Title 20. Reading – The Pacific and Asia Description Keywords Objectives Author Mark Callagher Organisation Version Date Copyright
Introduction
There were five principle theatres where World War II was to be fought:
1. The Atlantic 2. The Mediterranean and North Africa 3. Eastern Europe 4. The Pacific and Asia 5. Western Europe (from June 1944)
By the middle of 1942 Japan had quickly expanded its Empire and seemed unstoppable. The USA, while following a “Germany First” strategy, needed to find a way to stop the Japanese march. Dominance over the Japanese Navy was at the heart of the American strategy. A key
Expanding Empire From December 1941, the attack at Pearl Harbour, Japan expanded its empire at a rapid rate. Japan’s naval dominance was a key to it retaining its gains and expanding further.
British Defeated
Britain was now defeated in the Pacific and Asia. The British naval stronghold of Singapore had fallen to the Japanese in a land based attack over the Malay Peninsula. 80,000 British, Australian and Indian soldiers had surrendered.
The British could no longer protect Australia and New Zealand. Preventing the Japanese from advancing into the colony of India was to become the immediate goal.
Philippines defeat The United States fared little better. Within 6 months (December 1941 – May 1942) they had been driven out of their important Philippines colony. With the extensive damage to the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour and the general lack of preparation of American troops for the war, little could be done to stop the Japanese advance in the short term.
NZ and Australia Threatened
In 1942 Australia and New Zealand felt threatened by the rapid expansion of the Japanese. The British were no longer a force in South East Asia to provide protection.
Australia responded by recalling its North African based troops home. They received criticism from the British for this move.
New Zealand decided to keep its troops in North Africa to fight Rommel’s Africa Korps. In response the United States agreed to base many of its troops in New Zealand.
100,000 were sent to make-shift bases around New Zealand. The
Naval battles Japanese Navy Japan had built the most powerful navy in the Pacific region at the time of Pearl Harbour. To match the power of the Imperial Japanese Navy in early 1942, the US Navy needed to be provided with a large fleet of modern warships, especially fast and powerful aircraft carriers.
Aircraft Carriers With the success of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Aircraft Carriers had surpassed Battleships as the most important naval vessel. They could extend a nations air
First Battle
Early May of 1942 saw the first major Naval battle between the Japanese and Americans. This occurred in the Coral Sea just North of Australia. The Coral Sea was the gateway to Port Moresby, control of which would have enabled the Japanese to isolate Australia.
Air Battle For the four days of the battle, no ship on either side made visual contact with an enemy ship. The battle was fought from the air.
No Clear Victor The battle was considered a tactical victory for Japan since the aircraft carrier USS Lexington was lost, while Japan only lost a light carrier in the battle. However, Coral Sea was a strategic victory for the Allies as the Japanese abandoned their attempt to land troops to take
Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Second World War. The US managed to sink half the Japanese Aircraft Carrier fleet and gain naval parity in the one engagement.
Japanese objective
Japan’s objective was to take the small US atoll of Midway Island located near Hawaii and to also inflict a naval defeat on the Americans. This would hopefully force the United States to end the war with Japan so that its objective to set up the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere would meet no further resistance.
False Intelligence Admiral Yamamoto was under the false belief that only two American Carriers were left in the Pacific and that the others were severely damaged and undergoing repair.
At the end of May 1942 the Japanese Carrier Fleet sailed for Midway to lure the supposedly depleted American Carrier Force into battle.
Intelligence American naval intelligence had managed to decipher most Japanese radio transmissions. They were convinced that the Japanese were preparing an attack on Midway and set out to ambush them. US Admiral Spruance proceeded to group his Carriers to the north of Midway Island.
Outnumbered The US Fleet was vastly outnumbered by the Japanese Fleet and relied solely on
The Battle
The Battle of Midway lasted one day (June 4th) but became a decisive victory for the US Fleet. A combination of good tactics and luck saw a squadron of American Torpedo Aircraft arrive over three defenceless Japanese Carriers. The Japanese planes were either refuelling on deck or away attacking the American Fleet.
