Chronology of World War II in the Pacific

CHRONOLOGY:
F FROM PEARL HARBOR TO TOKYO BAY
DECEMBER 7, 1941:
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. The strike force, called First Air Fleet, was formed eight months earlier. The operation's planner, Admiral Yamamoto believed secrecy was the key, and the Japanese pilots could succeed, as they did against Russia by besieging its fleet at Port Arthur in 1904. Yamamoto has been described as swift and sarcastic in argument, bold and ingenious in battle. In concert with the Pearl Harbor strike, the Japanese bomb Guam, Wake, and Midway. 353 aircraft attack warships and aircraft. Prior to the attack, General George C. Marshall receives a decrypted message from Tokyo instructing the Japanese Ambassador to break off diplomatic relations Aat 1:00 p.m. on the seventh, your time. Marshall sends message to army commands in the Philippines, Hawaii, Panama, and San Francisco. All are received except the one to Hawaii, where atmospheric conditions and heavy static temporarily block the wireless channel to Honolulu. A Western Union telegram is sent, and a messenger on a motorcycle delivers it to General Walter T. Short's headquarters at Fort Shafter, but he receives it sixteen hours after the attack. The Japanese pilots fly so low people below can see them hunched, faceless under their helmets and oxygen masks. Some shake their fists in triumph. The Arizona sinks; men are wedged together so tightly they can't reach their guns as they watch their friends burn to death. US fleet and aircraft are destroyed. Dazed survivors search for family members while oily fire on the water illuminates the bodies floating on the surface like kelp.
DECEMBER 8, 1941:
US declares war on Japan with a single dissenting vote in Congress, cast by Jeanette Rankin, who also voted against World War 1. FDR asks Congress to declare war, and Douglas MacArthur announces he expects a Japanese attack on the Philippines around January 1, 1942. Churchill says, "So we have won after all . . .the Japanese will be ground to powder. Emperor Hirohito declares, We . . enjoin upon you, our loyal and brave subjects: We hereby declare war on the United States and the British Empire.
DECEMBER 9, 1941:
Japanese bomb the Philippines, destroying aircraft on Clark Field. MacArthur's Philippine fiasco is ignored, prompting General Claire Chennault to later write, "If I had been caught with my planes on the ground, I could never have looked my fellow officers squarely in the eye." Claire Booth Luce later wrote, When MacArthur told Brereton to" stand by and wait," Brereton said he was closer to weeping from sheer rage than he had ever been in his life.
MacArthur requests more troops to fend off an invasion, but only 15% of available forces are assigned to the Pacific at this time. When Roosevelt hears that MacArthur ignored his air commander who said to disperse the planes or use them to counterattack, he says in despair, "On the ground! On the ground! The planes were on the ground!"
DECEMBER 10, 1941:
Japanese occupy Tarawa and mount air attacks on Luzon, the Philippines.
DECEMBER 12, 1941:
Japanese troops invade Luzon.
DECEMBER 15, 1941:
Admiral Chester Nimitz appointed Pacific navy chief. He is the man who established the navy ROTC at the University of California. The boys practiced maneuvers on a cow-studded hill; Nimitz called them Battles of Cow Flop Hill. MacArthur will head the Southwestern Pacific operations. Geography is our only problem, MacArthur says; most Americans have never even been to Hawaii, let alone the Pacific beyond."
DECEMBER 23, 1941:
Japanese capture Wake Island. In Washington DC, a man chops down four Japanese cherry trees, which prompts the Central Park Zoo staff to change the Japanese deer sign to “Asiatic deer.”
DECEMBER 24, 1941:
7000 Japanese reinforce forces on Luzon; MacArthur again requests reinforcements but does not get them. The Pearl Harbor and Wake Island carriers Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku, and Soryu arrive in Kure on the Inland Sea. Every carrier receives an ovation for having “delivered a mighty blow for the Emperor.”
All over Dai Nippon (Great Japan) wild sake celebrations last through the night.
DECEMBER 25, 1941:
Hong Kong surrenders.
DECEMBER 30, 1941:
American forces are now at their last defensive line on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. Philippine President Quezon gives MacArthur $500,000.00 in appreciation for His support.
DECEMBER 31, 1941:
Japanese occupy Manila, capital of the Philippines. Churchill, visiting the US, says, "We have not come his far because we are made of sugar candy.

1942:

JANUARY 1, 1942
Declaration of Intention signed by 26 nations in Washington, DC for combining resources to defeat the Axis Powers. The so-called Arcadia Conference presages the post-war United Nations.
