|
1944 During early 1944, Allied
forces continued the two main drives begun the previous year. In east Asia, the
Japanese prepared to launch their long-planned invasion of India while
simultaneously fending off a Chinese offensive. On February 4, American troops
stormed ashore on Kwajalein Atoll in the Central Pacific, and within weeks
leapfrogged to Eniwetok Atoll. The supporting U.S. carrier fleet then steamed
out to Japan's main fleet anchorage at Truk Atoll and devastated it in a series
of air raids which put that installation out of commission for the rest of the
war. During the second week in March, the twin Japanese campaigns against
eastern India and southern China finally materialized. During four weeks of
desperate fighting, British and Chinese forces blunted the Japanese thrusts and
slowly consolidated their positions. By early April, the campaign reached its
climax after which the defeated Japanese forces slowly withdrew. British forces
under General William Slim promptly counterattacked and turned their enemy's
withdrawal into a rout, killing and capturing two-thirds of the Japanese troops
and rendering many of the survivors unfit for further duty.
By the
middle of the year, the two Allied thrusts in the central and southern Pacific
were nearly ready to meet. In June American forces came ashore on Saipan in the
Marianas Island. Within days a Japanese carrier fleet responded, triggering the
famous Battle of the Philippine Sea, which was sardonically called "The
Marianas Turkey Shoot" by Americans because of the hundreds of Japanese
aircraft shot down at relatively little cost. As news spread of the debacle
which the Japanese were experiencing in Burma, the Allies reached their next
crucial decision; whether to separate Japan from her southern supply line by
retaking the Philippines or Formosa. This debate dated from early in the war,
when American General MacArthur promoted the idea of retaking the Philippines
as early as possible. American Admiral Nimitz favored capturing Formosa instead
of the Philippines. Eventually General MacArthur's proposal won out during a
series of meetings held in Hawaii. One stipulation was that Formosa's
substantial reserves of aircraft were to be neutralized before the Philippine
operation was begun.
As a preparation to the invasion of the
Philippines, American high command felt that the Palau island group 800
kilometers east of Mindinao needed to be secured, especially to prevent the
airfield on Peleliu from being used for flanking attacks against the U.S.
invasion fleet. Peleliu was captured during the course of a bloody amphibious
attack made by U.S. Marines in the face of unexpected new Japanese tactics that
emphasized defense in depth over their previous World War One style assault
tactics. Their older tactics had worked reasonably well when executed by crack
troops against enemies that operated on a similar tactical basis. But for many
standard Japanese line units pitted against heavily armed U.S. Marines who were
far more aggressive, the old style charge tactics resulted in long casualty
lists and failed operations.
"The survivors on board gave us all the
details regarding our friends who hadn't made it through Peleliu. We thanked
them and moved on. After a few of the visits and bad news about lost friends, I
began to feel that I hadn't been just lucky but was a survivor of a major
tragedy."
Eugene B. Sledge
After the Peleliu invasion,
1944
By early October Admiral William Halsey, commander of
the main American carrier fleet, brought his ships within striking range of
Formosa and in a lightning air campaign his pilots drew much of Japan's
remaining air reserves into a calamitous air battle on a par with the "Turkey
Shoot" of the previous June. The few surviving Japanese pilots returned to
their bases with fantastic stories of American aircraft carriers and support
ships sinking by the dozens. In reality the Japanese aircraft inflicted little
damage – only a few U.S. ships were lost from service – and after
being reprovisioned, Halsey's fleet was still capable of putting over 1,000
aircraft into the air. He did just that when the U.S. fleet withdrew from
Formosan waters and headed for the eastern Philippines. Japanese commanders in
the Philippines, assuming that the approaching American ships were "survivors"
of the Formosa battle, prepared to attack and sink the pitiful remnants of the
their enemy's fleet. Surprise was therefore complete when Halsey's full
compliment of naval aircraft made their appearance over the central Philippines
and destroyed much of what lay in their path. The Japanese were incredulous
that the Americans had such deep reserves as to be able to recover from such
"defeats" as those suffered off Formosa.
