Bay onthe west coast of Bougainville, bypassing alarge Japanese concentration at the south ofthe island. Next morning a US navy taskforce destroyed a cruiser and a destroyer fromthe Japanese Eighth Fleet. When a powerfulJapanese task force under Vice-Admiral KuritaTakeo appeared at Rabaul, Halsey took a greatrisk and sent his two-carrier task force within

MacArthur's land forces were nominally under theAustralian General Sir Thomas Blarney (right), but mostAmerican operations were controlled by thecommander of the US Sixth Army, Lieutenant-GeneralWalter Krueger (left). Tough and experienced, Blarneycommanded New Guinea Force, which consisted ofmainly Australian units. (Australian War Memorial)

range of Japanese air power. Supported byKenney's land-based Fifth Air Force, US navalaircraft caused such damage that Kuritawithdrew to Truk. Further Allied air attacksforced the Japanese to withdraw their air andnaval units from Rabaul. In March 1944 theAmerican forces resisted a full-scale Japanesecounteroffensive on Bougainville. Thereafterthere was a virtual truce until the Australianstook over from the Americans toward the endof the year.

The fighting in the New Guinea area wasmarked by fewer naval engagements butlarger land operations than in the Solomons.Between March and August 1943, the3rd Australian Division slogged throughjungle-covered hills from Wau towardSalamaua. The Japanese Fourth Air Armyrushed additional planes to New Guinea,but, warned by Allied code-breakers, and bydeploying aircraft to newly constructedforward airfields, Kenney's Fifth Air Forcecaught the Japanese planes on the ground atWewak, with devastating losses.

On 4 September the 9th Australian Divisionconducted an amphibious landing near Lae,while in the following days the7th Australian Division landed by air atNadzab airstrip once it had been secured by

The fighting 45

American paratroops. Salamaua fell on11 September and Lae on the 15th. Afterlanding at Finschhafen, the Australians thencontinued along the New Guinea coast.Inland, the 7th Division cleared the Markhamand Ramu valleys, where airfields wereconstructed for the Fifth Air Force, and pressedover the mountain range toward Madang. Asin earlier campaigns, the climate, terrain andvegetation provided an additional challenge.

American troops began landing on thesouthern coast of New Britain on15 December, with the main landing by the1st US Marine Division at Cape Gloucester on26 December, where, after hard fighting, theyestablished a perimeter. On 2 January 1944 the32nd US Division landed at Saidor on theNew Guinea coast. The Japanese 20th and51st Divisions escaped, but they had beenroundly defeated. Between March 1943 andApril 1944 the Australians, under Blarney,deployed five infantry divisions, losingabout 1,200 killed. Japanese losses numberedabout 35,000.

The completion of the Cartwheeloperation showed that the Americans

Troops of the 9th Australian Division landing atFinschhafen on the Huon peninsula on 22 September1943. The Japanese counterattacked strongly and theAustralians did not take their main bastion at Sattelberguntil 25 November (Australian War Memorial)

and Australians had learned much aboutjungle warfare. In Malaya, Burma, thePhilippines, and New Guinea the Japanesehad caught their opponents off-guard.Lightly equipped and accustomed to hardliving, the Japanese infantry moved quicklythrough deep jungle, bypassing staticAllied positions. On the defensive, theJapanese constructed well-camouflagedstrongpoints and fought with determinationand skill. Their commanders perhapslacked imagination in planning and didnot seem to appreciate fully theeffectiveness of massed firepower. As theAmericans began to dominate the seas, theJapanese defenders (for whom surrender wasnot an option) often had little alternativebut to fight to the death.

The Americans had to learn about junglewarfare in action and at first seemed


bewildered by it. They learned quickly, butfought the war in their own way. As anAmerican divisional historian put it: 'TheYank style of fighting was to wait for theartillery and let the big guns blast the enemypositions as barren of all life as possible. Itsaved many American lives and got betterresults although it took longer.' Morebroadly, the Americans brought to bear thefull range of naval and air resources tosupport their land operations. All of this wasbacked by a massive logistic effort.

Although many of the Australian unitshad already fought in the Middle East, theystill had to adapt to jungle conditions, andthey concentrated especially on patrollingskills. They did not have the same weight offirepower and lavish supplies as theAmericans, but were still superior to theJapanese in this regard. The Americans andAustralians had far better medical supportthan the Japanese, especially for coping withtropical diseases such as malaria.

The island-hopping campaigns

Admiral King had always advocated usingAmerican naval power to attack the Japanesein the central Pacific, but MacArthur hadargued for resources to enable him toadvance through New Guinea toward thePhilippines. If both approaches could besustained, then they would throw theJapanese off-balance, but it was not until thelatter months of 1943 that the US navybegan to gather the strength necessary toprosecute a campaign in the central Pacific.At the time of Pearl Harbor, the US navy hadonly three carriers in the Pacific; by late 1943Nimitz had 10 fast large and medium carriers,seven escort carriers, and a dozen battleships.These formed the key elements of the FifthFleet under Vice-Admiral Spruance.

On 20 November 1942 the 2nd Marine Division landedon the heavily defended Tarawa atoll in the GilbertIslands. In a bitter and bloody five-day battle the Marineslost 1,000 killed and the Japanese their entire garrison of5,000. (AKG Berlin)

Toward the end of 1943 this force beganconducting raids on Japanese island bases,and on 20 November 1943 US Marine andarmy units landed on Tarawa and Makinatolls in the Gilbert Islands. Tarawa was abitter fight, but Makin was taken relatively

The fighting 47

easily. American attention now turned to theMarshall Islands with the US Navy's fastcarrier task force raiding the islands in lateDecember 1943 and early January 1944. On31 January, US Marine and army troopslanded on Kwajalein Island. Eniwetok fell on

17 February, six weeks ahead of schedule.Meanwhile, American carriers underRear-Admiral Marc Mitscher heavily raidedthe Japanese naval base at Truk.

With the US navy moving faster thanexpected in the central Pacific, MacArthur


was fearful of being left behind and on29 February 1944, in a daring 'raid', his forcesseized Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands.All ideas of attacking Rabaul were nowabandoned; the huge Japanese garrison wasto play little further part in the war. Instead,MacArthur directed a series of landings byAmerican troops along the northern NewGuinea coast that isolated 40,000 Japaneseforces in the Wewak area. His forces tookAitape and Hollandia on 23 April, Wakde on17 May, Biak on 27 May, Noemfoor on 2 July,and Sansapor on 30 July. In three months hehad advanced over 850 miles (1,400km).With no carriers of his own, and receivinglimited carrier support from the CentralPacific, MacArthur's forces constructedairfields at each landing to provideland-based air support for the next assault.

While MacArthur was advancing, Nimitzwas focusing on the Mariana Islands. The keyislands were Saipan, Guam, and Tinian, whoseairfields were within bombing range of Japan.Realizing the danger, the Commander-in-Chiefof the Japanese Combined Fleet (now AdmiralToyoda Soemu) ordered nine carriers and450 aircraft to gather for a concerted attack onthe Americans. Admiral Spruance commandedthe invasion, to be covered by Mitscher'sTask Force 58, now with 15 carriers and1,000 planes. The invasion force includednearly 130,000 troops (only 22,500 fewer thanin the opening phase of Operation Overlord atNormandy on 6 June - nine days earlier). Theinvasion force was carried in 535 ships.

Carrier strikes began on 11 June, withtroops of the 5th Amphibious Corps underMarine Lieutenant-General Holland (Howlin'Mad) Smith landing on Saipan on 15 June.Japanese carrier- and land-based aircraftstruck the US fleet on 19 June, but weretotally outclassed by the American aircraftand their more skillful pilots. In the 'GreatMarianas Turkey Shoot', the Japanese lost400 aircraft, while the USA lost 30. ThreeJapanese carriers were sunk - two byAmerican submarines. Onshore, the Marineand army troops had a savage battle against32,000 defenders. The Japanese conductedsuicide charges, while Japanese civilians leapt

to their death from high cliffs. It was 9 Julybefore Saipan was secured. Total Japanesedeaths numbered 30,000. Meanwhile,US Marine and army troops captured Guamand Tinian. The defeat of the Japanese carrierforce and the seizure of the Marianas -Japanese mandated territory since the FirstWorld War - were a severe blow to theJapanese high command. On 18 July Tojoresigned as Prime Minister and War Minister.Lieutenant-General Koiso Kuniaki succeededhim as Prime Minister.

Burma

While the operations in the south-west andcentral Pacific areas dominated the attentionof the Americans, the Australians, and theJapanese navy during 1943 and 1944, Japanesearmy units were heavily engaged in Burma.

By May 1942 the Japanese army haddriven the British into India and had pushed

General Sir William Slim was one of the outstandingcommanders of the war. He commanded the BurmaCorps during the 1942 retreat and the Fourteenth Armyin the defensive battles of 1944 and the successfulinvasion of Burma in 1944-45. (National Army Museum)

The fighting 49

several Chinese divisions back to thenorthern borders. In India the British-IndianArmy began a painful process of expansionand retraining. Most of the units came fromIndia with a large proportion of Britishofficers, but eventually the forces that wouldretake Burma would include manynationalities - Indians, Burmese, Chinese,Gurkhas, black troops from British East andWest Africa, as well as British and Americans.As in the south-west Pacific, the campaignswere fought in jungle and in a tryingclimate, the seasonal monsoons makingmovement extremely difficult.

The first offensives began in the coastalArakan area, between October 1942 andMay 1943, but the Japanese drove back theBritish divisions in further morale-shatteringdefeats. The only success seemed to be thatachieved by a brigade of special forces - theChindits - under the eccentric Brigadier OrdeWingate, inserted into north-central Burmain February 1943. Actual success was slight,but the Chindits' exploits boosted morale.

In October 1943 the Allied South-East AsiaCommand was formed under Admiral LordLouis Mountbatten, with its headquarters inCeylon. Mountbatten's tasks were to increasepressure on the Japanese and thus force themto transfer forces from the Pacific theater, tomain the airborne supply route to China, andto open a land supply route through northernBurma. General Sir William Slim, commanderof the Fourteenth Army, was to undertakethree offensives into Burma: the 15th Corps(Lieutenant-General Philip Christison) wouldadvance in the Arakan; the 4th Corps(Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Scoones) wouldprepare for an attack into central Burma fromImphal; and Northern Combat AreaCommand would thrust into northern Burmato open a route into China. This latter force,under the cantankerous American Lieutenant-General Joseph Stilwell, included two Chinesedivisions and a brigade of Americans known asMerrill's Marauders; their advance would besupported by the Chindits, now numberingseveral brigades.

The commander of the Japanese BurmaArea Army, Lieutenant-General Kawabe

Masakazu, decided to pre-empt this offensiveby striking into India. If he gained afoothold for the Indian National Army - aforce of Indian troops under Japanese control- he might even precipitate a revolt in Indiaagainst British rule. The first Japaneseoffensive began as a diversion in Arakan inFebruary 1944, where the British were alsobeginning an offensive. In bitter fightingaround the 'Admin Box', two Indiandivisions defeated the attack and resumedtheir offensive.

The main Japanese offensive began inMarch 1944 when the Fifteenth Army withmore than three divisions, underLieutenant-General Mutuguchi Renya,crossed into India heading for Imphal andKohima. The British 4th Corps wassurrounded in the Imphal area and atKohima. But as the Japanese had now beendefeated in Arakan, Slim was able to fly in adivision from there. Meanwhile, thedefensive positions around Imphal weresupplied by a huge effort by American andBritish transport aircraft. The 33rd Corpsunder Lieutenant-General Montague Stopfordwas deployed from India to relieve Kohima.Short of supplies and heavy weapons, theJapanese took dreadful casualties in an effortto break through into India. On 31 May they

FOLLOWING PAGES Map1. 7 August 1942. US forces land at Guadalcanal2. September 1942, Australians defeat Japanese at MilneBay and advance back over Kokoda Trail

3. 30 June 1943, US forces land at New Georgia4. 30 June-December 1943. US and Australian forcesland in New Guinea and New Britain5. May-August 1943. US and Canadian forces recoverAleutian islands

6. 20 November 1943, US forces invade Tarawa andMakin islands7. 31 January-17 February 1944, US forces land onKwajalein and Eniwetok islands

8. 15 March-22June 1944, Japanese invasion of north-eastern India defeated9. 22 April-30 July 1944. US forces advance along NewGuinea coast from Hollandia to Sansapor10. April 1944, Japanese begin Ichigo offensive in China11.15 June 1944, US forces land at Saipan12. 21 July 1944, US forces land at Guam13. 15 September. US forces land in Palau Islands and

at Morotai


The Allied counteroffensive, August 1942-September 1944

The fighting 51

52 Essential Histories • The Second World War (

British troops in carriers from the 33rd Corps advancingdown the Imphal-Kohima road in June 1944. The 33rdCorps had relieved the besieged garrison at Kohimabefore opening the road to Imphal. The 4th Corps hadfought a grim defensive battle at Imphal. (MARS)

began to withdraw from Kohima and on18 July Kawabe and Mutugachi agreed thatno further offensive operations were possible.It had been a disastrous offensive: of theinvading force of 85,000 fighting troops,53,000 became casualties, 30,000 being killed.The way was clear for Slim to advance intoBurma, even though monsoonal rains mademovement difficult.

Meanwhile, the Northern Combat AreaCommand had been advancing south, whilethe Chindits had been inserted across theJapanese lines of communication. Despiteproblems with Allied cooperation, on 17 May

the Americans took Myitkyina airfield, fromwhich supplies could be flown into China. TheJapanese held the town until 3 August. SeveralChinese divisions also advanced into Burmafrom Yunan Province, but these offensives stilldid not open the way to China until later inthe year. Throughout these operations a forceof 17,000 engineers had been constructing aroad and oil pipeline from Ledo in India toMyitkyina. The land route into China was notcomplete until January 1945.

