World War and the Growth of Global Power 259vivors. Nimitz effectively attacked Japanese forces in the Marshalls, gaining
control in February 1944, and moved on to the Mariana Islands, one of the
few areas still held by Japan [along with the Caroline and Palau Islands and
the Philippines]. There, from mid-June to early-July 1944, the U.S. pounded
Japanese soldiers in the Battle of Saipan and then destroyed the enemy fleet in
the Philippine Sea, which positioned the U.S. to strike at the Philippines and
threaten the Japanese oil supply from the East Indies, while using the Marianas
as a base for bomber attacks against Japan. The war, irrevocably, had turned
against Japan by mid-1944 and it was in retreat everywhere.
MacArthur was now ready to retake the Philippines but first had to endure
a rugged 2-month battle to root the Japanese out of the Palaus, which cost
the U.S. 2000 casualties. Meanwhile, naval aviators attacked Luzon, in the
Philippines, Formosa, one of China’s offshore islands, and the Ryukus, an
island just south of Japan and east of China. In those battles the U.S. shot
down over 500 Japanese planes while losing 79 American aircraft. On
October 20th, 1944 U.S. forces landed at the Leyte Gulf in the Philippines,
prompting MacArthur’s famous statement, “I have returned.” In the Leyte
Gulf, Japan set its entire fleet and used kamikaze tactics, deliberately flying
planes on suicide missions into American ships, but to little avail. The
Americans destroyed 4 Japanese carriers, 3 battleships, 6 heavy and 4 light
cruisers, 11 destroyers, and 500 planes. By February 1945, U.S. forces were
ready to enter the capital, Manila, where they fought against Japan street-to-
street, building-to-building, house-to-house for over 3 months, with over
100,000 civilians killed until the country was liberated in the spring of 1945.
In the northern Pacific, Nimitz invaded Iwo Jima on February 19th, a small
island about 650 miles south of Tokyo, both to eliminate Japanese fighter
planes from being based there and to use as an advance base for U.S. bombers
to hit the mainland. The fighting there continued into late March and was
brutal, with 6800 Americans killed and 19,000 wounded, and almost 19,000
of the 22,000 enemy forces dead.
Nimitz also went after Okinawa, about 750 miles south of the mainland, on
April 1st and the Japanese had 120,000 troops waiting. Desperate fighting
raged for 6 weeks and Japan made its last stand, until the battle ended in June.
The U.S. suffered 12,000 killed and about 36,000 wounded but almost the
entire Japanese force was killed. At the same time, the U.S. unleashed a savage
air war against Japan. Under the command of General Curtis LeMay [whom