870 ★ CHAPTER 22 Fighting for the Four Freedoms: World War IIthe Japanese navy in the Battle of Midway Island. American codebreakers had
managed to decipher the Japanese communications code, so the navy was fore-
warned about the timing of the assault at Midway and prepared an ambush for
the attacking fleet. In the battle, four Japanese aircraft carriers, along with other
vessels, were destroyed. Midway was the turning point of the Pacific naval war.
The victories there and in the Coral Sea allowed American forces to launch the
bloody campaigns that one by one drove the Japanese from fortified islands like
Guadalcanal and the Solomons in the western Pacific and brought American
troops ever closer to Japan.The War in Europe
The “Grand Alliance” of World War II in Europe brought together the United
States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, each led by an iron-willed,TokyoPekingHongKongCantonShanghaiNankingSaigonBangkok ManilaRangoonSingaporeMoresbPortyDecember 7, 1941Pearl HarborMidwJune 3–6, 1942ayGuadalcAugust 1942–Fanalebruary 1943Coral SeaMay 7–8,
1942Leyte GulfOctober 23–26, 1944HiroshimaAugust 6, 1945
NagasakiAugust 9, 1945GuamJuly 21, 1944FRENCH PHILIPPINES
SIAMINDOCHINAMALAYABURMADUTCH EAST INDIESSakhalinIslandIslandsK urilIslands (UHawaiian.S.)CaIslandsr olineSoloman GilbertIslands
IslandsMarshallIslandsMarianaIslandsBorneoF ormosaGuineaNewS u m a t r
a JavaA ttuKiska Aleutian^ Islands^(U.S.)TokyoVladivostock
PekingHongKongCantonShanghaiNanking
ChungkingSaigonBangkok ManilaRangoonSingaporeMoresbPortyDecember 7, 1941Pearl HarborMidwJune 3–6, 1942ayGuadalcAugust 1942–Fanalebruary 1943Coral SeaMay 7–8,
1942Leyte GulfOctober 23–26, 1944HiroshimaAugust 6, 1945
NagasakiAugust 9, 1945GuamJuly 21, 1944FRENCH PHILIPPINES
SIAMINDOCHINAMALAYABURMAMANCHURIAKOREAAUSTRALIACHINADUTCH EAST INDIESSOVIET UNIONMONGOLIAJAPANSakhalinIslandIslandsK urilIslands (UHawaiian.S.)CaIslandsr olineSolomon GilbertIslands
IslandsMarshallIslandsMarianaIslandsBorneoF ormosaGuineaNewS u m a t r
a JavaA ttuKiska Aleutian^ Islands^(U.S.)Coral
SeaPacific
OceanIndian
Ocean
0
0750
7501,500 miles
1,500 kilometersMajor battleAtomic bomb
Extent of Japanese control
Allied forcesWORLD WAR II IN THE PACIFIC, 1941–1945Although the Japanese navy never fully recovered from its defeats at the Coral Sea and Midway in
1942, it took three more years for American forces to near the Japanese homeland.