| Pacific War Map : Allied Offensives |
 |
On October 20, all doubts were cast aside when reports
arrived that Americans were landing on Leyte Island, Philippines. Within days,
the titanic Battle of Leyte was begun, and the Japanese Imperial Navy –
sailing from as far away as Singapore – entered into its final great naval
battle. By October 25, the finale of this pivotal battle decided the fate of
the Philippines and the Pacific war when U.S. naval forces managed to destroy
or turn away every Japanese column which converged on the American landing
zone. By the battle's end, Japanese vessels sunk included such venerable ships
as the battleship Musashi (sistership of the gigantic Yamato) and the aircraft
carrier Zuikaku (veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack). Total Japanese losses in
tonnage and aircraft exceeded ten times that of the American losses, a decisive
defeat from which Japan would never recover. In later years, Japanese officers
were clear that for them, the turning point of the war in the Pacific was the
successful American landing at Leyte. Still, the Japanese continued to fight
back, employing kamikaze attacks with increasing frequency. These new attacks
became a fearsome weapon against which Allied troops felt helpless. However
Japan had a limited supply of enthusiastic volunteers for these grim suicide
missions and their numbers were never great enough to sweep the Allied fleets
from the seas in the manner hoped. By the middle of November massive American
air bases built in the Marianas Islands filled with air fleets of brand new
American B-29 bombers. These flying wonders – so they were called by the
Japanese – flew their first mission against Tokyo on November 24.
1945 On January 9 of this last
year of war, American forces landed virtually unopposed on the main Philippine
island of Luzon. The defending Japanese commander – General Yamashita of
Malaya fame – correctly decided that defending a landing zone against the
Allies was hopeless in the face of massive American naval support. He instead
dug his overextended command into Luzon's three major mountainous zones and
forced his enemies to capture each piece of these fortified areas, tree by
tree, hill by hill. This long process allowed the Japanese to hold out
indefinitely within their mountain strongholds, although it also allowed much
of the remaining areas to come quickly under American control. The Japanese
naval commander at Manila went against Yamashita's wishes and along with his
17,000 naval infantry, he fought it out with the Americans. This of course
caused many thousands of civilians to be killed in the process.
On
February 19, the U.S. Marines entered into their bloodiest battle on the tiny
island of Iwo Jima, which lay half way between the Marianas Islands and the
Japanese mainland. At a cost of 5,000 American and 20,000 Japanese dead, Iwo
Jima was finally secured in time for the landings on Okinawa, which began on
April 1. Shortly before this American B-29 bombers started their famous fire
raids on Japanese industrial targets. The very nature of the firebombing caused
enormous civilian casualties, but this was considered thoroughly acceptable at
the time due to the brutal manner in which Japanese occupation forces were
known to have behaved, especially in China where an estimated 8,000,000 Chinese
civilians died. Also, it had been discovered that much of Japan's light war
industry was scattered through countless small shops dispersed amongst the
large suburban city districts. Entire cities had become industrial
targets.
In early April, the Japanese response to the Okinawa landings
arrived in the form of a colossal suicide air-sea campaign which involved no
less than the entire naval and army air fleets of southern Japan. Hundreds of
aircrews went into the fire along with Japan's prize vessel, the IJN Yamato,
the largest warship in the world. All of this however, failed in its goal of
destroying the U.S. fleet. In fact, although the number of damaged and sunk
Allied vessels was indeed great, none of the largest American aircraft carriers
were sunk, and many of those damaged were returned to service.
| Invasion of Iwo Jima |
 |
On April 12 American President Franklin D. Roosevelt
died and for a time the morale of the Axis governments was buoyed by this news
- hoping against hope that it would allow some kind of political intervention.
But that hope was short lived. Allied business continued as before and in May
the Japanese government learned of Germany's surrender. This left Japan's
forces alone against the world as it attempted to defend an empire racked by
bombing, famine and supply shortages of every kind. By this time news came in
from every front telling of Japanese defeats: in Burma the British Army
recaptured Rangoon and on Okinawa the Americans cornered the remaining Japanese
forces despite a brutal campaign reminiscent of World War One.
Imperial
Japan's armed forces prepared for the inevitable invasion of the Japanese
islands which they believed must come. For many military commanders this was
viewed as the ultimate trump card for Japan's defense. The mobilization of the
entire Japanese population of 100 million – each of them willing to
exchange their life for that of an invader – and the million troops still
in Manchuria. It was hoped that these potent forces would allow the Japanese
government to continue the war for another year whilst negotiations continued
in a attempt to renew their non-aggression pact with the Soviet
Union.
