Introduction to War with Japan - 1941-1942
Pearl Harbor. Eight of the 15 battleships of the U.S. Navy were at Pearl Harbor when Japanese carriers launched their planes on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The attack came as a surprise. The greatest loss was to the fleet of battleships. The Arizona was destroyed and the Oklahoma capsized. The West Virginia and California were sunk in shallow water and the Nevada was beached. Three cruisers and three destroyers were damaged. The fleet's carriers, by a stroke of good fortune, were at sea and escaped the attack.
The Japanese and American navies fought each other through the air.The Pearl Harbor attack put the United States Pacific fleet temporarily out of actionmost of the ships were eventually refloated and repairedallowing Japan to proceed with its conquests with comparative ease. But Pearl Harbor also had a harmful effect on Japanit instantly united the American people behind the war effort, dashing all Japanese hopes for a negotiated peace.
Investigations of the Pearl Harbor disaster showed that the United States government was aware of the possibility of a Japanese attack, but had not considered Hawaii a probable target and had not definitely warned the command there. A radar warning on the spot was ignored.
The Japanese made simultaneous attacks at many other points. Guam fell on December 10. Wake Island, heroically defended by its Marine garrison, was taken on December 23. The British surrendered Hong Kong on Christmas Day. Air attacks on the Philippines severely damaged the defending air force.
The Fall of Singapore
Japan opened its attack on the Malay peninsula through Indochina and Thailand (which signed an alliance with Japan in December) and by a series of landings along the coast. In trying to stop one of these landings the British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse were sunk by Japanese planes on December 10. The capture of Kuala Lumpur on January 10, 1942, gave the Japanese an air base within easy reach of the British colony of Singapore. Crack Japanese troops led by General Yamashita Tomoyuki made a remarkable advance through the dense jungles of the Malay peninsula and attacked Singapore. Singapore's main defenses faced the sea and the Japanese attacked the city from the land side, forcing it to surrender on February 15.
The Philippines
Japanese forces landed at Aparri on December 10, 1941, at Legazpi on the 12th, and at Lingayen Gulf on the 22nd. They then began an advance on Manila. General Douglas MacArthur, commanding American and Filipino forces, abandoned Manila on January 2, 1942, and fell back onto the Bataan peninsula. Repeated Japanese attacks were repulsed and MacArthur's counterattacks regained lost ground.
In January General Homma Masaharu began an attack that gradually pushed back the Americans and Filipinos, whose supplies were running low. The Bataan fight ended on April 9. Corregidor, an island fort in Manila Bay, held out until May 6, when it was surrendered by Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright, MacArthur's successor. MacArthur, who had been ordered to Australia, left the Philippines with the promise, "I shall return."
Burma
The Japanese crossed the Burma frontier on December 11, 1941, and struck at Moulmein, which fell at the end of January. The American Volunteer Group, or Flying Tigers, a group of volunteer pilots under Brigadier General Claire L. Chennault, had been aiding China before the United States entered the war. Now the Flying Tigers joined the fighting in Burma and did heavy damage to the invaders, but were not strong enough to affect the result.
Rangoon fell on March 7, 1942. The Burma Road was closed with the capture of its terminus, Lashio, on April 29. Mandalay was taken on May 1. British forces and two Chinese divisions retreated to India. The Chinese were commanded by an American officer, Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell, who was serving as Chiang Kai-shek's chief of staff.
East Indies
The Japanese occupied Sarawak on December 16, 1941. They attacked Borneo and Celebes in January, 1942. A fleet of Japanese transports was damaged by air attacks and a night attack by four United States destroyers in Makassar Strait on January 23 and 24, but the Japanese invasion was little hindered. Far to the east Japanese landings were made on New Britain and New Ireland, threatening Australia.
Java was the key to the Netherlands East Indies. Therefore combined British, Dutch, American, and Australian naval forces, under Rear Admiral W. F. M. Doorman of the Dutch navy, were concentrated in an effort to halt the impending Japanese invasion of the island. The Battle of the Java Sea, February 27-28, was a disaster to the Allies, who lost 5 cruisers and 14 other ships. Japanese landings were made on Java and its conquest was completed by March 9.