Result
The US Fleet, still significantly outnumbered by Japanese warships took the option to withdraw from the battle. A significant victory had been gained by the destruction of the four Japanese Aircraft Carriers. One American Carrier, the Yorktown, was lost in the battle.
Tide Turned
With the US Navy now having clawed its way back to a rough parity of fleet carriers, the Americans could contemplate taking to the offensive for the first time in the war. Guadalcanal
The campaign for Guadalcanal was a turning point in the Pacific War. After the stop of Midway, it is the first attempt on the allied side to retake the Japanese gains. The Americans will need six months after the landing (August 7, 1942) to complete the conquest of the island (February 9, 1943). To achieve that, they will have to break a fierce resistance by the Japanese, on land, on sea and in the air. Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands Battles
Two major carrier battles will be fought, both indecisive. Two battles with battleships will be fought too, and those will be decisive. So many ships were sunk off Guadalcanal that it was nicknamed Ironbottom Sound.
That the fighting were so fierce and so long drawn out was a reflection of the global balance of power in the whole Pacific area. The era of easy victories was a foregone memory for the Japanese but they still remained a formidable adversary for the Americans, whose overwhelming material superiority was still to come. Major battles for Guadalcanal
China & Burma
The war for the Pacific and Asia had started with the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. Chinese forces were divided between the two former foes, the Nationalists (GMD) led by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists (CCP) led by Mao Zedong.
The Chinese Nationalist Army had been forced inland to Chungking after the 1937 Japanese invasion. They fought occasional skirmishes against the Japanese who occupied the coastal area. The Americans had been supplying Chiang’s army via the Burma Road from 1940.
In 1941 the Japanese invaded Burma and cut off the Burma Road supply route. This forced the Americans to supply the Chinese Army from India by air over “The Hump” – Himalayan Mountain Range.
The Flying Tigers was a squadron of volunteer American pilots who had been set up as part of the Chinese Airforce to help the Chinese Nationalists fight the Japanese. By the end of the war they were credited with destroying 300 Japanese aircraft with a loss of only twelve of their own in combat.
The Burma Campaign was one of the longest battles of the war against Japan. Burma stood in the way of Japanese access to India. Play this Animation to follow the events of the campaign:
Propaganda & POWs
Propaganda played a big part in the Pacific War. These two cartoons are aimed at their respective populations. Can you work out the meaning of each?
Murdered American Airmen This cartoon depicts American anger at the Japanese treatment of POWs (Prisoners of War). An increasing number of American flyers were captured by the Japanese during the war, particularly in the last years when the bombing of targets in Japan was made possible.
Tokyo Rose
Iva Toguri D’Aquino was visiting a sick relative in Japan when hostilities started at Pearl Harbour. She was forced to work on a Japanese radio show. She adopted the name “Ann” (short for announcer) and later the name “Orphan Ann”. She was used to broadcast Japanese propaganda attempting to discourage American soldiers fighting in the Pacific. The Americans referred to Annie as “Tokyo Rose”.
Winmedia File Tokyo Rose 1.wav Path C:\Documents and Settings\Mark Callagher\My Documents\History\PPT Origins of World War II\ Width 75 Height 42 Autostart True Align Left Long description Caption A Broadcast by Tokyo Rose Link to player False
Forced Labour
Thousands of Allied prisoners who were taken prisoner by the Japanese were put into forced labour. They were very poorly treated with thousands dying of exhaustion, disease and starvation.
The Bridge on the River Kwai The most well known of these instance of forced labour is the use of British and Australian POW’s (captured in Singapore) to build a railway line through Siam (Thailand) and Burma. This is depicted in a well known 1957 movie.
Empire of the Sun This is a fantastic movie by Stephen Spielberg portraying a British boy who loses contact with his parents in Shanghai during a Japanese invasion. He is put in a prison camp along with many other captured British and American nationals.
Conclusion After the bloody battle at Guadalcanal the USA was in for a long war against the Japanese. From 1943 their objective was to “island hop” their way to within bombing range of Japan. However American marines were to find that the Japanese were unwilling to contemplate surrender at all. It was going to be a long and costly war.