Despite these hopes, the Japanese peace party which had been so
ardently suppressed during the early war again began to make its presence
known. The more persuasive of them put forth questions which were not easily
answered by army commanders who controlled much of the decision making. "What"
they asked "will happen if the Americans simply firebomb us for the next
several years? What then?" Nobody had answers to these questions, and the
knowledge that the Allies might consider options other than a costly invasion
allowed those in favor of peace to begin advancing their agendas.
The
agenda of the entire country was dramatically changed on the morning of August
6, when a lightly escorted B-29 bomber flew over the industrial city of
Hiroshima and dropped a powerful new weapon called an atomic bomb. The
resulting shock, heat wave and radiation killed tens of thousands of people who
were in the downtown area at the time. Although the casualties caused by the
bombing were less than those suffered during the Tokyo firebombings shortly
before, the knowledge that it was caused by a single bomb was sobering even to
the most ardent conservative. The density of casualties caused by this bomb was
four times that of firebombing, and it could be delivered by a single aircraft.
Sensitive to the fact that American aircraft could fly where they
wished over all of Japan, the country attempted to assess what had occurred
over Hiroshima. Then another of these fearsome weapons was detonated over the
city of Nagasaki. Again, tens of thousands were killed, confirming the ability
of the United States to successfully build and deliver these horrifying new
weapons at-will. That same day the Soviet Union opened a massive multi-pronged
offensive against Japanese forces in Manchuria. During the course of the next
week the Soviets used their better armor and air capabilities to rout Japanese
forces in advances that were difficult for the Japanese to believe. Their
forces opposing the Red Army were losing men by the hundreds of thousands with
not nearly enough damage inflicted in return to make up for their loss. They
began losing control of the mainland at a breathtaking pace.
| Nagasaki : The second A-bomb |
 |
The entry of Russia into the war with Japan and the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki spelled doom for Japan's trump card of
national mobilization. Now the United States could pummel Japanese civilization
into extinction without even setting foot on their soil, and the mainland
forces over in China could no longer intervene. Indeed the later seemed bound
for speedy extinction. All of this undeniably bad news allowed those in favor
of peace – including Japanese Emperor Hirohito – to have their way
and on August 15, 1945, the Emperor announced to his nation that it would
surrender "in order to save mankind" from nuclear oblivion. So powerful was the
Japanese military, and so deep was their conviction of ultimate victory or
stalemate, that even at this point the Emperor barely managed to convince many
officers to stand down and accept surrender. Many of them committed suicide
rather than accept the disgrace and others took days to convince of the
finality of the Imperial decision. In some areas there was armed mutiny. The
final surrender was signed on board the American battleship Missouri in Tokyo
Harbor, ushering in a long period of recovery for all of the nations
involved.
"Our navy has lost the war by "battling"
instead of "warring." This fatal confusion was due in my judgement to our
erroneous education. To point out what should have been the right education is
idle effort. Our navy is no more. The verdict was severe. In conclusion I wish
to mention just one thing. And that is that education is important, really very
important."
Masataka Chihaya
March, 1946
Epilogue World War
Two in Asia and the Pacific was fought over the largest area of any conflict in
history. Japanese submarines bombarded the California coast, and their aircraft
carriers raided harbors and sank British shipping off the coast of India. The
expanse of land and sea which lay between these places encompasses half of the
planet, a testament to the determination of both sides of the conflict. The
country which suffered most during this harrowing time was China, who by war's
end counted over 13 million dead, most of them civilians. During the course of
their effort, Japan lost over 2 million dead, mostly military. After the war,
East Asia continued to face many long years of recovery, and in many cases,
post cold-war or colonial violence which continues to roil at the surface of
human affairs.
Over the long expanse of Pacific waters between Asia,
Australia and North America, the islands which came to fame during the war have
slowly drifted out of public consciousness. Places with odd names like
Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Siam were the center of the universe for a world at
war, and everyone talked of the latest news there. Little has changed in many
of these places since the war swept over them and much about the war has been
forgotten. Hopefully enough is remembered to prevent a repeat of the sorts of
mistakes and miscalculations that lead to this tremendous
catastrophe.
|
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}