China

The war in China was not a simple conflictbetween Japan and the Allies. The Alliesaccepted the Nationalist leader, ChiangKai-shek, as commander-in-chief of theChina theater, but the Chinese Communist

The fighting 53

Party, under Mao Tse-tung, controlled muchof north-west China and conductedextensive and successful guerrilla operationsagainst the Japanese. Semi-autonomouswarlords with their own armies ruled severalprovinces; nominally they were underdirection from the Nationalist government atChungking, but sometimes they cooperatedwith the Japanese in operations against thecommunists. In 1938 the Japanese hadestablished a Chinese puppet government,under Wang Ching-wei, with its capitalat Nanking. Wang's army of up to 900,000conducted operations against both thecommunists and the warlords.

During 1941 and 1942 the Japaneseconducted ruthless punishment operationsin northern and central China, but by 1943they were hard-pressed by the communistguerrilla campaign. The Japanese thenpursued a pacification policy, hoping thateventually the Wang puppet governmentmight assume control, or that it might

conclude an agreement with theNationalists.

Chiang Kai-shek realized that the Allieswere going to win the war and he wanted topreserve his armies for a future war againstthe Communists. But he needed to give theimpression that he was fighting the Japanesein order to maintain the flow of Americanarms and equipment. Stilwell believed thatwith adequate training and equipment theChinese armies could perform well.Influenced by Major-General ClaireChennault, who commanded the AmericanVolunteer Group (the Flying Tigers), Chiangplaced his faith in air power.

The American operations in northernBurma were dominated by the desire to open

The Chinese Generalissimo, Chiang Kai-shek, with hiswife and his US Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell. at Maymo, Burma, in April 1942.Stilwell had a low regard for Chiang, whom he called 'thepeanut'. Stilwell also commanded the American forces inBurma. (US National Archives)


a route to China. This would enable them tobuild up the Nationalist armies as a viableforce, and to use China as a base for airoperations against Japanese ships in theSouth China Sea and even against Japan.Until a land route could be opened, theNationalists and Chennault's small air force(never more than 200 aircraft) had to besupplied by air. American transport aircraftflew from makeshift airfields in India'snorth-eastern Assam, 500 miles (800km) over13,000ft (4,000m) mountains to Kunming in

southern China. Flying 'the hump' at highaltitudes in turbulent monsoonal weatherwas exceptionally dangerous; between July1942 and the end of the war 600 planesand 1,000 aircrew were lost delivering650,000 tons of supplies.

In April 1944 the Japanese began a majoroffensive - the Ichigo offensive, with620,000 troops - to overrun the Alliedairfields in southern China. The warlord andNationalist armies were no matches for theJapanese, who by December were

The Allied invasion of Burma 1944-1945

The fighting 55

LEFT Map1. Burma-Thailand railroad built by slave labor betweenJuly 1942 and October 1943 to resupply Japanese forcesin India2. The Hump' - the route flown by US aircraftresupplying China3. February-March 1944. British 15th Corps advancesinto Arakan; Japanese counterattack results in battle ofAdmin Box. British resume offensive in December 19444. 15 March 1944, Japanese invade north-eastern India.Kohima is relieved on 18 April and Imphal on 22 June5. March 1944, Northern Combat Area Commandadvances from Ledo and secures Myitkyina airfield by 17May6. December 1944. Fourteenth Army invades Burma7. 1 May 1945, paratroops land at Rangoon andseaborne invasion takes place next day

threatening Kunming and Chungking. Bythis stage the new B-29 Superfortresses thathad been conducting raids against southernJapan with limited success had beenwithdrawn to India. The Japanese called offtheir offensive, and in January 1945 theChinese mounted counteroffensives thatpushed the Japanese back to the SouthChina Sea. During 1944 the Japanese hadbeen forced to transfer troops to the Pacific,and in 1945 to Manchuria to meet anincreasing Russian threat. By this time,'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell, frustrated by ChiangKai-shek's deviousness, and corruption in theNationalist army, had been replaced by themore diplomatic Lieutenant-General AlbertWedemeyer. The war in China cost the livesof 1.3 million Chinese troops, not tomention the millions of civilians who diedfrom famine, and tied down a millionJapanese troops, but in reality it was asideshow in a war that was won and lost inthe Pacific.

The submarine campaign

The American submarine campaign againstJapanese merchant shipping played adecisive role in strangling the Japanese homeeconomy and starving the forward areas ofreinforcements, supplies, and equipment.Japan relied heavily on its merchant marine- the world's third largest after those ofBritain and the USA. Its merchant ships

carried oil, rubber, tin, rice, and other rawmaterials from south-east Asia to the homeislands, and also transported troops, suppliesand equipment to Japanese forces deployedin hundreds of islands from Sumatra to theSolomons and the central Pacific. InDecember 1941 the USA resolved on a policyof unrestricted submarine warfare. About50 submarines, based initially at Hawaii andFremantle (Australia), attacked Japanesemerchant shipping and soon began to have anoticeable effect.

For the first two years, malfunctioningtorpedoes hindered the Americansubmarine campaign. Nonetheless, during1943 Vice-Admiral Charles Lockwood, atPearl Harbor, commanded a successfulcampaign against Japanese merchantshipping, and also supported the US surfacefleet by sinking several Japanese carriers. TheAmericans had broken the ciphers used bythe Japanese to route their merchantconvoys, and the American submarines wereusually lying in wait.

The USA's submarines were handled withgreat enterprise. By contrast, the Japanesesubmarine force usually operated incooperation with its surface fleet and did notconduct a concerted campaign against Alliedmerchant shipping. It undertook smallnuisance raids against the west coast of theUSA, along the coast of Australia and even asfar west as Madagascar, but these attacks didnot cause heavy Allied losses. As it becamemore difficult to resupply forward Japanesepositions, submarines were used to transportmen and supplies - a wasteful use of avaluable strike weapon.

At the beginning of 1944 the Japanesehad 4.1 million tons of merchant shipping,excluding tankers; by the end of the year thiswas down to 2 million tons. In September1944, 700,000 tons of shipping weretransporting oil; four months later this hadbeen reduced to 200,000 tons, and during1945 Japan imported virtually no oil. By theend of 1944 the submarine war was almostover. Japanese ships had been driven fromthe high seas and instead hugged the coastof China and the waters around Japan.


During the war, American submarines sanknearly 1,300 Japanese merchant ships, aswell as one battleship, eight carriers and11 cruisers. The Americans lost52 submarines from a total force of288. During the same period, the Japaneselost 128 of their available 200 submarines,although many of these were not engaged incombat operations.

The importance of the Americansubmarine campaign is sometimesoverlooked, but after the war the formerJapanese Prime Minister, General Tojo,admitted that there were three reasons forthe American victory: the USA's ability tokeep strong naval task forces at sea formonths on end; the leap-frogging offensivethat bypassed Japanese garrisons; and thedestruction of Japanese shipping byAmerican submarines.

Planning the final campaigns

In mid-October 1944 the Japanese East AsiaCo-prosperity Sphere was still largely intact.After nearly three years of war, the Allies hadmade relatively minor progress, even thoughthe Japanese had been defeated in importantbattles. In northern Burma, the Allies hadnot yet opened the road to China. Farthersouth, almost all of the Netherlands EastIndies, the Philippines, Malaya, and Indo-China remained in Japanese hands. In thePacific, the Marianas were being rapidlydeveloped to take B-29 Superfortresses forthe bombing campaign against Japan. ButAmerican bombers had not reached Tokyosince April 1942.

Although much of Japan's empire wasstill intact, the signs were ominous. TheJapanese navy had been decimated, and ithad lost large numbers of irreplaceablenaval aircraft and pilots. To the south, theJapanese seemed powerless to stopMacArthur's advance. In Burma they werein retreat. Their merchant fleet wassuffering crippling losses to Americansubmarines. Senior army and navy leadersin Tokyo now knew that they had no hope

of victory. Yet equally, there was no thoughtof surrender, and they hoped that somehowthey might still resist their attackers,perhaps obtaining a negotiated peace.The Allies were never likely to contemplatesuch an outcome.

The shape of the last year of the PacificWar was set at important meetings inQuebec and Washington in mid-Septemberand early October 1944. At Quebec,Churchill, Roosevelt, and their Chiefs of Staffagreed that Mountbatten's South-East AsiaCommand would undertake an offensiveinto Burma; its forces were eventually toinvade Malaya and capture Singapore. TheAmericans accepted Britain's offer of a majorfleet to operate with the US navy in thePacific. The Americans, however, wouldconduct the remainder of the offensives,including the strategic bombing campaignagainst Japan, and the landing at Mindanaoin the southern Philippines. Eventually theAllies would have to invade Japan, and afterthe end of the war in Europe the SovietUnion would invade Manchuria to holddown the large Japanese army there.

In the midst of the conference camefurther news from the Pacific. Between 7 and14 September, Halsey's carrier force struckvigorously at Yap, the Palaus, Mindanao, andthe central Philippines. He reported excitedlyto Nimitz that he had found little oppositionin the Philippines; he believed that Yap,Talaud, and Sarangani could be bypassed andthe forces scheduled for those islands usedagainst Leyte in the central Philippines. On15 September the US Joint Chiefs approved alanding by MacArthur's forces on Leyte,beginning on 20 October. The landing onMindanao was abandoned.

Finally, in Washington on 3 October, theJoint Chiefs resolved an issue that had beensimmering for six months, namely whetherthe USA should invade Luzon or Formosa(now Taiwan). It was agreed thatMacArthur's forces would invade Luzon on20 December 1944. Nimitz's Central PacificCommand would seize Iwo Jima in lateJanuary 1945, and would move on toOkinawa on 1 March.

The fighting 57

Task Group 38.3 of Halsey's Third Fleet returning to itsbase in the Palaus after air strikes against Japaneseairfields in the Philippines in September 1944. The twocarriers, followed by three fast battleships and fourcruisers, illustrate the growing power of the US PacificFleet. (US National Archives)

Liberation of the Philippines

The invasion force for Leyte consisted of theUS Seventh Fleet under Vice-Admiral ThomasKinkaid and four infantry divisions of theUS Sixth Army, commanded by the veteranprofessional soldier General Walter Krueger.Admiral Halsey's powerful US Third Fleet, with16 carriers, provided support. The total forcenumbered 700 ships and some 160,000 men.The troops landed on Leyte on 20 October1944 and initially met only light opposition.

Meanwhile, the Japanese na\y, under thetactical command of Vice-Admiral Ozawa

Jizaburo, converged on the US fleet. Ozawalured Halsey north away from the landingarea while he sent two striking forces intothe Leyte Gulf. The subsequent battle,beginning on 24 October, was the largest andone of the most decisive naval battles inhistory. With the battle in the balance, thecommander of one of the Japanese strikingforces, Vice-Admiral Kurita, called off theengagement and retired. By 26 October theJapanese had lost four carriers, threebattleships, nine cruisers, and 10 destroyers.The Japanese navy never recovered from thisdefeat. Before the landing, the US navy haddestroyed over 500 Japanese carrier- andland-based aircraft.

Defeated at sea, but aware of the danger ifthe Americans gained a foothold in thePhilippines, the Japanese high commandmounted a desperate counteroffensive. Theywere aided by the Americans' failure to

58 Essential Histor ies • The Second W o r l d W a r ( I )

Philippines operations, 20 October 1944-July 1945

The fighting 59

LEFT MapLandings and land operations1. 20 October 1944, US Sixth Army (Krueger), with fourdivisions, lands at Leyte. Three more divisions aredeployed before the island is secured in December2. 9 January 1945. US Sixth Army, with four divisions,lands at Lingayen Gulf. Six more divisions are landedduring the battle for Luzon. The main fighting ceases inJune, although pockets of Japanese remain3. 4 February-3 March 1945. battle for Manila4. February-July 1945, US Eighth Army (Eichelberger),with five divisions, conducts operations in the southernPhilippines. They conduct over 50 landings. 14 of whichare medium to large operations

Battle of Leyte GulfA 23 October 1944, US submarines sink two Japanese

cruisers and damage one

B 24 October 1944, Japanese Southern Force 1(Nishimura) enters Surigao Strait and is engaged byUS Seventh Fleet (Kinkaid). Only one Japaneseship survives

C 24 October 1944, Japanese Southern Force 2(Shima) withdraws without entering Surigao Strait.

D 24 October 1944 the carrier. USS Princeton, sunk byJapanese land-based aircraft

E 24 October 1944, US air strikes sink Japanesebattleship and damage a cruiser

F 25 October 1944. Japanese Centre Force (Kurita)retreats back through San Bernadino Strait afterlosing two cruisers. The US lost two escort carriers,two destroyers, and a destroyer escort

G 25 October 1944, Halsey's Third Fleet engagesNorthern (Decoy) Force (Ozawa) beforewithdrawing to meet the southern threats

ABOVE General Douglas MacArthur Commander-in-Chiefof the South-West Pacific Area, wading ashore at Leyte.Philippines, in October 1944. Whatever the political andstrategic merits might have been in liberating thePhilippines. MacArthur had made it a personal crusade,vowing, after he arrived in Australia in March 1942:'I shallreturn.' He was a master of public relations, using hisextravagantly worded communiques to engender supportfor his strategic plans. (US National Archives)

maintain air superiority: many Americancarriers had withdrawn for other tasks andthe captured airfields on Leyte were in suchpoor condition that only a few aircraft coulduse them. The Japanese were therefore

relatively free to send convoys ofreinforcements to Leyte. Advancingcautiously from its beachhead, the US SixthArmy soon met strong resistance fromskillful and determined Japanese troops. In adaring but uncoordinated attack, Japaneseparatroops dropped on to the Americanairfields but were destroyed in a four-daybattle. Eventually the Americans deployedseven divisions before concluding thehard-fought campaign successfully on25 December. The Japanese lost some56,000 men. The Sixth Army had almost3,000 killed and 10,000 wounded before it

60 Essential Histories • The Second World War ( I )

was relieved by Lieutenant-General RobertEichelberger's US Eighth Army.