JANUARY 7, 1942:
President Roosevelt signs a budget to manufacture 125,000 aircraft, 75,000 tanks, 35,000 guns, 55,000 anti-aircraft guns, and eight million tons of shipping by the end of 1943.
JANUARY 11, 1942:
US carrier Saratoga attacked by Japanese submarine, "I- 6" near Hawaii. Japan invades Dutch East Indies. (Japanese submarines were called "I Boats," German submarines, "U Boats.")
JANUARY 15, 1942:
Japan starts major offensive in Burma
JANUARY 23, 1942:
Japanese land in New Britain, Borneo, New Ireland, and the Solomons. They focus on Rabaul in New Britain Island where they will commence work on a large naval and air base from which they can cut US-Australia supply lines and anchor the southern end of the defense perimeter.
FEBRUARY 1, 1942:
US naval forces attack Japanese naval bases in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. However, the Empire of Japan extends eastward to Wake, the Gilberts, Solomons, Marshalls, New Britain; south to New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines; west through most of China and Burma; north to the Aleutians.
FEBRUARY 15, 1942:
Singapore surrenders to Japan. The presumed unconquerable British stronghold, nicknamed "Gibralter of the Pacific," surrendered its garrison of 85,000 troops to a Japanese force of less than 40,000.
FEBRUARY 18, 1942:
General Walter Krueger is appointed commander of the US Sixth Army, "Born of War." He forms divisions, and the Fortieth Division becomes a Triangular Infantry Division. These men had been serving under General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, who said, “The Germans think the Japanese are yellow Aryans.” Stilwell now becomes Commander of the CBI Theater (China, Burma, and India).
FEBRUARY 22, 1942:
The red-faced recalcitrant, Col. Wendel Fertig ,inspires US troops to follow him to Mindanao and charmed Filipinos into joining his 30,000-man team. With brio and tenacity, they liberate the island far before MacArthur returns though the general forgets to mention it.
MacArthur commanded by Roosevelt to leave the Philippines for Australia; he brings along staff and friends. One Filipino, who later became an ambassador, said, “Sure, people went with him, even if they were dubious about it. He was the commander." In Freedom From Fear, David Kennedy writes, "As a face-saving measure – and as a prophylaxis against backlash from the general's many political friends – the President conferred on MacArthur the Congressional Medal of Honor."
He is appointed head of SWOPE, the Southwest Pacific Area: the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, and Papua. Admiral Nimitz controls the Pacific Ocean areas from the Solomons in the tropical southwest to the Aleutians in the frigid north; he assigns the southernmost sector (Guadalcanal) to Admiral Robert F. Ghormley. There is no overall theater command, which causes friction.
FEBRUARY 27: In the Battle of the Java Sea, a US-UK-Dutch-Australian fleet fails to halt Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies. British bases in Ceylon are bombed and a hundred thousand tons of shipping sunk. Remnants of the British Far Eastern Fleet head for North Africa, the Royal Australian navy to its home ports. The US Pacific Fleet unfortunately has not a single surviving battleship. Japan's eleven battleships, six large and four small carriers, and thirty-eight heavy and light cruisers are untouched.
MARCH 1, 1942:
US begins internment of Japanese Americans, called Neise. Subsequently, some fought in the US armed forces. Pfc. Ernest Uno, battling in Italy, writes his interned sister, Mae,
"I know for certain what we are fighting for! Our mission is to free all the nations of oppression. Give the children of this and the coming generations a chance to grow decently and learn the true meaning of the 'Four Freedoms.' "
MARCH 7, 1941:
Japanese enter Rangoon, capital of Burma.
MARCH 9, 1942:
Java surrenders to Japan. US formulates a Pacific policy, codenamed "Watchtower," with three phases: secure Guadalcanal and the southernmost Solomons, rid Papua of Japanese and proceed up the Solomons toward Rabaul, launch from Papua to New Britain Island.
MARCH 10, 1942:
US carriers Yorktown and Lexington arrive off New Guinea to send aircraft against Japanese ships in the area.
MARCH 11, 1942:
MacArthur leaves the Philippines vowing, "I shall return!" Realizing the general had faced a formidable opponent with insufficient forces, FDR awards him the Medal of Honor. The men who would fight in the Pacific needed a hero to rally them. Generals Marshall and Eisenhower are outraged. MacArthur will command SWOPE - the Southwest Pacific area - Australia, the Philippines, and New Guinea and Papua.
