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WAR AGAINST JAPAN 205

US strategy

US command in

the Pacific War was

divided between General Douglas

MacArthur in the south-west Pacific sector,

where the US Army predominated, and Admiral Chester

Nimitz in the central and South Pacific, where the US

Marines and the US Navy led the charge. Nimitz’s island-

hopping strategy across the central Pacific toward Japan

proved most decisive. The Marines employed a range of

new amphibious equipment in a series of landings on

Japanese-held islands, which fell one by one, despite a

defense-to-the-death mounted by their outnumbered

garrisons. When the Japanese navy tried to intervene

against the US landings on the Pacific island of Saipan in

June 1944, it found that its carrier aircraft and pilots had

ceased to be any match for their American opponents.

The Philippines campaign

Meanwhile, MacArthur’s forces sidestepped Japanese

strongpoints, such as Rabaul in New Guinea, to begin the

reconquest of the Philippines. The naval battle of Leyte

Gulf, fought during the

Philippine landings in

October 1944, destroyed

the Japanese Imperial Navy

as an effective fighting force.

Fighting spirit

Despite Japan’s inferior military resources, there was no

decline in its martial spirit. In spring 1944, Japanese troops

from Burma invaded British India, and they mustered half a

million men for one of the largest offensives of its long war

in China. On the Pacific islands, US casualties mounted,

and on Saipan, the Americans were shocked by the mass

suicide of Japanese civilians and soldiers, who chose death

over surrender. By autumn 1944, the US conquest of the

Mariana Islands provided a

Pacific base for America’s

new B-29 bombers to attack

the Japanese mainland,

and the balance of forces

in favor of the US and

its allies had become

overwhelming.

◁ Operations in China

Japanese soldiers pose on their Type

97 medium tank during the 1944

Ichigo offensive in China. The

operation showed the unbroken

fighting strength of the Japanese army.

▽ Battle of Leyte Gulf

Ships of the US Navy’s Fast Carrier

Task Force 38 sail in line astern at the

battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.

Deploying 36 carriers of all types, the

US managed to regain the Philippines.

DEC FEB 1944 APR JUN AUG OCT DEC

Jan 31, 1944

Beginning of US

campaign in the

Marshall Islands

at Kwajalein

Jun 15, 1944 First

B-29 bombing raid on

Japan from bases in

China; US landings on

Saipan in the Marianas

Jul 18, 1944 Japanese

premier Hideki Tojo

resigns after fall of Saipan

Oct 20, 1944

Successful American

landings on Luzon,

Philippines

Jul 21, 1944

US troops land

on Guam in

the Marianas

Oct 25, 1944

Japanese naval

air force adopts

kamikaze tactics

Nov 24, 1944 First

US bombing raid on

Japan from bases in

the Mariana Islands

Nov 10, 1943 US landings

on Tarawa and Makin in the

Gilbert Islands

Apr 2, 1944 Japanese

begin siege of Imphal and

Kohima in northeast India

Apr 17, 1944 Japanese

launch major Ichigo

campaign in China

Jun 20, 1944 Japanese

forces begin withdrawal

from India into Burma

Jun 19–20, 1944

Much of Japanese naval

aviation destroyed

in Battle of the

Philippine Sea

Oct 23–26, 1944

Japan suffers crippling

naval losses in the

Battle of Leyte Gulf

“I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God our forces

stand again on Philippine soil ...”

GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, SPEECH AT LEYTE, PHILIPPINES,

OCTOBER 17, 1944

Aug–Dec, 1944

White and black

US marines

clash on Guam

US_204-205_N_War_Against_Japan.indd 205 24/05/19 1:17 PM