On 9 January 1945 the Sixth Army landedat Lingayen Gulf on the main Philippinesisland of Luzon. Attacked by Japanesekamikaze (suicide) planes, the Americans had25 ships sunk or damaged, but 175,000 menwere put ashore. The subsequent landcampaign against a Japanese army of 260,000under General Yamashita was the secondlargest conducted by the US army in the entirewar, after that in north-west Europe in1944-45. The Sixth Army deployed tendivisions and the campaign involved tankbattles, amphibious landings, parachutedrops and guerrilla warfare. More than100,000 Filipinos, 16,000 Japanese and1,000 Americans died in the two-week battlefor the shattered city of Manila. By the end ofJune the Luzon campaign was over. The SixthArmy had lost 8,000 killed and 30,000wounded. The Japanese had lost 190,000.

The Sixth Army now began to prepare forthe invasion of Japan. Meanwhile, theEighth Army undertook a series ofamphibious operations throughout thesouthern Philippines to eliminate largepockets of Japanese. These operations helpedliberate extensive areas but did notcontribute directly to the defeat of Japan.

The Australian campaigns

The same criticism can be levelled at theAustralian army's final campaigns. FromOctober 1944, troops of the First AustralianArmy began relieving American divisions onBougainville, New Britain, and the north coastof New Guinea. In New Britain, the Australiansconducted a containment operation, and atthe end of the war the Japanese garrisonat Rabaul was found to number almost70,000 army and naval personnel.

The Australian commander, GeneralBlarney, argued, however, that Australia had aduty to liberate its own territory. Therefore,on Bougainville the 2nd Australian Corpsbegan a slow and careful offensive, which wasstill proceeding at the end of the war. In New

Guinea the 6th Division captured Wewak,driving the Japanese into the mountains.

MacArthur was at best lukewarm about thejustification for these offensives, but heenthusiastically ordered the 1st AustralianCorps, under Lieutenant-General Sir LeslieMorshead, to conduct operations in Borneo.The first of these began on 1 May 1945 withthe seizure of Tarakan. Next, on 10 June the9th Australian Division landed on LabuanIsland and at Brunei. Blarney was now morewary and he opposed the landing of the7th Division at Balikpapan. MacArthur warnedthe Australian government that to cancel theoperation would disorganize Allied strategicplans; the government approved the landing.In truth, MacArthur wanted to show theDutch government that he had attempted torecover part of its territory. The landing on1 July was the last amphibious operation ofthe war. In the campaigns of late 1944 and1945 the Australians lost more than1,500 killed, but Japan did not surrender oneminute earlier as a result.

The end in Burma

In December 1944 the British-IndianFourteenth Army, under the popular andpragmatic General Slim, crossed theChindwin River, and by January 1945 it hadreached the Irrawaddy River in centralBurma. British, Chinese, and American forcesin northern Burma advanced south and on22 January the Burma Road, linking Indiaand China, was opened.

With more than six divisions in a forcenumbering 260,000, Slim continued hisoffensive southward toward Rangoon. He wasopposed by four Japanese divisions, togethertotalling some 20,000 emaciated and poorlyequipped defenders. However, British andIndian troops landed from the sea and by air,and took Rangoon on 3 May. The Japanesearmy in Burma had been crushed. Faced witha possible invasion of India, the British hadhad no alternative but to fight in Burma. Ithad been a hard-fought war over three years;190,000 Japanese died. Burma was liberated,

The fighting 61

A British patrol at the Sittang River in the final stages ofthe Burma campaign. After the capture of Rangoon, theBritish forces faced a force of 110,000 Japanese troops,but short of supplies they were generally ineffective.(The Art Archive/Imperial War Museum)

British pride was restored and Japanese forceshad been tied down. But in strategic terms the1945 Burma campaign had only a marginaleffect on the outcome of the war.

The way was now clear for the British toprepare for the invasion of Malaya. Organizedby Mountbatten's South-East Asia Command,the landing (Operation Zipper) took place inSeptember 1945, after Japan had surrendered.

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Iwo Jima was a key location: as long as theJapanese occupied it, the B-29s from theMarianas had to fly a dog-leg on their way toJapan with consequent expenditure of fueland reduction in bomb loads. Once it wascaptured, long-range fighters stationed therecould accompany the B-29s on their raids.Furthermore, Iwo Jima would provide anemergency landing place for returningbombers and, since it was traditionalJapanese territory, its loss would be a severepsychological blow to the Japanese.

If Luzon was the largest battle of the PacificWar, Iwo Jima was the bloodiest. Only 5 miles(8km) long, the island had been turned into aformidable fortress with underground bunkers,tunnels, and well-concealed heavy artillery. Allcivilians had been evacuated to Japan. TheJapanese commander, Lieutenant-GeneralKuribayashi Tadamichi, was determined not towaste his men in suicidal attacks but grimly todefend every yard. Expecting a fight to thedeath, he commanded his force skillfully. On19 February 1945 two US Marine divisions,under Major-General Harry Schmidt, landedunder cover of gunfire from seven battleships.But the Marines soon found that there was noplace to escape the constant Japanese artilleryand machine gun fire. Each Japanesestrongpoint had to be attacked separately, thebest weapons being artillery, tanks, andflamethrowers.

A photograph of the Marines' raising of anAmerican flag on Mount Suribachi early in thecampaign became one of the most famous warphotographs. But more than 100,000 Marinesand naval personnel were landed before theysecured the island in late March. Of thecommanders of the 24 battalions that hadcome ashore in the first landing, 19 werekilled or wounded. The Marines had lost6,821 killed and almost 20,000 wounded. The21,000 Japanese defenders died almost to a


The Allied counteroffensive, 16 September 1944-22 August 1945

The fighting 63


American naval landing craft unloading fuel and suppliesat Okinawa on 13 April 1945. The US Tenth Army tooktwo and a half months to secure the islands. The army'scasualties were more than 7,000 killed. The Japanese had70,000 killed with at least 80,000 Okinawan civilianskilled. (US National Archives)

man. Marine Lieutenant-General HollandSmith, commanding the land operation, said,This fight is the toughest we've run across in168 years.'

For the attack on Okinawa on 1 April, theAmericans amassed a huge naval force of1,300 ships, including 18 battleships,40 aircraft carriers, and 200 destroyers. Theywere also supported by the British Pacific Fleet.The Japanese resisted fiercely, as theyconsidered the Ryukyu Islands to be part oftheir home territory. The US Tenth Army,commanded by Lieutenant-General SimonBuckler, with two Marine divisions and threearmy divisions, put nearly 250,000 menashore, lost 7,600 killed, and took until22 June to secure the island.

At sea the battle was equally fierce withthe Japanese launching 1,900 kamikazemissions. Admiral Spruance's US Fifth Fleethad 36 ships sunk and 368 damaged. Almost

5,000 American sailors were killed. The giantJapanese battleship Yamato set sail from theInland Sea but was caught by US planes. Itsank with the loss of 3,000 sailors.

The seizure of Okinawa tended to make allcampaigns fought to the south strategicallyirrelevant, but the outcome of the battle wasdeeply troubling to the Americans. On25 May, MacArthur and Nimitz were orderedto prepare for an invasion of Japan, with thefirst landing on Kyushu on 1 November. TheMarines and army had suffered 35 percentcasualties on Okinawa. On that basis, therecould be more than a quarter of a millioncasualties in Kyushu.

Strategic bombing

The strategic bombing offensive was based onthe employment of the new B-29 Superfortressbombers. Initially, from June 1944, theyconducted raids from China, but without greatsuccess. Then, from November, they startedoperating from the Marianas, still with limitedeffect. In March 1945 the young, cigar-chomping, Major-General Curtis Le May,

The fighting 65

commanding the Twentieth Air Force,changed tactics from high-level daylight raidsagainst specific targets to low-level nightattacks with incendiaries against area targets.

The first attack on Tokyo, on 9-10 March,succeeded beyond expectations. TheAmericans lost 14 of the 334 planes takingpart. About 15 square miles (40km2) ofthe city were burnt out, more than80,000 inhabitants were killed and40,000 wounded, and 250,000 buildingswere destroyed. Before the end of the monthNagoya, Osaka, and Kobe were similarlyattacked. As more aircraft joined hiscommand, Le May stepped up the offensive.

The strategic bombing campaigncomplemented the Allied blockade of theJapanese home islands. By the end of 1944 theAmerican submarine campaign had restrictedJapanese merchant shipping to the routesaround Japan and Korea, and US army andnavy aircraft attacked even the smallest coastal

B-29 Superfortresses from the US Twentieth Air Forceconducting a daylight raid over Yokohama on 29 May1945. Their escorts shot down 26 Japanese fighters.By July 1945, 60 percent of the areas of Japan's60 larger cities and towns had been burnt out.(Imperial War Museum)

ships. Then in March 1945 the Twentieth AirForce began the systematic mining of Japanesehome waters to prevent the transportation offood and raw materials from China, Korea,and Manchuria. In March 1945, 320,000 tonsof shipping was using the main Japanese portof Kobe; by July the figure was down to44,000 tons. The mining operation was themost effective single element in the finalblockade against Japan.

The blockade had a devastating effect onthe Japanese economy and public. Millions ofhomeless lived in shanties. Hunger and diseasewere widespread. Civilian morale plummetedand the police had to clamp down ruthlesslyon defeatist talk. A secret report to the Diet inJune 1945 admitted that in view of theworsening food shortage the war could not bemaintained beyond the spring of 1946. Theblockade also had a severe effect on Japan'sability to fight the war, restricting its capacityto replace military equipment and, throughlack of fuel, reducing its ability to deployplanes and ships. But the government andmilitary leaders were determined to fighton. Suicide units of different descriptionswere formed to counter the expectedAllied landings.

Portrait of a soldier

Thomas Currie Derrick, anAustralian soldier

Like most American and Australian soldiersin the Pacific War, Thomas Currie Derrickwas a child of the Great Depression. With hislimited education, army service gave himopportunities that would never have beenavailable in civilian life. Although he was tobecome one of the Australian army's mostcourageous and accomplished soldiers, thestory of his life is otherwise representative ofthe thousands of young men whovolunteered 'for the duration'.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, in1914, Tom Derrick left school at 14, butcould only find odd jobs. As the Depressiondeepened, aged 16, he rode with some mateson their bikes about 140 miles (225km) tothe Murray River irrigation area, seekingitinerant work in the vineyards and orchards.Cheerful and hardworking, he was often upto mischief, but enjoyed football, boxing,gambling, and the company of his mates,who gave him the nickname 'Diver'. By 1939he had gained steady employment in avineyard and was able to marry his long-timesweetheart, Beryl.

Newly married, Derrick hesitated tovolunteer for the army when war was declaredin September 1939, but loyal to his country,and also to his mates who had joined, hepersuaded Beryl, who eventually relented. Likeothers, he was influenced by Germany'sinvasion of France in May 1940, and nextmonth he enlisted in the 2/48th Battalion,then being raised in Adelaide.

Used to hard living, Derrick thrived onarmy life, but he found discipline difficult toaccept. The battalion sailed for the MiddleEast in November, but stopped for a week atPerth. Confined to ship after going absentfor sightseeing, he was taunted by anothersoldier, who punched him. In a letter homeDerrick wrote, 'Got clocked last night, broketeeth and cut lip. I then got stuck into him,

made a real job of him. On another [charge]now for fighting.' Although only 5ft 7in(170cm) tall, Derrick was strong and wiry,with plenty of fighting experience. Thecommanding officer fined him 30 shillings.

Between April and October 1941 thebattalion - part of the 9th AustralianDivision - helped defend the besieged portof Tobruk, in Libya. Derrick was soon leadinghis section and was promoted to corporal.He was recommended for a Military Medal.It was richly deserved but was not awarded.

Back in action in July 1942, the battalionattacked a German-Italian position nearEl Alamein. Derrick's leadership wasinspirational. Hurling grenades, he personallydestroyed three machine gun posts andcaptured more than a hundred prisoners.When the Germans counterattacked, hedestroyed two enemy tanks and restored theposition. He was awarded the DistinguishedConduct Medal and promoted to sergeant.

Derrick was also in the thick of the fightingat El Alamein in late October. Those presentthought that he should have earned theVictoria Cross. In a week of savage combat thebattalion lost more than 400 men. Derrickhad been slightly wounded.

The 9th Division returned to Australia,and Derrick enjoyed his leave with Beryl inAdelaide in February 1943. Then thebattalion took the long train journey to theAtherton Tableland in north Queensland,where it began intensive jungle training inpreparation for operations against theJapanese. Valuable lessons from the 1942Papuan campaign were incorporated into thetraining, and platoons learned to patrolsilently in the jungle.

The battalion also practiced amphibiousoperations with the US 532nd EngineerShore and Boat Battalion. Derrick wrote,'Spent morning embarking and debarking -

Portrait of a soldier 67

After almost three years of soldiering, including grimbattles in the Middle East, Sergeant Tom Derrick, and hisbattalion's other veterans, had the qualities oflong-service professional soldiers. Back in Australia inearly 1943 the battalion retrained for a different waragainst the Japanese. (Australian War Memorial)

find there is little to it and should not takemany attempts to become really efficient.'

Lieutenant Murray Farquar, an officer inDerrick's battalion, recalled that Derrick meta young American soldier from Wisconsin,still in his teens, from the Shore and BoatBattalion. They adjourned to a hotel, wherecivilians and soldiers were

elbowing their way forward to replenish theirglasses. In turn this young Yank pressed forward.He became the target of what was, at first, onlygood-humoured banter. One or two louts soonbecame vicious. Finally, backed up by a team ofsix or seven, one spat out, 'If you think you'll getout of here, Yank, without a few teeth smashedin, you've got another thing coming.' Thisaggressor was a real lump of a man. QuicklyDiver sized things up. Stepping in front of hisnew mate, he stated: 'Well, you'll have to gothrough me first.' No histrionics, just a quiet

statement of intent. Staring this mob out, heheld his ground ... There were a few rumbles,they shrugged shoulders, and turned back totheir drinking ... finishing his beer, Diverexclaimed, 'Well, come on Yank. We'll tryanother pub.' The confrontation was over; Diverhad won yet another ardent admirer.

