Pacific Theater
April, 1942 – Battle of Coral Sea
* Blocked Japanese advance to Australia
* No enemy ships came within sight of each other
June, 1942 – Battle of Midway – Turning Point of the War
* U.S. decoded Japanese messages and trapped Japanese forces
instead of other way around
*U.S. lost only one carrier and 150 planes compared to 4 carriers and 322 planes
for Japan
*Japan on defense the rest of the war
August, 1942 – Solomon Islands
February, 1943 – Guadalcanal
• most important of Solomon islands
November, 1943 – Tarawa
• largest of the Gilbert Islands
• 5,000 Marines landed (1,000 killed, 2000 wounded)
• only 17 of 4,500 Japanese survived
Summer, 1944 – Saipan, Tinian, Guam, and Battle of Philippine Sea
• Mariana Islands
• Japanese naval airpower virtually destroyed
• U.S. now close enough to bomb Japan directly
October, 1944 – Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Japanese military strength severely crippled
• Largest naval battle in history
February, 1945 – Iwo Jima
• inspired famous memorial in Washington, D.C.
April, 1945 – Okinawa
• lasted two months
• only 11,000 of 110,000 Japanese survived
• Japanese pilots started kamikaze attacks (24 U.S. ships lost)
July, 1945 – Potsdam Conference (Germany)
• Truman warned Japan to surrender or face “prompt and utter destruction”
• Japan rejected ultimatum
6 August 1945 – Atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the Enola Gay
9 August 1945 – Atomic bombing of Nagasaki
15 August 1945 – Emperor Hirohito announced end to fighting and intention to surrender
(over the radio)
2 September 1945 – official Japanese surrender (“V-J Day”)