WWII's+Pacific+Theater+3rd+Period

=__World War II's Pacific Theatre__= =In World War II's Pacific Theatre many things were going on. Specifically Carrier Warfare and the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. Also, the brutality of the fighting between America and Japan. Island Hopping and the Bombing Campaigns were also a big part of World War II's Pacific Theatre. In the next sections, these ideas will be discussed throughout the next pages.=

__** Brutal fighting between America and Japan **__
- If you thought the Russian Front between 1941-45 is synonymous with brutal war, then you have not heard about the Japanese brutality. We all have seen images of a Japanese soldier beheading an allied soldier with his sword. All this seems kid stuff when we go into details of inhuman savagery of Japanese soldiers during WW2. Tensions between the U.S. and Japan had been escalating for several years over America's displeasure at the brutal war Japan was waging in China. The U.S. gave moral support to the Chinese, including the fateful act of cutting off sales of oil, tin, and scrap metals to Japan's industry. As Japan had no oil resources of her own, the Japanese government looked to their south at the lucrative oil fields of the Dutch East Indies. In 1940, Nazi Germany conquered the Dutch homeland in Europe, leaving the Dutch colonies in Asia in a very lonely and exposed position

__** Carrier Warfare- Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway ** __
====-The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought on May seventh and eighth of 1942 in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea. Though the Japanese could rightly claim a tactical victory on many battles, it was an operational and strategic defeat for them, the first major check on the great offensive they had begun five months earlier at Pearl Harbor. The diversion of Japanese resources represented by the Coral Sea battle would also have immense consequences a month later, at the Battle of Midway. This Japanese operation included two seaborne invasion forces, a minor one targeting Tulagi and the main one aimed at Port Moresby. The main action of this battle was to capture Port Moresby. ====

- Japanese aircraft carrier is torpedoed during attacks by U.S. Navy

==== -The Battle of Midway was fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll. This battle represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive. ====

-S cene on board USS Yorktown shortly after she was hit by three Japanese bombs.

__** Island Hopping **__
-The Americans attacked the Solomon Islands and brought the U.S. Army onto the island of Guadalcanal. The First Marine Division followed heavy shelling and landed on the northern beaches. During the first few weeks of 1943, the Americans brought in fresh troops and strengthened their hold on Guadalcanal. The Japanese held off five American battalions for a month. They then evacuated 13,000 men from the island. Allies began building landing strips. -The island of Iwo Jima was a very important island for the Americans to take over. It made B-29s able to bomb Japan's mainland. On February 19th, 1945, the U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima after 10 weeks of bombing. 70,000 U.S. Marines charged the beaches of Iwo Jima. It was then that 27,000 Japanese defenders came out of underground tunnels and caves. This battle lasted 36 days. 6,281 American soldiers and more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed. ==

**__Strategic Bombing of WWII:__**
The strategic bombing was basically an ariel bombardment that lasted between 1939 and 1945 involving any nations in between. in cluding military forces, railways, harbors, cities, and industrial areas. the strategic bombing failed to destroy enemy morale and it did not render a ground war unnecessary. The theater included most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, excluding the Philippines, Australia, the Netherlands East Indies, the Territory of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Pacific Ocean theater also excluded China and mainland Southeast Asia. It gets its name after March 30, 1942 when it became the major Allied command in the theater, known simply as "Pacific Ocean Areas".

-The B-29 was the super fortress of world war 2 media type="youtube" key="7_Aj9Jw5MXo" height="349" width="425"
 * Length: 99 ft.
 * Wingspan: 141 ft. 3 in.
 * Height: 29 ft. 7 in.
 * Wing Area: 1,736 sq. ft.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: disc; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 18px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">Empty Weight: 74,500 lbs.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: disc; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 18px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">Loaded Weight: 120,000 lbs.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: disc; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 18px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">Maximum Takeoff Weight: 133,500 lbs.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: disc; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 18px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">Crew: 11

__**//Conclusion://**__ The pacific theater fought the Japanese in a very brutal war and had very good strategies such as island hopping and attacking beaches after bombing them for long periods of time. The carriers were also very important in the war. They helped bring planes closer to Japan and other islands so that they could bomb them with ease. This was one of the most brutal wars of WWII.

Sources: http://johnsmilitaryhistory.com/carriertactics.html http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/b29.html http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1671.html