Derrick merely wrote in his diary, 'Noughtto do today ... Murray Farquar and myselfwent into Cairns, teamed up with a Yankand had a most enjoyable day.'

In August 1943 the battalion sailed forMilne Bay in New Guinea. After arriving,Derrick wrote in his diary:

Slept on some very wet ground and wassurprised to find I had a very comfortable and drysleep. Seen my first glimpse of the Fuzzy Wuzzy'swho appear very friendly. The camp is situatedmidst a huge coconut plantation, my first effort toclimb a palm ended at 30 feet. But I think I canmaster it. The average height seems to be almost45 feet.

The battalion landed near Lae inSeptember, and by November was attackingthe heights of Sattelberg, overlookingFinschhafen. The Allied advance hinged onclearing both sides of the Vitiaz Strait.Sattelberg dominated the mainland side. On17 November the battalion led the brigadeattack, but by 24 November the attack wasgrinding to a halt, the battalion sufferingcasualties. Late that day Derrick was leadingthe advance platoon when the battalioncommander ordered a withdrawal. Derrickappealed to his company commander,'Bugger the CO. Just give me twenty minutesand we'll have this place.'

It was a one-man front up an almostvertical incline covered in jungle. Inpeacetime the climb is barely possible usingboth hands and feet. Covered by his platoonmembers, Derrick alone clambered up thecliff, holding on with one hand, throwinggrenades with another, pausing to fire hisrifle. He cleared 10 machine gun postsbefore, at dusk, he reached an open patch,just short of the crest. Fifteen Japanese dead

Essential Histories • The Second World War ( I )

Troops of the 2/48th Australian Infantry Battalion movingforward with a tank of the 1st Army Tank Battalion forthe attack on Sattelberg in November 1943. Tankswere used for blasting Japanese defensive positions.(Australian War Memorial)

remained on the spur. Derrick's platoonoccupied the area. That night the remainingJapanese withdrew. Awarded the VictoriaCross, Derrick said that the achievement wasdue mainly to his mates.

When the battalion returned to Australiafor leave and more training, Derrick attendedan officer-training course. Although lackingformal education, he had a great thirst forknowledge. In November 1944 he returnedas a lieutenant to his battalion on theAtherton Tableland. Friends thought that heshould not have returned; after threecampaigns he had 'done his bit'. But hemerely replied, 'My boys are back there, Imust be with them.'

On 1 May 1945 the 2/48th Battalion waspart of the Australian landing on Tarakan,Borneo. The Japanese fiercely resisted

attempts to clear the island. On 23 MayDerrick's platoon led the assault on aposition known as Freda. One soldierrecalled: 'At Diver's signal, we smashedforward. Grenades burst among us. Diver waseverywhere, encouraging, shouting orders,pressing us on.' Those present thought thathis actions were worthy of a bar to hisVictoria Cross. The Australians took the knollbut expected a Japanese counterattack thatnight. At about 3.00 am a Japanese machinegun fired down a track where Derrick wassleeping. He sat up to assess the direction ofthe fire. Another burst of fire struck him inthe abdomen. 'I've been hit. I think itscurtains,' he said. 'I've copped it in the fruitand nuts' (rhyming slang for 'the guts'). Heinsisted that the other wounded beevacuated first, and died next day.

Apart from his extraordinary feats on thebattlefield, Derrick was typical of theAustralian soldier who enlisted in the earlyyears of the war. He learned his trade ofsoldiering against the Germans and Italiansin the Middle East and then returned to deal

Portrait of a soldier 69

with the Japanese. With few advantages inlife, he had come to rely on his mates andapplied himself to any task. His ever presentgrin and outgoing leadership masked asensitive and reflective side. He collectedbutterflies, composed poetry, kept a diary,and wrote regularly and frequently to hiswife. After the war he would have happilyreturned to the Murray River fruit blocks.

Raised as a Salvationist, Derrick was notovertly religious. In the Middle East, inFebruary 1942, he wrote, 'Changed mychurch today, went to Catholic parade -

Men of the 2/48th Battalion gather for the gravesidefuneral of Lieutenant Derrick, conducted by thebattalion's chaplain on Tarakan Island. 26 May 1945.Shortly before he died Derrick told the padre.'Give me the works, father I know I've had it.'(Australian War Memorial)

doubt if I'm improved any.' During hisevacuation on Tarakan, he asked a friend toget the padre so that he could 'bring on thehocus pocus.' Cheerful to the end, he haddone his duty as he saw it. It was men likehim who made the Australian army aformidable force in the south-west Pacific.

The world around war

A clash of cultures and races

The Pacific War was a clash of cultures andraces - not only between East and West, butalso between the Japanese and other Asianpeoples. It brought death to millions, andhardship and misery to hundreds of millionsof people across east and south-east Asia. Yetthe civilian population of the USA remainedlargely untouched by the war.

Japan

In Japan, by the time of Pearl Harbor, anauthoritarian government was alreadyexercising tight control over the economy.Soon, as shipping was diverted to militarypurposes, supplies of food and other goodsbecame restricted. Except for the ineffectualDoolittle raid in April 1942, Japan was freefrom enemy attack until June 1944, andeven these attacks did little damage until1945. Nonetheless, as the Allied blockadetook effect, life became increasingly hard.Black market prices for all manner of goodssoared. In 1943 about 11,000 Tokyo shopsclosed their doors for lack of merchandise orstaff. In September 1943 unmarried womenunder 25 were conscripted to a laborvolunteer corps and by the following year14 million women were wage earners.

By the last year of the war, most Japanesecivilians were hungry, eating anything thatwould grow - thistle, mugwort, and chickweed- or anything that could be caught, such asdogs and cats. Working hours became longerand workers became listless throughmalnutrition and illness. Japanese society wasbeing strangled. Youths were indoctrinated toserve the Empire and the nation, and youngboys expected to die for their country. The agefor military conscription was lowered to 18,but eventually boys were permitted tovolunteer at 15.

Dissent was suppressed. The militarypolice - the Kempeitai - who kept law andorder in the military, turned their attentionto civilians. The special higher police - theTokku, equivalent to the German Gestapo -arrested critics of government policy. Theeditor of a respected magazine was arrestedby a Tokku inspector who told him that heknew the editor was not a communist, 'But ifyou intend to be stubborn ... we'll just setyou up as a communist. We cankill communists.'

Japanese cities, with thousands of closelybuilt houses of wood and paper, wereparticularly vulnerable to incendiary attacks.When the US Twentieth Air Force turned tolow-level incendiary attacks in March 1945,the result was devastating. By the end of Julynearly 500,000 Japanese had been killed,some 2 million buildings had beendestroyed, and 9-13 million people werehomeless, living in shanties.

Imperial General Headquarters initiatedplans to defend the homeland. In June 1945the People's Volunteer Combat Corps wasformed for men between 15 and 60, andwomen between 17 and 40. Most werearmed with only spears and staves.Government propagandists advocated 'TheGlorious Death of One Hundred Million' todefend the nation. By the time of thesurrender in September 1945, Japanesesociety was on it knees, its people mentallyand physically exhausted.

One constant feature was the authorityand position of Emperor Hirohito, who wasseen as the symbol of Japanese nationalism.The standard view is that Hirohito was aconstitutional monarch with no control overthe direction of his government.Nonetheless, as a nationalist he supportedprosecution of the war once the decision hadbeen made.

The world around war 71

Korea

Although the Japanese populace sufferedseverely and its economy was shattered, Japansurvived by ruthlessly exploiting its colonies -Manchukuo, Korea, and Taiwan - and theconquered lands of China and south-east Asia.Korea was treated harshly. The Koreanlanguage was banned from schools andKoreans were ordered to change their namesto Japanese ones. In 1942 Koreans began to beconscripted into the Japanese army andcivilian workers were sent overseas. More than650,000 Koreans worked in Japan, where60,000 died. Tens of thousands of Koreanwomen were forced to work as 'comfortwomen' in Japanese army brothels insouth-east Asia and the Pacific. Korea wasstripped of its rice production and anythingelse that could be used for war purposes.

China

Life in wartime China was perhaps evenharder than in Korea, as the Japanese armymade war on the civilian population,conducting 'three all' punishment operations- kill all, bum all, loot all. In 1937 China hadan estimated population of 480 million,85 percent living in rural areas. In response tothe Japanese offensives, about 12 millionChinese migrated west, away from theJapanese, suffering much misery on thejourney, but millions more remained underJapanese rule, where they either voluntarilycollaborated or were compelled to do so. In1943 a famine in Honan Province, caused bydrought and grain requisitions by Nationalistand provincial authorities, took hundreds ofthousands of lives. Whether under Japaneseor Nationalist rule, Chinese peasants sufferedfrom rice requisitions, conscription, taxes,and corruption. It is not possible todetermine how many Chinese died as a resultof the war. Chinese military casualtiesexceeded 5 million killed and wounded.Perhaps between 10 and 20 million civiliansdied from starvation and disease. BothChiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao

Tse-tung's Communists bided their time,waiting until the end of the war before theyturned on each other.

Nationalism and exploitation insouth-east Asia

For much of the war, the Japanese tried tomaintain the fiction that the countries ofsouth-east Asia were its allies in a war againstthe Western Imperial powers. In November1943 General Tojo presided in Tokyo over aconference of the Greater East AsiaCo-prosperity Sphere with representativesfrom China, Manchukuo, Thailand, Burma,Free India, and the Philippines. 'It is anincontrovertible fact,' he said, 'that thenations of Greater East Asia are bound inevery respect by ties of an inseparablerelationship.' Jose Laurel, President of thePhilippines, recently granted independenceby Japan, replied that no power could 'stopor delay the acquisition by the one billionOrientals of the free and untrammelled rightand opportunity to shape their own destiny.'Japan ruled the south-east Asian countriesharshly, with little consideration for theirpeople, even though they generally arrangednominally independent governments inthem. In the Philippines, some formermembers of the Philippines army (supportedby American special forces teams) conductedguerrilla operations. But most Filipinos triedto accommodate their new rulers, whilesome Filipinos collaborated with theJapanese. In the hope that it might lessenresistance to their rule, in 1943 Japangranted independence to the Philippines. InSeptember 1944 the Philippines declared waron the USA, but guerrillas continued to fightthe Japanese, and the Philippinesgovernment-in-exile was restored when theAmericans liberated the country.

As a reward for collaboration, Japanallowed Thailand to occupy the northernstates of Malaya and later to take twoBurmese states. Gradually, resistance groupsand guerrilla organizations were formed tooppose the Japanese. To supply its forces in


Burma, between July 1942 and October 1943the Japanese army built a railroad from NongPladuk in Thailand 260 miles (420km)through mountainous jungle toThanbyuzayat in Burma. In addition to Alliedprisoners of war, more than 270,000 nativelaborers from Burma, Thailand, Malaya, andthe Netherlands East Indies worked on therailway; about 90,000 perished.

In Burma the Japanese established acivilian Burmese government under Ba Maw,who declared war on the Allies in August1943. The Burmese Independence Army,formed in December 1941, fought alongsidethe Japanese in the British retreat of 1942. Itwas later dissolved by the Japanese, whothen formed the Burma National Army,commanded by Bo Ne Win. The BurmeseDefence Minister, Aung San, and theBurmese National Army defected to theBritish in April 1945. The army changed itsname to the Patriotic Burmese Forces andfought with the British army.

In general, the puppet regimes inManchukuo, China, Burma, and thePhilippines failed to win over theirpopulations. Japan never looked upon theregimes as equal partners and the Japanesemaintained their racial superiority. Theseizure of rice and other raw materials andthe exploitation of local labor soon alienatedthe local populations.

In Malaya, the Japanese had less success inestablishing a local government. Malayaconsisted of various states with differentforms of government, and the populationincluded almost equal numbers of Malays andChinese, with smaller number of Indians.Malaya was a vital source of rubber and tinthat was exploited by the Japanese. Membersof the Malayan Communist Party, mostlyChinese, formed the Malay People'sAnti-Japanese Army, which, assisted by Britishspecial forces operatives, conducted a guerrillawar against the Japanese. The MalayanChinese were treated badly by the Japaneseand those known to have contributed to theChina Relief Fund were executed. Singaporewas treated as a Japanese colony andthousands of local Chinese were massacred.

The Netherlands East Indies includedSumatra, Java, Dutch Borneo, Celebes,western Timor, the Moluccas, and DutchNew Guinea, and in 1940 had a populationof about 70.5 million, 1 million beingChinese and 250,000 Dutch nationals. TheJapanese interned the Dutch in harshconditions and, as usual, were brutal towardthe Chinese. Welcomed by the Indonesiansas liberators, the Japanese were soon seen assevere overlords. Nationalist leaders,especially Achmad Sukarno and MohammadHatta, traded support for politicalconcessions. In March 1943 they formed theCenter of the People's Power (Putera) withSukarno as chairman, and the followingOctober a volunteer defense force wasformed with Indonesian officers, trained bythe Japanese; it was the forerunner of theIndonesian army. In March 1944 Putera wasreplaced by the People's Loyalty Association,and in September the Japanese governmentannounced that it intended to prepareIndonesia for self-government. Work beganon a constitution and on 17 August 1945Sukarno proclaimed the independent stateof Indonesia.

Japanese forces occupied FrenchIndo-China during 1940 and 1941. TheFrench Governor-General, Vice-Admiral JeanDecoux, had 100,000 troops (mostly raisedlocally) but was ordered not to fight.Nominally he administered the country, butthe Japanese garrison systematically strippedthe country of rice, corn, coal, and rubber.Shortages caused immense hardships and in1945 between 1.5 and 2 million people diedof starvation in Tonkin.