General Joseph, “Vinegar Joe,” Stillwell will command the CBI - China, Burma, and India Theater. Admiral Nimitz controls the Pacific Ocean areas from the Solomons in the tropical southwest to the Aleutians in the frigid north. Nimitz assigns the southernmost sector (Guadalcanal) to Admiral Robert F. Ghormley, who is soon replaced by Admiral "Bull" Halsey.
MARCH 12, 1942:
Japan in control of Solomons, but US building up Pacific naval presence; US troops land in New Calcedonia to build base.
APRIL 3, 1942:
Renewed Japanese bombing offensive on Luzon forces US withdrawal to Bataan.
APRIL 5, 1942:
Japanese planes raid Ceylon.
APRIL 9, 1942:
US troops surrender on Bataan and thousands die in the subsequent Bataan Death March.
APRIL 18, 1942:
Doolittle raid on Tokyo. The B-25 bombers used are land based, the first time they are launched from a carrier, the Hornet. Lt. Col. James Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other cities, then he and his men crash land in China.
APRIL 29, 1942:
Japanese reinforcements land on Mindinao and attack Filipino garrison; shelling on Corregidor continues.
MAY 2, 1942:
Japanese invade New Guinea and head for Port Moresby; A group of Australian nurses massacred by Imperial troops in Singapore. Admiral Nimitz sends ships to defend Australia. The Japanese send invasion forces from Rabaul to Port Moresby and Tulagi, but the US deciphers the naval code, JN-25, and rushes a task force to intercept the invaders, and the Battle of the Coral Sea begins.
MAY 4, 1942:
US aircraft from carrier Yorktown attack a Japanese seaplane base at Tulagi in the Solomons. FDR creates the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.
MAY 8, 1942:
In the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese suffer their first reversal in their advance across the Pacific. For the first time, all the fighting is done by carrier-based aircraft. Though the engagement is minor to the Japanese, it inspires the Imperial command to speculate about where the expected US counterblow will occur.
MAY 14, 1942:
US code breaker Agnes Meyer Driscoll learns of planned Japanese invasion of Midway. Yamamoto envisioned war against the US as being a naval one, and that was also the gist of the American WPO (War Plan Orange) that had for years outlined conflict with Japan in the Pacific, should it occur. This was a good moment to take Midway, as the Japanese navy, the world's strongest, far outweighed the American. The US effort to crack Japanese codes is known as "Magic."
MAY 20, 1942:
Japan completes Burma conquest. Japanese invade New Guinea and head for Port Moresby; A group of Australian nurses massacred by Japanese troops in Singapore. Admiral Nimitz sends ships to defend Australia, and the Battle of the Coral Sea begins.
MAY 25, 1942:
Japanese begin moves against the Aleutians to try to divert US attention from Midway.
MAY 26, 1942:
Imperial Admiral Nagumo leaves for the five-mile long atoll of Midway.
MAY 30, 1942:
Japanese send four submarines to Pearl Harbor vicinity to delay US departure for Midway, but we have already left.
MAY 31, 1942:
Lt. Matsuo, a co-originator of the midget submarine attack, had been bitterly disappointed not to be chosen for the Pearl Harbor strike. He volunteered to attack Sydney Harbor as a diversion to Midway. His ship sank.
JUNE 1, 1942:
US sends 25 submarines to vicinity of Midway.
JUNE 4, 1942:
Battle of Midway begins. "Horyu" is badly damaged by US aircraft from "Enterprise" and "Hornet;" within 24 hours, Japanese lose four of their carriers. Japan eastward thrust decisively halted.
JUNE 5, 1942:
Imperial Admiral Yamamoto withdraws from Midway; it is the first Japanese defeat in almost three and one-half centuries.
JUNE 10, 1942:
US Fleet enlarged with the battleship North Carolina, carrier, Wasp, and cruisers and destroyers from the Atlantic Fleet.
JULY 31, 1942:
US bomb Tulagi and Guadalcanal.
AUGUST 7, 1942:
US Marines land on Guadalcanal. Four cruisers lost to the Imperial Navy in subsequent battle of Savo island.
AUGUST 24, 1942:
Naval battle in Solomons; US carrier damaged, Imperial carrier Ryujo sunk.
AUGUST 28, 1942:
Imperial Admiral Tanaka's supply destroyers, known as "The Tokyo Express," reach Guadalcanal.
SEPTEMBER 8, 1942:
US Marines reinforced on Guadalcanal. Heavy fighting resumes.
