1. Japan’s Pacific Campaign Chapter 32 - Section 2

2. June 1942 Dec. 1941 May 1942 Apr-Jul 1945 Feb-Mar 1945 Oct 1944
Jul-Aug 1944
Aug Feb 1943
May 1942

3. Pearl Harbor- December 7 1941
Japan develops a plan for attack on the European colonies of Southeast Asia and American found out by cracking the codes and began to send aid to Chinese resistance (they were fighting the Japanese who had invaded in 1931)
1941- Roosevelt cuts off oil to Japan
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor forcing the US to declare war on Japan
Main article: Attack on Pearl Harbor
Aircraft and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy began a surprise attack on the U.S. under the command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The attack was devastating in loss of life and damage to the U.S. fleet. At 6:05 a.m. on December 7, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 183 planes composed mainly of dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters.[5] The Japanese hit American ships and military installations at 7:51 a.m. The first wave attacked military airfields of Ford Island. At 8:30 a.m. a second wave of 180 Japanese planes, mostly torpedo bombers, attacked the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The battleship Arizona was hit with an armor piercing bomb which penetrated the forward ammunition compartment, blowing the ship apart and sinking it within seconds. Overall, nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and 21 ships were severely damaged. Three of the 21 would be irreparable. The overall death toll reached 2,350, including 68 civilians, and 1,178 injured. Of the military personnel lost at Pearl Harbor, 1,177 were from the Arizona. The first shots fired were from the USS Ward (DD-139) on a midget submarine that had surfaced outside of Pearl Harbor; the Ward did successfully sink the midget sub at approximately 6:55, about an hour before the assault on Pearl Harbor.

4. December 7th
Within 2 hours of the attack- Japan had sunk or damaged 19 ships and more than 2,300 Americans were killed
The next day Roosevelt addressed congress and asked for war!

5. Japanese Victories Japanese attack the Philippine Islands
Philippines fall in 1942 under the
command of Admiral Yamamoto
General MacArthur vows
“I shall return”
Japan begins capturing British holdings including Hong Kong, Singapore and Dutch East Indies
Japanese treated captured people brutally

6. Bataan Death March
70,00 Allied prisoners were marched 50 miles up the Bataan Peninsula of the Philippines. Many were beaten and killed during the march- only 54,000 survived the march
Prisoners were attacked for assisting someone failing due to weakness, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. Strings of Japanese trucks were known to drive over anyone who fell. Riders in vehicles would casually stick out a rifle bayonet and cut a string of throats in the lines of men marching alongside the road. Accounts of being forcibly marched for five to six days with no food and a single sip of water are in postwar archives including filmed reports.
The Bataan Death March (also known as The Death March of Bataan) took place in the Philippines in 1942 and was later accounted as a Japanese war crime. The 80-mile (97 km) march occurred after the three-month Battle of Bataan, part of the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42), during World War II. In Japanese, it is known as Batān Shi no Kōshin (バターン死の行進 ?), with the same meaning.
Contents
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The fall of Bataan
The Death March
Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan
War crimes trial
Commemorations
Memorials
See also
References
Web
The march, involving the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war[1] captured by the Japanese in the Philippines from the Bataan peninsula to prison camps, was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon the prisoners and civilians along the route by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan. Beheadings, cut throats and casual shootings were the more common and merciful actions — compared to bayonet stabbings, rapes, disembowelments, numerous rifle butt beatings and a deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water while keeping them continually marching for nearly a week (for the slowest survivors) in tropical heat. Falling down, unable to continue moving was tantamount to a death sentence, as was any degree of protest or expression of displeasure.
Route of the death march. Section from San Fernando to Capas was by rail.
Prisoners were attacked for assisting someone failing due to weakness, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. Strings of Japanese trucks were known to drive over anyone who fell. Riders in vehicles would casually stick out a rifle bayonet and cut a string of throats in the lines of men marching alongside the road. Accounts of being forcibly marched for five to six days with no food and a single sip of water are in postwar archives including filmed reports.[2]
The exact death count has been impossible to determine, but some historians have placed the minimum death toll between six and eleven thousand men; whereas other postwar Allied reports have tabulated that only 54,000 of the 72,000 prisoners reached their destination— taken together, the figures document a casual killing rate of one in four up to two in seven (25% to 28.5%) of those brutalized by the forcible march. The number of deaths that took place in the internment camps from delayed effects of the march is uncertain, but believed to be high.[2] One of the last remaining US commanders who survived the Bataan Death March, Dr. Lester Tenney, was interviewed at Hitotsubashi University in June 2008.[3][4]