A communist nationalist leader, Ho ChiMinh, formed the communist guerrillaorganization the Viet Minh. Aided by theAmerican Office of Strategic Services, itconducted operations from bases in Chinaand established its own administration innorthern Tonkin. The French authoritiesfinally began to resist the Japanese, whoseized control in March 1945. The Japanesethen set up a puppet regime under theEmperor of Annam, Bao Dai. After the endof the war, Ho Chi Minh declared the


formation of the Democratic Governmentof Vietnam.

India

India, the 'jewel in the crown' of theBritish Empire, played a crucial role in thePacific War. In 1941 it had a populationof 318 million, and although it wasunderdeveloped and its people were poor,the country was so large that it still hadthe capacity to provide great quantitiesof manufactured goods and raw materials.The outbreak of the Pacific War acceleratedthe wartime mobilization, and theeconomy was directed primarily towardsupporting the British-Indian operationsin Burma.

The Bengal famine, in which probablymore than 3 million perished, was caused bythe failure of the harvest but was exacerbatedby the war. It was no longer possible toimport rice from Burma, transportation wasdisrupted by the needs of the war effort, andthe Allies gave a low priority to shipping thatmight have brought food from overseas.

The Viceroy ruled India on behalf of the

British government, although Indians heldmany senior administrative positions. The warbrought increased agitation for independence.Some members of the Indian NationalCongress party saw the war as an opportunityto put pressure on Britain; others supportedthe war effort but with an eye to futureindependence. The Indian leader MohandasGandhi led a campaign of nonviolent civildisobedience. Congress was banned, itsleaders were imprisoned, and Gandhi wasinterned. The government had to deploytroops to put down sporadic insurrections.Despite this disruption, through the provisionof troops and munitions India made a hugecontribution to the conduct of the war.Nonetheless, it became clear that the BritishRaj would not be able to continue muchbeyond the end of the war.

Initially the Japanese were not interested in the Indonesianindependence movement, but only in exploiting the oilfields in Sumatra and Borneo, and obtaining otherresources such as tin, rubber, coffee, and rice. With theDutch removed from administration, however, theJapanese had to use Indonesian administrators, andenlisted the support of nationalist and Islamic leaders.Here Emperor Hirohito (left) meets the Indonesiannationalist leader Sukarno (centre). (Corbis)

74 Essential Histor ies • The Second W o r l d W a r ( I )

After the fall of Singapore in February1942, Japan encouraged the formation ofthe Indian National Army from amongIndian army prisoners captured in Malayaand Singapore. Initially, 20,000 of the60,000 prisoners volunteered, although theforce was later reduced in size. In June 1943the Indian revolutionary Subhas ChandraBose, who had spent the early war years inGermany, took command and directed hisforce to assist the Japanese in their attack onIndia in 1944. Large numbers deserted to theBritish or surrendered during 1944 and 1945.The Indian National Army was never acredible fighting force, but its existencepartly encouraged the Japanese to invadeIndia in 1944.

USA

It is hard to separate the impact of thePacific War on American life from the impactof the wider world war. The USA waspropelled into war by the attack on PearlHarbor, but Germany then declared war onthe USA. A meeting between Churchill andRoosevelt and their military advisers inWashington in December 1941 and January1942 (the Arcadia Conference) confirmed thedecision of an earlier conference, that theAllies would concentrate their resources onbeating Hitler first, before they turned to theJapanese. Admiral King, Chief of US NavalOperations, did not fully accept thisdecision, and in practice the USA committedlarge numbers of forces to the Pacific during1942 and maintained the commitmentthroughout the war.

King was determined to take the fight tothe Japanese as early as possible, but also theAmerican public had a deep hatred of theJapanese for their sneak attack on PearlHarbor. There were other imperatives.MacArthur's vow to return to the Philippinesstruck a chord with many Americans whowanted to recover their territory, andRoosevelt and the 'China lobby' weredetermined to maintain aid to the ChineseNationalist regime.

Hatred of the Japanese was reflected inthe fear that 120,000 Japanese-Americansliving in the West Coast states of California,Oregon, and Washington posed a securitythreat, and most were interned. In Hawaii,the 150,000 Japanese-Americans formed37 percent of the population and were notinterned. Japanese-Americans born in theUSA (the Nisei) served with great valor intheir own US army unit in Italy. Smallergroups of Nisei served as interpreters andtranslators in the Pacific theater.

While 16 million Americans served in thearmed forces, and 290,000 died on all fronts(90,000 in the Pacific), the war causedconsiderably less misery to Americans than itdid to the people of east and south-east Asia.In 1940 the USA had an unemployment rateof 15 percent and the nation was stillrecovering from the Great Depression. Theexpansion of American industry to meet thewar demands of both its own armed forcesand those of the Allies brought fullemployment with increased wages. Foodproduction rose and, while there was pricecontrol and rationing, Americans ate moreand healthier food during the war. Womenjoined the workforce in large numbers andthere was better-paid work for minoritygroups and less skilled workers. Generally,the war increased the feeling of patriotismand national self-confidence.

Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand had been at warsince September 1939. Both countries sentforces to fight in the Middle East, while athome they began gearing their economies tosupport the war effort. The outbreak of thePacific War completely changed thecomplexion of these measures. With apopulation of only 7 million, Australia nowfound itself isolated from British support andfaced with the possibility of Japaneseinvasion. In January 1942 Japanese forceslanded in Australian mandate territory in NewGuinea and the next month Japanese aircraftbombed the northern city of Darwin. Sporadic


air raids continued until late 1943. Japanesesubmarines attacked coastal shipping.

Australia relied on Britain and the USA forthe supply of sophisticated militaryequipment such as aircraft, but tried tobecome self-sufficient, and eventuallyconstructed certain types of aircraft. Withone in seven Australians in the armed forces,the supply of labor was a major problem,resulting in the conscription of labor, theemployment of women and even the use ofItalian prisoners of war. Australia providedfood and other supplies to its own armedforces, to the American forces in theSouth-West Pacific Area, and to Britain. Withstringent rationing and restrictions on travel,life was hard for Australian civilians.

Australia became a vast military base.Australian servicemen trained in northernareas before deploying for action, andcasualties returned to Australian hospitals.Allied aircraft conducted operational raidsfrom northern Australian airfields throughoutthe war, while Allied surface ships andsubmarines were based at Australian ports.The arrival of thousands of Americanservicemen in 1942 had a noticeable effect onboth the military situation and Australianpolitical and social life. The Prime Minister,John Curtin, looked to General MacArthurfor advice on the strategic conduct of thewar. Indeed, MacArthur and the Australiangovernment joined forces to oppose theAllied policy of dealing with Hitler first.American requirements dictated theconstruction of airfields, roads, and otherfacilities around the country.

New Zealand too received an influx ofAmerican servicemen, although in smallernumbers and for a shorter period. It wasfurther from the action and did not receiveattacks on its territory. Otherwise, the warhad similar effects to Australia, withrationing, labor shortages, and hardship.

Great Britain

Life for civilians in Britain was scarcely mademore difficult by the outbreak of the Pacific

War. Britain had mobilized its civilians morefully than any other combatant nation.Labor was conscripted, rationing was appliedrigorously and many cities suffered heavilyfrom air attacks. The Pacific War created anew burden for the provision of troops,ships, and air force squadrons, butproportionally, these were far fewer thanthose needed in the European theater.

The outbreak of the Pacific War ensuredthat Britain would not lose the war withGermany. When told of the attack on PearlHarbor, the Prime Minister, Churchill,understood that this brought the USA intothe war. 'So we had won after all,' he wrotelater. For most people in Britain, the PacificWar was out of sight and out of mind,except for the families of the servicemeninvolved. Those serving with theFourteenth Army in Burma called it the'forgotten army'. There were, however,fundamental differences with the USAover the conduct of the war. Rooseveltwas determined that the war should not befought to recover Europe's colonial empires.Britain, of course, was determined toregain Burma and Malaya.

Prisoners of war, and atrocities

As a clash of cultures and races, the warresulted in barbaric treatment of the140,000-170,000 Allied prisoners captured insouth-east Asia. Allied soldiers were alsomassacred on capture. For example, whenthe ship the Vyner Brooke was sunk off BankaIsland in February 1942, the survivors,including nurses, soldiers, and civilians,struggled ashore, to be shot down byJapanese troops. Those Allied troops whosurvived the initial surrender endured threeand half years of starvation, disease, slavelabor, brutality, and torture. One in fourdied. The Japanese captured thousands ofChinese, Indians, Filipinos, and Indonesiansserving with the European colonial armiesand many of these were massacred soon aftercapture. But the majority were releasedwithin a few months.


American and Australian soldiers marching together in aSydney street during a loan rally. With their smartuniforms, money, and access to unobtainable luxurygoods, the Americans had an immediate effect on sociallife in the Australian cities; 10,000 Australian wives andfiancees of American servicemen went to the USA duringand at the end of the war (Australian War Memorial)

The maltreatment was caused by severalfactors. Japan was not a party to the 1929Geneva Convention governing the protectionof prisoners of war. Japanese troops weretaught that it was a disgrace to surrender andthose who surrendered were expected tocommit suicide. Brutal physical punishmentwas part of discipline in the Japanese army.The thousands of Allied prisoners couldexpect no mercy, but at the same time theyoffered the Japanese a ready-made slave-laborforce for the construction of militaryinstallations across the occupied area. Even ifthe Japanese had been inclined to provide

adequate food, it was in short supply asAllied submarine and air attacks decimatedJapanese shipping. Furthermore, thecountries of south-east Asia were subject tomalaria and other deadly tropical diseases.None of this, however, excuses the sadistictreatment meted out by Japanese and Koreanguards or the members of the Kempeitai.Even Red Cross parcels destined for theprisoners were stolen by the Japanese.

Treatment varied between areas. In April1942 78,000 Americans and Filipinos,already starving and weak from malaria,surrendered at Bataan. They were forced tomarch, beaten, clubbed, and bayoneted, withlittle or no food, 60 miles (100km) to aprisoner-of-war camp. Between 7,000 and10,000 died or were killed during the 'BataanDeath March'. During the war, a total of25,600 Americans were held in Japaneseprisoner-of-war camps; 10,600, or nearly


45 percent, died, most of starvation anddisease. Australian prisoners, captured inSingapore, Java, Ambon, Timor, and NewBritain, numbered 22,000; more than8,000 or nearly 36 percent died. Britainhad the most prisoners, including10,000 captured in Hong Kong and 45,000 inSingapore and Burma. They suffered similarmortality rates to the Australians. Thebest-known camp was at Changi on theisland of Singapore. From there work partieswere sent to various places in south-eastAsia. The Sandakan-Ranau camp in NorthBorneo held 2,500 British and Australianprisoners in mid-1943. Only six Australianssurvived.

Many prisoners were sent to work in Japan,where they slaved in coal mines, shipyards,and factories. They were transported inunmarked ships that were often attacked byAllied submarines. The Australians captured atRabaul were sent to Japan, the officers andsoldiers on separate ships. The Montevideo

Allied prisoners of war building a bridge on theBurma-Thailand railroad in early 1943. More than60,000 Australian, British, and Dutch prisoners ofwar worked on the railroad as slave laborers inappalling conditions on a starvation diet, and about12,000 died, or one for every railway sleeper(Australian War Memorial)

Maru, with 849 soldiers and about200 civilians, was torpedoed off Luzon and allwere lost. Some prisoners sent to Manchuriasuffered from hideous medical experiments atthe Kwantung Army's Unit 731.

Japanese soldiers fought to the deathrather than surrender, and there were thusfewer Japanese prisoners - about 5,000 inprisoner-of-war camps in the USA (mostlyKoreans and Formosans) and a similarnumber in Australia. Japanese prisoners heldat a camp at Cowra in Australia attempted amass breakout in August 1944; 234 of the1,104 prisoners were killed. The previousyear, in a New Zealand camp, almost50 Japanese prisoners died in a mutiny.


Perhaps the only image depicting the execution of aWestern prisoner of war. Sergeant Leonard Siffleet ofthe Australian army's Z Special Unit is beheaded by aJapanese civilian interpreter at Aitape, New Guinea, inOctober 1943. After the war the executioner wassentenced to death but had his sentence commuted to10 years' imprisonment as he had acted under orders.(Australian War Memorial)

Inevitably, Japanese attitudes to humanlife affected the Allies. Once Allied soldiersheard of Japanese atrocities, such asbayoneting prisoners, and saw evidence ofcannibalism, such as occurred in NewGuinea, they were less inclined to try to takeprisoners. General Blarney, the Australiancommander, described the Japanese as 'acurious race - a cross between a humanbeing and an ape.' Admiral Halsey urged hismen to make more 'monkey meat'. To many

Allied soldiers, the Japanese troops wereregarded as vermin to be killed.

Conclusion

The civilian populations of the nationsinvolved in the war carried differentburdens. Millions died in Japan and China,while few civilians in the USA died directlyas a result of the war. The people whom theJapanese claimed they were liberating fromEuropean colonialism suffered cruelly at thehands of their liberators. In New Guinea andthe Pacific Islands, the local natives wereoften treated harshly by the Japanese, withno suggestion that they might eventuallybecome independent. It was truly a warbetween opposing races and cultures.

Portrait of a civilian

Gwen Harold Terasaki, anAmerican in Japan

As an American married to a Japanesediplomat, Gwendolen Harold Terasaki livedin Japan during the worst days of the war,observing the life of ordinary Japanesewomen. Straddling two cultures, shesympathized with the plight of the Japanesepeople, but was conscious of the regime'smilitarism and brutality. Ultimately, likemost people in Japan, her life became astruggle for survival.

Gwen met her husband in 1930 when shevisited Washington, DC, from her hometown in Tennessee. Terasaki Hidenari, adiplomat at the Japanese Embassy, hadattended university in the USA and spokeEnglish well. They were married inNovember 1931, shortly before Terasakireturned to Tokyo; he was 31, his wife 23.Their next posting was at Shanghai wheretheir daughter, Mariko, was born. Both Gwenand her husband were disturbed by theactions of Japanese troops in China. Hidenari(called Terry by Gwen) was in a difficultposition. He was opposed to the Japanesemilitarists, but tried to serve his countryloyally as a diplomat. They had furtherpostings to Havana and Peking beforereturning to Washington in March 1941,where he was involved in diplomatic effortsto avert war between the USA and Japan.

