Truman decided to use a new weapon called the atomic bomb. However, they feared this would cost the lives of up to 1 million US soldiers. American leaders felt that the only way to get Japan to surrender would be to invade the main island of Japan. However, the Japanese would not surrender. Today a statue of marines raising a flag on the island of Iwo Jima serves as the Marine Corps Memorial in Washington DC.įinally in 1945 the Japanese army had been pushed back to Japan. Iwo Jima took 36 days of fighting to take the island. ![]() There were many battles over islands in the South Pacific, these included Tarawa, Saipan, and Iwo Jima. After fierce fighting the US was able to take the island, but they learned that fighting the Japanese was not going to be easy. One of the first major battles was over the island of Guadalcanal. They fought to take over strategic islands in the Pacific. Winning this battle gave the Americans cause for hope and was a turning point in the war in the Pacific.Īfter the Battle of Midway the United States began to fight back against the Japanese. Badly outnumbered, the US Navy sunk four Japanese aircraft carriers and forced the Japanese to retreat. However, the US won a critical battle called the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. The Japanese quickly took over much of Southeast Asia and were well on their way to dominance by 1942. The attack at Pearl Harbor united the Americans with the goal of defeating the Axis powers, and especially Japan. The US joined the Allies in World War II the next day. However, this attack did not have the effect the Japanese had hoped. They surprised the US and sunk many ships. On DecemJapan attacked the US Navy at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. They decided to attack the US Navy hoping they could sink enough ships to keep the US from ever attacking Japan. Now that he was Prime Minister, Tojo wanted Japan to attack the United States.Īlthough the US was trying to avoid getting involved in World War II, Japan was worried that the US would try and stop them from taking over some countries in Southeast Asia. He had been a strong supporter of Japan joining the Axis Powers. In 1941 a former General of the Army, Hideki Tojo, became Prime Minister of Japan. They joined the Axis alliance with Germany and Italy in 1940 by signing the Tripartite Pact. They wanted to dominate all of Southeast Asia. Some Japanese leaders felt they needed to gain more land by conquering other countries. However, because Japan was a small island country, they had to import many natural resources. Japan wanted to become a strong country and a world leader. naval commanders successfully applied lessons learned from interwar war gaming to victorious carrier operations in World War II.Japanese Battleships - Japan had a powerful navy NHHC publication: Winning a Future War-War Gaming and Victory in the Pacific War, by Norman Friedman. Navy Vessels in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and Marianas Operational Area Nasuti Imageryīattle of the Philippine Sea Photo Gallery Other Resources "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" by NHHC historian Guy J. The following essay provides a detailed account of the Battle of the Philippine Sea and analyzes its great significance in determining the further course of the war in the Pacific: By the evening of 20 June, Task Force 58’s aircraft had succeeded in breaking the back of Japanese naval aviation and the Japanese Combined Fleet’s carrier forces. Navy’s Task Force 58 (Fast Carrier Task Force) clashed with the Japanese navy’s Carrier Division 3 on 19 and 20 June in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in a series of engagements mainly fought out in the air, over waters several hundred miles west of Saipan. Navy-Coral Sea, Midway, and the sum of the sea battles in the Solomons-had either failed or had come short of a war-changing victory. Previous attempts to win a climactic battle with the U.S. victory on Saipan (15 June–9 July), the Japanese naval leadership were convinced that the moment for a decisive large-scale fleet action had come. ![]() Navy’s fast carrier forces in the central Pacific, the American drive into the strategic Marshall Islands chain, and the foreseeable U.S.
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