First Bombing of Tokyo
On April 18, from the carrier Hornet, Colonel James H. Doolittle led 16 B-25 bombers in a raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The raid succeeded in its main purposeto raise American moralebut did little serious damage. When asked what base the bombers had used, President Roosevelt replied "Shangri-La," a fictional country in James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon. Later a United States aircraft carrier was named Shangri-La.
Battle of the Coral Sea
Early in 1942 Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the American naval commander in the Pacific, organized a series of raids by carrier task forces. They struck at the Marshall and Gilbert islands on February 1, 1942; at Wake on February 24; and at Marcus Island on March 4.
These strikes culminated in the Battle of the Coral Sea, May 4-8, the first sea battle ever fought where the opposing fleets never came within sight of each other, as all the attacks were made by aircraft from carriers. The Japanese had sent a huge invasion fleet into the Coral Sea to attempt a landing at Port Moresby, New Guinea, a step towards a possible invasion of Australia. A task force of American and Australian ships was sent to intercept the Japanese. In a series of attacks, while the fleets were 180 miles (290 km) apart, United States carrier planes sank the carrier Shoho and a destroyer and seriously damaged the carrier Shokaku and a cruiser. Japanese airplanes sank the carrier Lexington. The Japanese were forced to call off the invasion of Port Moresby. This was the first time their advance had been checked in the southern Pacific.
The Battle of Midway
After their setback in the Coral Sea, the Japanese sought to draw off American strength by a feint against Alaska, while massing a heavy concentration of forces for an attack on Midway Island. The U.S. Navy had broken the Japanese naval code, however, and was aware of the Japanese plan.
Again a long-range carrier battle was fought. It began on June 4, 1942. When it was over on June 6 the Japanese had lost four carriers and one cruiser; the United States had lost the carrier Yorktown and one destroyer. The Japanese also suffered the loss of many of their finest pilots. Midway was the effective turning point in the naval war in the Pacific.
On June 3, the Japanese attempted to invade Dutch Harbor, a settlement in the Aleutian Archipelago in Alaska. They were driven back by heavy American air raids, but occupied Attu and Kiska islands during their retreat. This was the only time that Japanese troops occupied American soil during the war. In May, 1943, a U.S. Army landing was made on Attu and the Japanese garrison was wiped out. A landing was made on Kiska on August 15, 1943, but the Japanese had already withdrawn.
Guadalcanal
Following the victory of Midway, the United States prepared its first major offensive. On August 7, 1942, the First Marine Division landed at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands, and seized a nearly completed airport there. At the same time the nearby islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo were seized.
The invasion suffered a serious blow the following night when Japanese naval forces in the Battle of Savo Island sank the American cruisers Astoria, Quincy, and Vincennes, and the Australian cruiser Canberra. Japanese reinforcements were landed, and the Marine division fought a series of desperate encounters to hold the airport. The American carrier Wasp was sunk by a submarine while supporting the Guadalcanal operation, and the Hornet was lost in a carrier battle near the Santa Cruz Islands. For a time the Enterprise was the only American carrier active in the Pacific.
American forces, including the new battleships South Dakota and Washington, fought a decisive series of engagements known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, November 12-15. The Japanese lost 2 battleships, a heavy cruiser, 3 destroyers, and 11 transports. The United States lost 3 light cruisers and 7 destroyers. Guadalcanal was secured on February 9, 1943.
New Guinea
The Japanese seized Rabaul on New Britain Island on January 23, 1942. This made a valuable base for their attack on New Guinea, which came on March 8 at Salamaua and Lae. Their control of the northern coast was extended to Finschhafen two days later and a drive was started toward Port Moresby, across the island. The Japanese were stopped by the almost impassable mountain roads and tried again from Buna and Gona, farther down the coast. The failure of the Japanese to take Port Moresby lessened the military threat to Australia.
General MacArthur organized a counter-stroke from Australia. Australian troops under General Thomas Blamey advanced up the difficult trails, taking Kagi on October 5, 1942, and Kokoda on November 2. While the Australians were fighting for these points, two United States divisions were landed near Buna and Gona to aid the Australians. Gona fell to the Australians on December 1 and Buna to the Americans on December 14. The capture of Sanananda Point on January 22, 1943, completed the destruction of Japanese forces under General Horii Tomitaro.Important dates in the Pacific: 1943-1945.