On the outbreak of war, the Terasakis andother diplomats were interned with theirfamilies at Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs,Virginia. In June 1942 they sailed in aSwedish ship for Lourenco Marques, inMozambique, where they transferred to aJapanese ship and reached Yokohama inmid-August.

In wartime Japan, Gwen noticed thatpeople were looking at her clothes, and shepacked away her smartest clothes for theduration, spending the war years 'in slacks,sweaters and skirts.' Later, 'as fuel became athing of the past,' she wore the 'regulationmonpe, a Japanese-type pantaloon whichmade up for its ugliness by being warmand practical.'

In 1957 Gwen Terasaki (left) published Bridge to the Sundescribing her wartime experiences in Japan. A moviebased on the book, starring Carrol Baker and JamesShigeta, had its premiere in her home town, Johnson City,Tennessee, in 1961. Some critics at the time accused thefilm of being anti-American. (Archives of Appalachia)

P o r t r a i t of a civilian 81

Initially, Gwen lived in an apartment inTokyo and became involved in the dailyround of trying to keep a home. Againstregulations, she baked a cake using her gasoven; their gas was cut off and thereafter sheused a charcoal cooker. She describedstanding in line 'for two or three hours for afew pieces of fish or a bunch of carrots,' andnoted that the 'repeated air-raid drills alsotook up a large part of the day when theywere called.' Pregnant women were givenpriority for rations, and one day shewitnessed 'a pitiful but amusing incident' inthe ration line.

A 'pregnant' woman went to the head of theline and, after receiving her rations, started to walkoff when out slipped a cushion from under her obi(sash). The other ladies sent up a howl and thepoor woman broke into tears, explaining thatbesides seven small children to care for she had hermother-in-law, who was ninety, on her hands.

Like everyone, Gwen purchased food onthe black market and once bought a smallbunch of bananas for her daughter - thelast bananas they were to eat until 1949.The Japanese used small round briquettesmade from coal dust for heating, as theylasted longer than charcoal. One day aman told Gwen that he would sell them toher cheaper as they has just been madeand were still wet. 'He said that if I wouldlay them in the sun till they dried I couldstore them away. Feeling very proud ofmyself, I promptly took the whole lot, andthe maid and I painstakingly arrangedthem in the sun. When they were driedout they crumbled - they were onlyblackened mud.'

Early in 1944 the Terasakis moved toOdawara, near Sagami Bay, about three hoursby rail from Tokyo. Despite the deterioratingwar situation, only victories were broadcaston the radio. Gwen observed that this'involved such obvious contradictions thateven the more simple-minded listenersbecame doubtful. Everyone who could thinkat all realized that the country was in a moreand more desperate state, its back to the wall.'

Boys of 10 and 12 were unloading the freightfrom trains, while children 'were employed inall kinds of factory work from clothes-makingto riveting airplane parts together; they weremobilized through their schools and taken totheir jobs by the teachers.'

As an Allied invasion force might land inthe Odawara area, late in 1944 the Terasakismoved farther along the coast. There theyendured a bitterly cold winter, foraging forsticks and pine cones for fuel. A small rationof horsemeat in January was particularlywelcome when Terry became ill (he had aheart condition). Still worried about anAllied invasion, Terry wanted to move hisfamily inland, but the bombing of Tokyo inMarch 1945 had sent thousands of homelesspeople searching for shelter and he haddifficulty finding accommodation.Eventually a friend offered them his littlesummerhouse in the mountains above SuwaCity, 75 miles (120km) inland.

In their new home, food was an evenmore acute problem. They planted turnips,radishes, and beans, but the crops werepitifully small. Often the rice ration wasdelayed by up to 10 days, and they then hadto forage for something to fill in. The threeof them were growing weaker, and Marikocame down with dengue fever.

The authorities demanded more work.Resin from pines trees was used tomanufacture fuel for aircraft, and eachfamily in the countryside was required toextract a certain amount and turn it over tothe local assembly. Called to that duty, Terryand his daughter collected the smallestquantity of resin of any family in theneighbourhood. Gwen wrote; 'Terry hadalways been opposed to the whole idea of akamikaze corps, saying that if a country hadto use such methods to continue, it shouldgive up. The pine-tree tapping for fuel alsodepressed him, and he kept muttering, "howlong, how long".'

All were suffering from malnutrition, andGwen found that they had no energybeyond that needed to prepare their rice andkeep the house and themselves clean. 'Myfinger nails were almost gone,' she wrote,


'and I had to bandage my fingers to keepblood from getting on everything I touched.'

One day she received as a gift Dickens'novel A Tale of Two Cities, about the FrenchRevolution. Reflecting on her own situation,she now understood

the terror of people forced to eke out theireveryday existence against a backdrop of chaos ...The newspapers carried only victory stories andsuch headlines as, 'Japan girds herself to give aknockout blow,' but there were few people whodid not know that Japan was almost at the endof the road. We discussed this with no one, as thekempei tai had agents everywhere and peoplewere being questioned every day. Some of themwere being sent to prison.

When Terry became ill again, Gwen, dizzywith malnutrition, was almost too weak tofetch the doctor. Then came news of the'strange bombing of Hiroshima.' Gwenthought 'that Japan would fight until theentire country was destroyed, the Japanesepeople broken and almost extinct.' Terrydisagreed, insisting 'that among the Japanesestatesmen there were realists who had a truelove of country and the welfare of the peopleat heart.' They learned of Russia's declarationof war, and that the Emperor would bebroadcasting next morning. As a foreigner,Gwen decided not to accompany Terry andMariko to the home where they had beenordered to assemble. On his return he toldher that everyone was weeping, but whenthe Emperor stopped speaking, 'Silently theold men, the women, and their children,rose and bowed to each other and withoutany sound each went along the path leadingto his own house.'

'Merrily, I put on earrings,' wrote Gwen,'Mako [Mariko] wore a white dress and Terrydonned a red tie. The war was over. Whiteclothing had been forbidden during the warbecause it was too easily seen from the air.When Mako put on white it was like a shipturning on lights again after runningblacked-out since 1941.' But everyone elsewas apprehensive about the arrival of theAmericans. One man asked Terry whetherthey would all be required to bow to theAmerican soldiers. 'If so,' Terry replied, 'Ishall be the first Japanese to crack myforehead on the pavement. After all theChinese in Shanghai and Peking that Ihave seen forced to kowtow before theJapanese soldiers, I hope to do the samewith dignity.'

During the occupation, Terry became anadviser to the Emperor. In 1949, concernedabout Mariko's education, and with Terry'sencouragement, Gwen and her daughterwent to the USA, living in Gwen's hometown. She planned to return to Japan, but onthe outbreak of the Korean War, Terryadvised her to wait. Then came news that hehad died.

Mariko graduated from university, marriedan American lawyer, and had four children.Politically active, in 1976 she was elected tothe Executive Committee of the DemocraticNational Committee, devoting herself toissues including the arms race, war andpeace, racial and sexual equality, andpolitical reform. Because of her husband'sposition, Gwen's experiences were not astough as those endured by many. But, as shedescribed them through Western eyes, theyprovide a picture that underlines the burdenof war on Japanese civilians.

How the war ended

Not necessarily to Japan'sadvantage

The Pacific War did not end with one finaland crushing battlefield defeat. The Alliedvictory was the outcome of relentless pressurethat squeezed the life out of Japan's capacityto continue, even though millions of soldiersand civilians still remained willing to die forthe Emperor. The atomic bomb attacks onHiroshima and Nagasaki and the Sovietdeclaration of war merely gave the Japanesegovernment the opportunity to surrender.

By July 1945 Japan was under siege from allsides. American and British carriers wereconducting strikes against the home islands.American submarines were in the Sea of Japan.Most of Japan's navy had been sunk, and itsoverseas forces were isolated and surrounded.At home, however, the Japanese army wasrapidly forming new divisions to repel theexpected American invasion. Soon itnumbered about 2 million troops in60 divisions. These were supported by3,000 kamikaze planes (with carefullypreserved fuel), 5,000 regular warplanes,3,300 suicide boats and a National VolunteerForce with a potential strength of 28 million.But Japan was running low on the equipment,fuel, food, and other resources needed tocontinue the war.

American forces under General MacArthurplanned to land on Kyushu on 1 Novemberwith a force of 13 divisions, to be followed on1 March 1946 by a landing on Honshu, nearTokyo, with a force of 25 divisions. Fromsignals intelligence the American commandersknew the strength of the Japanese forces onKyushu and feared heavy casualties.

Meanwhile, the Allied leaders weremeeting at Potsdam in Germany, whereHarry Truman, who had becomeUS President on Roosevelt's death on12 April, told the Soviet leader, JosephStalin, that the USA had an atomic bombthat would be dropped on Japan. The Soviet

Union had promised to join the war threemonths after the end in Europe, but as aJapanese surrender became more likely, theAmericans became less keen on a Sovietattack, although they could do little aboutit. On 26 July 1945 the Allies issued thePotsdam Declaration, promising the utterdestruction of the Japanese homelandunless there was an unconditionalsurrender. On 28 July the Japaneserejected this demand.

On 6 August an American B-29, the EnolaGay, based at Tinian, dropped the 'Little Boy'atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.Again the Americans asked for surrender,promising another attack. The Japanesehoped that the Soviet Union might assist innegotiations with the Americans. Theyreceived their answer on 8 August, when theSoviet Union declared war. Next morningSoviet forces invaded Manchuria, just aheadof news of another atomic bomb beingdropped on Nagasaki, killing 35,000.

The double shock of the atomic bombsand the Russian attack decided the issue. Onthe night of 9 August, three of the sixmembers of the Imperial Council agreed tosurrender. The other three wanted to fighton. The Emperor tipped the balance anddecided to surrender; next day the Japanesegovernment announced that it would acceptthe Allied terms provided they did notprejudice the prerogatives of the Emperor.The USA responded that the Emperor shouldbe subject to the authority of the SupremeCommander for the Allied Powers. Late on14 August, Japan informed the Allies that ithad accepted the terms. That evening severalarmy officers attempted a coup. If the WarMinister, General Anami Korechika, hadsupported the coup it might have succeeded,but he committed suicide, as did othermilitary leaders.


The aftermath of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshimaon 6 August 1945. Some 78,000 inhabitants were killed -slightly less than in the first firebomb attack on Tokyo.Many others, however were to die from the effects: byAugust 1946 the casualty figure had reached 120.000.(AKG Berlin)

At noon on 15 August, the Emperorbroadcast his orders to cease hostilities. Hemade no mention of surrender, but said thatthe war had 'developed not necessarily toJapan's advantage,' and that the enemy hademployed 'a new and most cruel bomb.' Japanhad 'resolved to pave the way for a grandpeace for all the generations to come byenduring the unendurable and suffering whatis insufferable.' Across the remnants of theEmpire, with only a few exceptions, themembers of the Japanese armed forcesfaithfully obeyed the order to cease hostilities.

In Manchuria, however, the warcontinued briefly. Between April and August1945 the Soviets had moved 750,000 menand 30 divisions from Europe to the Far East.

Under the command of Marshal AleksandrVasilevsky, they formed the Far EastCommand with some 1.5 million troops(80 divisions), 5,500 armored vehicles andnearly 5,000 aircraft. The Japanese KwantungArmy in Manchuria had 24 divisions, buteight of these had been mobilized in theprevious 10 days. Although they had1 million troops, the Japanese wereoutnumbered, had inferior equipment, andhad a lower level of training and morale.

Experienced in mechanized operations,the Soviet commanders conducted a rapidmobile war. They quickly overranManchuria, taking Harbin on 18 August andPort Arthur on 22 August. Some Japaneseunits had not heard the order to ceasehostilities, but in any case the Soviets weredetermined to keep fighting to secure asmuch ground as possible. Further, the Sovietswere planning to land on the northernJapanese island of Hokkaido in late August.Stalin halted them at the last minute, after

How the war ended 85

Truman forcefully rejected his proposal toaccept the Japanese surrender in northernHokkaido. The invasion would have goneahead if the atomic bombs had not inducedJapan to surrender; Japan would then havebeen divided between the Soviet Union andthe other Allies, as happened in Germanyand Korea.

About 600,000 Japanese and Koreanswere taken prisoner by the Soviets andtransported to Siberia, to be used as forcedlabor. Only 224,000 survived to return toJapan and Korea in 1949. The Russiansclaimed that they killed 83,737 Japanese; theunofficial Japanese figure was 21,000. Sovietlosses were put at just over 8,000 men killedand 22,000 wounded.

At the end of the First World War, theGermans had surrendered without theirhomeland being invaded, leading tosuggestions that somehow they had notactually been defeated. Japan was notinvaded but there could be no doubt about

Soviet sailors hoist a Soviet flag on a hill above PortArthur lost during the Russo-Japanese War of1904-1905 and recovered during the Soviet invasionof Manchuria in August 1945. The Soviet Union hadseveral scores to settle with Japan, including therecovery of territories taken by the Japanese 40 yearsearlier. (AKG Berlin)

the defeat. That the Americans were preparedto invade, supported by massive firepower,was an important factor among theconsiderations that led to Japan's surrender.

From the beginning of the Pacific War itwas clear that the decisive factor would bethe industrial power of the USA. In July 1945the USA had 21,908 front-line aircraft in thePacific; the Japanese had 4,100. After the warAdmiral Nagano Osami, Chief of the NavalGeneral Staff, told his interrogators: 'If I wereto give you one factor ... that led to yourvictory, I would give you the air force.'

