Island Hopping
1942-43 in the Pacific
- At the same time as Pearl Harbor (Dec. 1941) the Japanese attack, Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dutch East Indies (oil)
- Battle of Coral Seas (May 1942) (First Battle where aircrafts carriers do not see each other)
- Battle of Midway June, 1942 Japanese lose 4 carriers to U.S. 1
- A process of Island hopping begins in the Pacific (Guadalcanal)
- Battle of Leyte Gulf (Philippines) Oct. 1944 (Largest naval battle ever in history) Japanese lose have of their remaining fleet and 4 more carriers (kamikazes begin)
"Suddenly everything went black. A storm raged inside me. I felt like a fool for having been so tense and cautious on the way here. Worse than that, what had I been doing for all these years?"
- Onada (A japanese soldier who continued fighting for 29 years after the war ended because he did not know the war ended and couldn't believe Japan would surrender)
- Onada (A japanese soldier who continued fighting for 29 years after the war ended because he did not know the war ended and couldn't believe Japan would surrender)
FUN FACT: The island hopping operation was code named "Cartwheel"
Subjunctive Question
Would the allies have been successful if they had tried to attack every island?
Summary
Instead of trying to take over all the islands, the strategy was to simply skip some of the islands and let the japanese on them die off because of lack of resources.