7. The Allies Strike Back Doolittle Raids
Lt. Col. Doolittle wires a Japanese medal to a bomb, for "return" to its originators
The Allies Strike Back
Doolittle Raids
US bomber attack Tokyo and other Japanese cities
raid is not very successful

8. June 1942 Dec. 1941 May 1942 Apr-Jul 1945 Feb-Mar 1945 Oct 1944
Jul-Aug 1944
Aug Feb 1943
May 1942

9. Battle of Coral Sea
Battle of Coral Sea- Americans stop the Japanese advance beginning may 194
New kind of fighting- done by air planes- not ships
Allies suffered the most losses but considered it a victory
Japanese put on the defensive
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought between May 4 – May 8, 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Allied forces of the United States Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. It was also the first naval battle in history in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other.
In an attempt to strengthen their defensive positioning for their empire in the South Pacific, Imperial Japanese forces decided to invade and occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the southeastern Solomon Islands. The plan to accomplish this, called Operation Mo, involved several major units of Japan's Combined Fleet, including two fleet carriers and a light carrier to provide air cover for the invasion fleets, under the overall command of Shigeyoshi Inoue. The United States (US) learned of the Japanese plan through signals intelligence and sent two carrier task forces and a joint Australian-American cruiser force, under the overall command of Frank Jack Fletcher, to oppose the Japanese offensive.
On May 3 and 4, Japanese forces successfully invaded and occupied Tulagi, although several of their supporting warships were surprised and sunk or damaged by aircraft from the US fleet carrier Yorktown. Now aware of the presence of US carriers in the area, the Japanese fleet carriers entered the Coral Sea with the intention of finding and destroying the Allied naval forces.
Beginning on May 7, the carrier forces from the two sides exchanged airstrikes over two consecutive days. The first day, the US sank the Japanese light carrier Shōhō, while the Japanese sank a US destroyer and heavily damaged a fleet oiler (which later sank). The next day, the Japanese fleet carrier Shōkaku was heavily damaged, the US fleet carrier Lexington was sunk, and the Yorktown was damaged. With both sides having suffered heavy losses in aircraft and carriers damaged or sunk, the two fleets disengaged and retired from the battle area. Because of the loss of carrier air cover, Inoue recalled the Port Moresby invasion fleet, intending to try again later.
Although a tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk, the battle would prove to be a strategic victory for the Allies for several reasons. Japanese expansion, heretofore seemingly unstoppable, had been turned back for the first time. Even more importantly, the two Japanese fleet carriers were unable to participate in the Battle of Midway which took place the following month, ensuring a rough parity in aircraft between the two adversaries and contributing significantly to the US victory in that battle. The severe losses in carriers at Midway prevented the Japanese from reattempting to invade Port Moresby from the ocean. Two months later, the Allies took advantage of Japan's resulting strategic vulnerability in the South Pacific and launched the Guadalcanal Campaign, which along with the New Guinea Campaign, eventually broke Japanese defenses in the South Pacific and was a significant contributing factor to Japan's ultimate defeat in World War II.