It was not until the last year of the warthat the USA was able to deploy and utilizeits full industrial power. As General Ushijima

86 Essential Histories • The Second World War ( I)

General MacArthur watches as a Japanese representativesigns the surrender document on the battleship Missouri inTokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Admiral Nimitz signedon behalf of the USA with representatives, seen behindMacArthur, signing for the other Allies. (AKG Berlin)

Mitsuru, the Japanese commander onOkinawa, put it, 'our strategy, tactics andtechniques were all used to the utmost andwe fought valiantly. But it was as nothingbefore the material strength of the enemy.'Prince Konoye, at one stage the JapanesePrime Minister and one of the Emperor's keyadvisers at the end of the war, said that'fundamentally the thing that brought aboutthe determination to make peace was theprolonged bombing by the B-29s.'

In view of the evidence that Japan did nothave the economic strength to fight muchbeyond the end of 1945, arguments havecontinued as to whether the Americansneeded to drop the atomic bombs. Variousclaims have been made about the extent ofthe casualties that the American forces wouldhave suffered in the November invasion. But ifthe war had continued, thousands moreJapanese civilians would have suffered bothfrom American conventional air attacks and inthe ground fighting. The fact that the JapaneseCabinet, after the shock of the atomic bombs,was still divided over whether to surrenderindicates the role that the bombs played interminating the war. For that, millions acrossAsia and the Pacific were grateful.


How the War transformedthe Asia-Pacific

The Pacific War saw the deployment of hugeforces across a vast geographic area, but itwas still a relatively small war by comparisonwith the European theater - especially withrespect to the numbers of soldiers mobilizedfor land operations. From a population of194 million, the Soviet Union raised as manyas 30 million troops, of whom more than8 million were killed or died. Germany raisedalmost 18 million and more than 3 milliondied. British forces numbered almost5.9 million with deaths exceeding 300,000 -mostly in Europe.

The eminent military historian JohnKeegan noted that 'although the Japanesehad mobilised 6 million men, five-sixths ofthose deployed outside the home islands hadbeen stationed in China; the numbercommitted to the fighting in the islands hadperhaps not exceeded that which Americahad sent.' Of the 29 US army and Marinedivisions in the Pacific, only six army andfour Marine divisions 'were involved inregular periods of prolonged combat.' Bycomparison, in the European theater inmid-1944 '300 German and satellitedivisions confronted 300 Russian andseventy British and American divisions.' TheJapanese army still suffered heavily, incurring1.4 million deaths. But this heavy loss of lifewas caused by the weight of firepowerdelivered by the Americans and thewillingness of the Japanese to fight to thedeath, rather than by large-scale land battles.

Significantly, the Japanese navy also lostheavily - 400,000 deaths. The US navy lost36,900 killed, mostly in the Pacific. Thesefigures underline the maritime nature of thewar. Japan began the war with awell-developed capacity for amphibiousoperations supported by carrier-basedaircraft. As the war progressed, the US navydeveloped the concepts for carrier and

amphibious operations to a new level. TheUS navy's carrier task forces became the mostpowerful elements of its fleet and thisconcept has continued through to thepresent time. In the South-West Pacific Area,MacArthur used newly built jungle airstripsin the same way that Nimitz used hiscarriers, to provide air support foramphibious operations deep into enemyterritory. The American naval operationswere sustained by a huge fleet of supplyships - the fleet train. The naval war alsoshowed the value of a competent andaggressively handled submarine force.

Allied naval and land-based air forcesplayed a key role. For example, oneassessment of the 2,728 Japanese ships sunkduring the war reveals that 1,314 were sunkby Allied submarines, 123 by surface craft,1,232 by direct or indirect air attack, and46 by a combination of air and sea attack.Aircraft provided an invaluable means oftransportation and resupply in a theaterwhere land transport was extremely difficultand often impossible. Chinese and Americanforces in China were supplied by aircraftflying 'the hump' from India. Transportaircraft moved troops in both the Burma andNew Guinea campaigns. Troops weresustained by air resupply, often by parachutewhen landing fields were unavailable.Towards the end of the war, Americanstrategic bombers alone brought Japan closeto surrender, validating a concept that hadproduced less clear-cut results in Europe.

The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki transformed warfare. As theAmerican strategist Bernard Brodie wrote in1946, 'Thus far the chief purpose of ourmilitary establishment has been to win wars.From now on its chief purpose must be toavert them. It can have almost no otherpurpose.' He was only partly right. Countries

88 Essential Histories • The Second World War (I)

now tried to limit wars so that they wouldnot escalate to the nuclear threshold.

Some of the skills learned in the Pacific Warwere employed in the limited wars of thefollowing decades. For example, revolutionaryforces in China, Malaya, Vietnam, and thePhilippines exploited their guerrilla warfareexpertise. The security forces deployed by theBritish Commonwealth in Malaya in the1950s had learned their jungle warfare skillsagainst the Japanese in Burma and NewGuinea. The Allies had also learned how toprovide logistic support in this difficultenvironment and to counteract thedebilitating effects of tropical disease.

Although in 1945 the Allies deployedarmies with up to a dozen divisions inBurma and the Philippines, they did notconduct the large-scale mechanized andarmored operations that characterized thecampaigns in Russia and north-west Europeand set the benchmark for the growth ofmobile warfare in the following decades. Notmuch was modern about the grinding landbattles of the Pacific War. But the use ofcarriers, amphibious operations, and airpower in the Pacific set the stage for thefurther development of modern war. More

generally, the war demonstrated theimportance of cooperation between land,naval, and air forces.

Rebuilding Japan

At the end of the war, the immediateproblem was to decide what to do withJapan, which could never again be allowed toconduct a war of aggression. Japan was ashattered society, but such societies can breedrevolution and resentment of neighbors thatcan lead to future war. By the end of 1945, 13million Japanese were unemployed. In thewinter of 1945-46, the population was closeto starvation. One survivor recalled, 'Everylast one of us was involved in the blackmarket.' A magistrate who nobly refused tobecome involved in the black marketreputedly died of malnutrition.

General MacArthur, Supreme Commanderfor the Allied Powers, established his

Japanese servicemen arriving at Otake. Japan, fromSumatra after the war Millions of soldiers and sailors hadto be repatriated from overseas in Allied ships anddemobilized. (Australian War Memorial)


headquarters in Tokyo and presided over anoccupation force composed of mostlyAmerican troops with a small BritishCommonwealth force commanded by anAustralian general. MacArthur set aboutestablishing a Japanese government on largelyWestern democratic lines, and a newconstitution came into effect in May 1947.Among its provisions were the renunciation ofwar forever as a sovereign right and theprohibition against maintaining military forces.

Determined to bring those responsible forthe war to account, in 1946 the Alliesestablished the International Tribunal for theFar East to try Japanese leaders with 'crimesagainst peace'. The charges includedconspiracy to wage war and the waging ofaggressive war, as well as conventional warcrimes and 'crimes against humanity'. SomeJapanese leaders, such as Prince Konoye,committed suicide before they could bearraigned. The Emperor, whom manythought should have been tried, wasexempted from prosecution and fromappearing as a witness, allegedly 'in the bestinterests of all the Allied powers.' Thepresident of the court was an Australianjudge, Sir William Webb. Two defendantsdied in custody and one was found mentallyunfit to stand trial. All the others were foundguilty of at least one charge. Seven,including Tojo, were hanged in 1948 and theremainder imprisoned.

Across south-east Asia, the Allies alsoconducted about 2,000 trials of those chargedwith murder, maltreatment of prisoners andcivilians, and 'crimes against humanity'.About 3,000 of 5,700 defendants were foundguilty and imprisoned; 920 were executed. Inthe Philippines, General Yamashita wascharged with permitting atrocities againstcivilians during the defense of Manila. Heclaimed that he had no idea that theatrocities had occurred, but he was foundguilty and hanged. General Homma wasfound guilty for permitting the Bataan DeathMarch, despite claiming he had not heard ofit, and was executed by firing squad.

The Allied occupation of Japan has beendescribed as 'wise and magnanimous.' By

September 1951, when the peace treaty wasfinally signed at San Francisco, the Japanesepeople hardly noticed the transition fromthe occupation administration toindependence. At the same time, to helpalleviate the fears of Australia and NewZealand about a possible resurgence of Japanas a military power, the USA signed asecurity treaty with those countries - theANZUS Treaty. A year later the USA andJapan signed a security treaty, whichcontinues to the present day. Shelteringbehind the treaty, Japan grew into aneconomic powerhouse that contributed tothe remarkable economic development of itsformer colonies and foes - China, Taiwan,South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Reshaping the Asia-Pacific region

Although the Allied (mainly American)occupation of Japan enabled that country tobe rebuilt as a democratic and eventuallyprosperous nation, elsewhere across theregion the end of the war brought furtherturmoil and upheaval.

The most far-reaching was the civil war inChina between Chiang Kai-shek'sNationalists and Mao Tse-tung'sCommunists. The Nationalists had liberatedmuch of southern China from the Japaneseand were armed with US Lend-Leaseequipment. In the north, the Communistsbuilt up their army with captured Japaneseweapons and with the assistance of theSoviet forces that flooded into Manchuria inAugust 1945. The war continued until 1949.On 1 October 1949 the Communist People'sRepublic of China was proclaimed at Peking,and by December the surviving Nationalistforces had withdrawn to Taiwan.

The Soviet invasion of northern Korea inAugust 1945 resulted in the division of Koreaalong the 38th parallel, and theestablishment in the north of theCommunist regime under Kim Il-sung. TheRepublic of Korea was formed in the southunder Syngman Rhee. In 1950 North Koreanforces attacked the South, initiating the


Korean War. The 1953 armistice haltedhostilities along the line of the originaldivision, but Korea still remains divided (seeOsprey Essential Histories, The Korean War,by Carter Malkasian).

In south-east Asia the revolutionary forcesthat had been formed during the Pacific Warseized the opportunity to take over fromtheir colonial masters. In Vietnam, forexample, the communist nationalist leaderHo Chi Minh formed an independentgovernment in August 1945. French troopsreoccupied the country and were soon inbattle with the Viet Minh. After their defeatat Dien Bien Phu in 1954 the Frenchwithdrew, leaving the country dividedbetween the communist North and theWestern-oriented South. The stage was set forthe disastrous war involving the USA in the1960s and 1970s that led to the unificationof the country under communist rule.

In Indonesia, Sukarno proclaimed theformation of an independent republic. WhenBritish troops arrived, they were confrontedby Indonesian forces. Dutch troops replacedthe British, and for three years they struggledto regain control of the islands. In December1949 the Netherlands formally surrenderedsovereignty over Indonesia.

Unlike the French in Indo-China and theDutch in Indonesia, the USA had no desire toretain the Philippines, which formally becamea republic in July 1946. One of the wartimeguerrilla groups fighting the Japanese - theHukbalahap, or Huks - was led by thecommunists, although it drew support from awider group of peasant unions. Believing thatthey had been shut out of the newgovernment, the Huks mounted a rebellionthat continued until the mid-1950s.

The British government saw the trendof events and quickly gave Burma itsindependence. The new Burmesegovernment soon faced a communistinsurrection. Independence for India wasnot achieved until 1947, which saw thebloody and acrimonious partition of thecountry into mainly Hindu India andMuslim Pakistan. About half a millionMuslims, Hindus, and Sikhs lost their lives

during the massive relocation of thepopulation.

Britain promised to grant independenceto Malaya, but in 1948 the MalayanCommunist Party launched an armedstruggle using the Malayan Races LiberationArmy (based on the wartime MalayanPeople's Anti-Japanese Army). Most of theinsurgents were ethnic Chinese and hencethe Malayan nationalists sided with thegovernment. Malaya became independent in1957. The Emergency, as it was known,officially ended in 1960, although someterrorist activity continued for many years.

The Pacific War was thus followed by30 years of lesser (but still very bloody) warsacross the Asia-Pacific region. They weredriven by two imperatives - communismand decolonization - that came toprominence because of the Pacific War. Atthe end of that time the region had beentransformed from that which existed beforethe onset of the Pacific War. In 1937 onlyJapan, China, and Thailand wereindependent countries and the ChineseNationalist regime was not in full control ofits country. The rest of the area wasdominated by Britain, France, theNetherlands, the USA, and Australia. By 1975China was a powerful united country undercommunist rule, except for Taiwan, alreadygaining strength as a separate economicentity. North and South Korea were inexistence with the latter also becoming aneconomic power. Farther south and west,Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines,Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, PapuaNew Guinea, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,India, and Pakistan had become independentcountries.

The Pacific War confirmed theinvolvement of the USA as a Pacific power. Itcommitted large forces to the Korean andVietnam Wars, and has continued to baseforces in Honshu, Okinawa, South Korea,and Guam. For many years it had air andnaval forces in the Philippines. The mightycarrier battle groups of the Third andSeventh Fleets still patrol the waters of thePacific. The USA's former enemy, Japan, is

Conclusion and consequences 91

now one of its principal allies. Its formerallies, the Soviet Union (now Russia) andChina, have been seen more as adversariesthan as friends.

Japan's economic strength has given itfriendly access to South Korea, China,south-east Asia, and Australia. But SouthKorea and China, and many people in theother countries, cannot forget Japan's

wartime brutality. They are dismayed thatsome Japanese leaders (admittedly aminority) still refuse to acknowledge thattheir country fought an aggressive war andthat their forces treated innocent civilians inan inhuman manner. The Pacific War mighthave transformed the region strategically,politically and economically, but its shadowwill hang over it for decades to come.

Further reading

Official histories

Craven, W., and Gate, J., The Army Air Forcesin World War II, 7 volumes,Chicago, 1948-58.

Kirby, S. W. et al., The War Against Japan,5 volumes, London, 1957-69.

Long, G. (ed.), Australia in the War of1939-1945, 22 volumes, Canberra, 1952-77.

Morison, S. E., United States Naval Operationsin World War II, 15 volumes,Boston, 1947-62.

US Army, United States Army in World War II,The War in the Pacific, 11 volumes,Washington, 1948-63.

US Army, United States Army in World War II,The China-Burma-India Theater,3 volumes, Washington, 1953-59.

US Marine Corps, History of the US MarineCorps Operations in World War II,5 volumes, Washington, 1956-71.

Secondary sources

Allen, L., Burma: The Longest War 1941-45,London, 1984.

Allen, T. B., and Polmar, X., Code-NameDownfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japanand Why Truman Dropped the Bomb,New York, 1995.

Bix, H. P., Hirohito and the Making of ModernJapan, New York, 2000.

Blair, C., Silent Victory: The US Submarine Waragainst Japan, Philadelphia, 1975.

Callahan, R., Burma, 1942-1945,London, 1978.

Collier, B., The War in the Far East1941-1945, London, 1969.

Daw, G., Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of

World War II in the Pacific, New York, 1986.Dower, J. W., War without Mercy: Race and

Power in the Pacific War, New York, 1986.

Drea, E. J., MacArthur's ULTRA: Codebreakingand the War Against Japan, 1942-1945,Lawrence, KS, 1992.

Dull, P. S., A Battle History of the ImperialJapanese Navy (1941-1945), Annapolis, 1978.

Feis, H., The Road to Pearl Harbor: The Coining ofthe War between the US and Japan, Princeton,1963.

Frank, R., Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account ofthe Landmark Battle, New York, 1990.

Fuchida, M., and Masatake, O., Midway: TheBattle that Doomed Japan, Annapolis, 1955.

Gailey, H. A., The War in the Pacific: From PearlHarbor to Tokyo Bay, Novata, CA, 1995.

Horner, D. M, Blamey: The

Commander-in-Chief, Sydney, 1999.Homer, D. M., High Command: Australia and

Allied Strategy 1939-1945, Sydney, 1982.Ienaga, S., The Pacific War: World War II and the

Japanese, 1931-1945, New York, 1978.Ike, N.(ed.), Japan's Decision for War: Records of the

1941 Policy Conferences, Stanford, CA, 1967.James, D. C, The Years of MacArthur, Volume II,

1941-1945, Boston, 1975.Kirby, S. W., Singapore: The Chain of Disaster,

New York, 1971.Layton, E. T., 'And I Was There': Pearl Harbor

and Midway - Breaking the Secrets, New York,1985.

MacArthur, D., Reminiscences, Greenwich,CT, 1965.

Potter, E. B., Bull Halsey, Annapolis, 1985.Potter, E. B., Nimitz, Annapolis, 1976.Prange, G. W., Miracle at Midway,

New York, 1982.Prange, G. W., Goldstein, D. M., and Dilon, K.

V., At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story ofPearl Harbor, New York, 1981.

Reynolds, C. G., War in the Pacific,

New York, 1990.Slim, W. J., Defeat into Victory, London, 1956.Spector, R. H., Eagle Against the Sun: The

American War with Japan, New York, 1985.

Further reading 93

Thorne, C, Allies of a Kind: The United States,Britain and the War against Japan,1941-1945, New York, 1978.

Thorne, C, The Issue of War: States, Societiesand the Tar Eastern Conflict of 1941-1945,London, 1985.

Toland, J., The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall ofthe Japanese Empire 1936-1945, London, 1971.

Tuchman, B. W., Stilwell and the AmericanExperience in China, 1911-1945, NewYork, 1970.

Vat, D. van der, The Pacific Campaign: TheUS-Japanese Naval War 1941-1945,New York, 1991.

Willmott, H. P., Empires in the Balance:Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April1942, Annapolis, 1982.

Willmott, H. P., The Barrier and the Javelin:Japanese and Allied Strategies, February toJune 1942, Annapolis, 1983.

Willmott, H. P., The Second World War in theEast, London, 1999.


Index

Figures in bold refer to illustrations

Adachi Hatazo. Lieutenant-General 42Admiralty Islands 10, 48Aleutian Islands 7, 9, 41Allies 8, 10, 20, 21, 24, 26, 32, 42, 49, 52-55, 56, 87, 88, 89

counteroffensive 16 September 1944-22 August 194562-63counteroffensive August 1942-September 1944 50-51invasion of Burma 1944-1945 54operations in New Guinea and the Solomons August1942-April 1944 43see also Australia; Great Britain; Netherlands; UnitedStates of America

Ambon 9, 32Anami Korechika, General 83Anti-Comintern Pact 9, 14Arakan 49Araki Sadao, General 14Arizona 28Arnold, Hap, General 22Attu Island 10, 41-42Australia 7, 10, 17, 30, 32, 36, 38, 39, 40, 44-45, 48, 60, 74-

75,89military strength 23-24

Australian troops 39, 45, 67, 68, 69, 76

Balikpapan 11, 32, 60Bataan 9, 32, 89Biak Island 10Bismarck Sea, Battle of 10, 41Blarney, Sir Thomas, General 44, 45, 60, 79Blood Brotherhood 14Bloody Ridge, Battle of 39Borneo 9, 32Bougainville 10, 41, 42, 44, 60British troops 61

see also Great BritainBrunei Bay 11, 60Buckler, Simon, Lieutenant-General 64Buna 38, 40Burma 7, 9, 10, 32, 33, 45, 48-52, 52, 60-61, 71-72, 75, 90

Allied invasion 1944-1945 54, 56Burma Road 9, 10, 16, 32, 60Bushido code of honor 20

casualtiesAustralian 38-39, 45British 3287Chinese 55Filipinos 60German 87Japanese 85, 87, 27, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46-47, 48,49, 50, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65Soviet 85, 87US 27-28, 29, 37. 39, 40, 42, 54, 56, 59-60, 61, 64, 65,74,86

Chennault, Claire, Major-General 53, 54Chiang Kai-shek 13, 15, 26, 52, 89China 7, 8, 9, 10, 12-14, 25, 26, 32, 49, 52-55, 60, 71, 72,

87, 89military strength 24

China Incident 9, 14Chindit operations 10, 49, 52Christison. Philip, Lieutenant-General 49Chungking 54-55Churchill, Winston 29, 30, 42, 56, 74, 75

Colombo 9, 32Commonwealth troops 22-24, 30Coral Sea, Battle of the 9, 36-37Corregidor Island 9, 32

Decoux, Jean, Vice-Admiral 72Derrick. Thomas Currie, Sergeant 66-69, 67Doolittle, James, Colonel 9, 36Doorman, Karel, Rear-Admiral 32

East Indies, Dutch 32, 72Edson, Merrit A., Lieutenant-Colonel 39Eichelberger, Robert, Lieutenant-General 40, 60

Farquar, Murray, Lieutenant 67Fletcher, Jack, Vice-Admiral 38, 40Fuchida Mitsuo, Commander 27

Germany 7, 9, 16, 17Ghormley, Robert, Vice-Admiral 38Gilbert Islands 10, 36, 46, 46-47Great Britain 7, 12, 13, 16, 17, 20, 25, 48-49, 60-61, 61, 73,

75,90military strength 22-23, 24, 30

Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere 7, 16, 26, 33, 56, 71Green Island 10Griswold, Oswald, Major-General 42Guadalcanal 7, 38, 39, 40

naval battle of 10, 40Guam Island 10, 29, 48

Halmaheras Islands 10Halsey, William, Admiral 7, 40, 42, 44, 56, 57, 79Hart, Thomas, Admiral 26Hirohito, Emperor 11, 13, 26Hiroshima 7, 11, 83, 84, 87Ho Chi Minh 72-73, 90Hokkaido 84-85Homma Masaharu, General 32, 89Hong Kong 9, 29, 32Hornet 36, 37Hull, Cordell 26, 27Huon peninsula 42Hyakutake Harukichi, Lieutenant-General 37, 42

Ichigo offensive 54-55Imamura Hitoshi, Lieutenant-General 42Imita Ridge 10Imphal 10, 49India 24, 30, 49, 60, 71, 73-74Indian troops 23Indo-China 9, 10, 25, 26, 72Indonesia 90intelligence 25, 29, 40, 41Iwo Jima 10, 56, 61-64

Japanconquests December 1941-August 1942 34-35culture 70expansionism 12-17, 18-19merchant shipping 55-56military strength 20-21, 21, 27, 42, 83reconstruction 88-89surrender 83-86

Japanese troops 15, 16, 88Java Sea, Battle of 9jungle warfare 45-46, 87, 88

Index 95

Kawabe Masakazu, Lieutenant-General 49, 52Kenney, George, Lieutenant-General 41, 44Kimmel, Husband, Admiral 26, 28King, Ernest, Admiral 22, 33, 74Kiska 41, 42Koga Mineichi, Admiral 41Kohima 10, 49Koiso Kuniaki, Lieutenant-General 48Kokoda Trail 39, 40Konoye Fumimaro, Prince 16, 25, 26, 86, 89Korea 12-13, 71, 89-90Krueger, Walter, General 44, 57Kunming 54-55Kuribayashi Tadamichi, Lieutenant-General 61Kurita Takeo, Vice-Admiral 44, 57Kwantung Army 14, 16, 20, 84

Labuan Island 10Lae 10, 44Layton, Edwin, Rear-Admiral 29Le May, Curtis, Major-General 64-65League of Nations 9, 13, 14Lexington 36, 36Leyte 56, 59Leyte Gulf, naval battle of 7, 57Lockwood, Charles, Vice-Admiral 55Luzon 10, 32, 56, 60, 61

MacArthur, Douglas, General 7, 9, 24, 25, 29, 32, 36, 38,40, 42, 46, 47-48, 56, 59, 60, 83, 86, 87, 88-89

Makin Island 46-47Malaya 8, 9, 17, 29, 30, 31, 32, 45, 56, 61, 71, 72, 74, 75,

88, 90Manchukuo 9, 11, 14, 71, 72Manchuria 12-14, 16, 83, 84, 89Manchurian Incident 14Mandalay 10Manila 60MaoTse-tung 15,53,89Mariana Islands 10, 36, 48, 64Marshall Islands 10, 47Marshall, George C. 22Matsuoka Yosuke 14, 17, 25Midway Island, Battle of 7, 9, 36, 37, 41Milne Bay 10, 39Mindanao 10, 56Mitscher, Marc, Rear-Admiral 47, 48Morshead, Sir Leslie, Lieutenant-General 60Mountbatten, Lord Louis, Admiral 10, 49, 56, 61Mutuguchi Renya, Lieutenant-General 49, 52Myitkyina 10, 52

Nagano Osami, Admiral 85Nagasaki 8, 11, 83,87Nagumo Chuichi, Vice-Admiral 26, 28, 29, 32Nanking 8, 15, 16Netherlands 7, 17, 60New Guinea 7, 9, 10, 38, 39, 40, 42, 45, 48, 60New Zealand 24, 44, 75, 89Nimitz, Chester, Admiral 7, 33, 36, 46, 48, 56, 86, 87Nomonhan Incident 9, 16

Okinawa 10, 22, 56, 64, 64Operation Cartwheel 42-45Operation Overlord 48Operation Zipper 61Owen Stanley Ranges 10, 37, 39Ozawa Jizaburo, Vice-Admiral 57

Pacific Fleet (British) 23, 64Pacific Fleet (US) 17, 20, 22, 25, 27Palau Islands (Peleliu) 10Papua 10, 38Pearl Harbor 7, 9, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27-29, 36, 37Percival, Arthur, General 30Perry, Matthew, Commodore 12

Philippine Sea, Battle of 10Philippines 7, 8, 10, 17, 30-32, 45, 56, 57-60, 58, 71, 90Port Arthur 12-13, 85Port Moresby 36-37, 38Prince of Wales 9, 30prisoners of war 8, 20, 72, 74, 75-79, 77, 78, 85

Rabaul 9, 37, 38, 39, 42, 44, 48Rangoon 9, 10, 32, 60Repulse 9, 30Roosevelt, Franklin 14, 25, 26, 27, 29, 29, 32, 42, 56, 74,

75,83

Saipan 10, 48sanctions 7, 9, 25Savo Island, naval battle of 10, 38Schmidt, Harry, Major-General 61Scoones, Geoffrey, Lieutenant-General 49Shanghai 9, 14-15, 15Short, Walter, Lieutenant-General 28Singapore 9, 13, 30, 56, 74Slim, Sir William, General 7, 48, 49, 52, 60Smith, Holland, Lieutenant-General 48, 64Solomon Islands 7, 10, 24, 38, 42, 44South-East Asia Command 10, 23, 49, 56, 61South-West Pacific Area 9, 21, 24, 36, 40, 86Soviet troops 85Soviet Union 7, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 83, 84, 89Spruance, Admiral 46, 48, 64Stalin, Joseph 83, 84Stark, Admiral Harold 26Stilwell, Joseph, Lieutenant-General 49, 53, 53, 55Stopford, Montague, Lieutenant-General 49suicide attacks 20, 42, 48, 60, 61, 64, 65suicides 83, 89Sukarno, Achmad 11, 72, 73, 90Sydney Harbour 9

Tarakan 10Tarawa 46-47Terasaki, Gwendolen Harold 80, 80-82Thailand 29, 32, 71, 72Timor 9, 32Tojo Hideki, General 9, 10, 17, 25, 48, 56Tokyo 10, 65Tokyo Bay 11, 12Toyoda Soemu, Admiral 48Tripartite Pact 9, 17, 26Truman, Harry 83, 85

United States of America 7-8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20,25-27, 32, 33-37, 38-40, 41-42, 44, 45-48, 57-60, 61-65,74bombing raids 37, 65military strength 21-22, 22, 24, 64submarine campaign 55-56troops 38, 57, 64, 76

Ushijima Mitsuru, General 85-86

Vasilevsky, Aleksandr, Marshal 84Vietnam 90VJ-Day 11

Wainwright, Jonathan, Lieutenant-General 32Wake Island 7, 9, 29, 32Wang Ching-wei 53, 53war crimes 89

see also prisoners of warWavell, Sir Archibald, General 32Wedemeyer, Albert, Lieutenant-General 55Wingate, Orde, Brigadier 49

Yamamoto Isoruku, Admiral 7, 10, 21, 25, 26, 29, 33, 36,41

Yamashita Tomoyuki, Lieutenant-General 7, 30, 89Yorktown 36, 37 '

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