10. June 1942 Dec. 1941 May 1942 Apr-Jul 1945 Feb-Mar 1945 Oct 1944
Jul-Aug 1944
Aug Feb 1943
May 1942

11. The Battle of Midway
Japanese sends powerful fleet to capture Midway Island
US destroys Japan’s navel fleet and Japan retreats
This was a key American air field
This battle turned the tide of the war
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle, widely regarded as the most important of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.[2][3][4] It took place from 4 June to 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese carrier force and seizing the strategic initiative.[5]
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, was aimed at the elimination of the United States as a strategic Pacific power, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was hoped another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to negotiate an end to the Pacific War on conditions favorable for Japan.[6]
The Japanese plan was designed to lure the United States' few remaining carriers into a trap.[7] The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway Atoll as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle Raid. This operation was considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji and Samoa. The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of American reaction and poor initial dispositions.[8]
American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser were sunk in exchange for one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. The heavy losses, particularly the four fleet carriers and their aircrews, permanently weakened the Imperial Japanese Navy.[9] Japan was unable to keep pace with American shipbuilding and pilot training programs in providing replacements.

12. June 1942 Dec. 1941 May 1942 Apr-Jul 1945 Feb-Mar 1945 Oct 1944
Jul-Aug 1944
Aug Feb 1943
May 1942

13. MacArthur’s Plan
Douglas MacArthur- American army commander in the Pacific
Plan- Island hopping past enemy strong holds an attack weaker Japanese bases
Battle of Guadalcanal- terrible battle that ends in an Allied victory
Lasted 6 months – Japan lost 24,000 out of 36,000 men
"Operation Watchtower" redirects here.
Guadalcanal campaignPart of the Pacific Theater of World War II November 1942-United States Marines, likely from the 2nd Marine Division, rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign.DateAugust 7, 1942 – February 9, 1943LocationGuadalcanal in the Solomon IslandsResultDecisive Allied victoryBelligerentsAllied forces including:  United States  Australia  New Zealand British Solomon Islands (Solomon Islander participation) [1]  Tonga[2] Fiji[3] Empire of JapanCommanders Robert Ghormley William Halsey, Jr. Richmond K. Turner Alexander Vandegrift Alexander Patch Isoroku Yamamoto Nishizo Tsukahara Jinichi Kusaka Hitoshi Imamura Harukichi HyakutakeStrength60,000 (ground forces)[4]36,200 (ground forces)[5]Casualties and losses7,100 killed 4 captured 29 ships lost 615 aircraft lost[6]31,000 killed 1,000 captured 38 ships lost 683–880 aircraft lost[7][show]
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Guadalcanal Campaign––––––––––––––––[show]
v • d • e
Solomon Islands campaign–Guadalcanal––––––––––––––––
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, was fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II. Fiercely contested on the ground, at sea, and in the air, the campaign was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.[8]
On August 7, 1942, Allied forces, predominantly composed of troops from the United States, initiated landings on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida (Nggela Sule) in the southern Solomon Islands with the objective of denying their use by Japanese forces as bases to threaten supply routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders, who had occupied the islands since May 1942, and captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as an airfield (later named Henderson Field) that was under construction by the Japanese on Guadalcanal.
Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November 1942 to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, five large naval battles, and continual, almost daily, aerial battles, culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November 1942, in which the last Japanese attempt to land enough troops to capture Henderson Field was defeated. In December 1942, the Japanese abandoned further efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their remaining forces by February 7, 1943.
The Guadalcanal campaign marked the first significant strategic combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theater. Furthermore, alongside the related Solomon Islands campaign which was contested concurrently, particularly around New Guinea, these marked the beginning of the transition by the Allies from defensive operations to the strategic offensive, while Japan was thereafter forced to cease strategic offensive operations and instead concentrate on defense. The prior Battle of Midway, despite being Japan's first decisive defeat, had not yet clearly shifted the direction and momentum of the Pacific as the Japanese continued their expansion moves in the South Pacific. For this reason, Guadalcanal is often referred to as the turning point in the Pacific War.[9]