SEPTEMBER 15, 1942:
Japanese sink carrier Wasp off Guadalcanal; battleship North Carolina and destroyer O'Brien also hit.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1942:
American and Australian ground forces with US air support halt Japanese advance across New Guinea mountains 40 miles from Port Moresby.
OCTOBER 13, 1942:
Imperial battleships Kongo and Haruna bombard Henderson Field in Guadalcanal; Tanaka lands 4,500 more men and equipment.
OCTOBER 18, 1942:
Admiral William "Bull" Halsey takes command of US carriers in CINPAC. He answers to Admiral Chester Nimitz.
OCTOBER 26, 1942:
The battle of Santa Cruz, on Guadalcanal, begins. Japanese sink Hornet.
NOVEMBER 3, 1942:
Japanese land 1,500 more troops on Guadalcanal.
NOVEMBER 12, 1942:
Admiral Nimitz announces many of ships damaged at Pearl Harbor are now operational. Congress lowers the mandatory Selective Service registration to 18.
NOVEMBER 15, 1942:
Tanaka lands 4,500 more troops on Guadalcanal. South Dakota damaged; carrier Kirishiima sunk.
NOVEMBER 17, 1942:
1,000 Japanese troops land at Buna, New Guinea.
DECEMBER 9, 1942:
General Patch arrives at Guadalcanal with the Sixth Army's XIV Corps, including the 40th Division, to replace the First Marine Division.

1943

JANUARY 10, 1943:
Final US offensive on Guadalcanal begins.
JANUARY 13, 1943: Japanese retreat from Sanandan, the last and most heavily defended position on the Papuan coast. MacArthur feels it took the Australians too long to force out the enemy and tells the secretary of the Australian defense council, Sir Frederick Sheldon, that his commanders were slow to exploit advantages and follow up on opportunities. This does not help the US-Australian alliance.
FEBRUARY 1, 1943:
Japanese begin evacuation of Guadalcanal.
FEBRUARY 9, 1943:
US secures Guadalcanal; Japanese complete evacuation. Col. Alexander Patch radios Admiral Halsey,
"Tokyo Express no longer has terminus on Guadalcanal."
Cruiser Northampton sinks, bringing the total of US cruisers lost in Guadalcanal to five. Imperial Admiral Yamamoto realizes that although many US ships went down, they won the land and naval battles of Guadalcanal; Dai Nippon's air superiority has slipped, and the US has made its first forward thrust. Dai Nippon's position in the Southwest Pacific is becoming untenable.
FEBRUARY 21, 1943:
9,000 US troops land in the Russell Islands, part of the central Solomons. These and other small islands - the Shorts and Treasuries, for example - stood near the tip of Bougainville and could be used for airstrips and PT Boat launches.
MARCH 2, 1943:
The Battle of the Bismark Sea eliminates the Japanese Navy from southern New Guinea waters. New American aircraft, including the twin-tailed, twin-engined P-38 Lightening, debut.High altitude bombing by B17s is replaced by low-level sweeps by mid-sized bombers carrying fragmentation bombs. US air coverage leaves Lae impossible for the Japanese to defend, and it falls to MacArthur within a few months.
Yamamoto plans 'Operation 1' which begins with naval raids at Tulagi and Guadalcanal.
APRIL 16, 1943:
A captured Australian physician, Wheary Dunlop, took care of his fellow prisoners, but one day he broke a rule, and the guards tied him to a stake, leaving him in the blazing sun. Once untied, Dunlop's legs collapsed beneath him, but he got to his feet and said,
"And now, if you will excuse me, I will amputate the Dutchman's arm; he has been waiting all day."
He did, and the Dutchman survived.
APRIL 18, 1943:
Yamamoto is killed when US P-38s shoot down his aircraft over Bougainville. Charles Lindburgh, lone conqueror of the Atlantic helped plan the mission, called operation Vengeance; those who carried it out were Major John W. Mitchell, Lt. Besby T. Holmes, and Thomas G. Lamphier, jr. US troops attack Japanese at Attu in the Aleutian Islands.
JUNE 20, 1943:
US Sixth Army establishes its headquarters at Milne Bay, New Guinea. The island is shaped like a bird, with its head to the west, tail to the east. Rabaul is at the head, and between it and the tail stretched mountains and jungle. This landing begins MacArthur's taking of the other end of the island with the eventual goal of cutting off the Japanese from supplies. Eventually he succeeds; over one hundred thousand Japanese wither away without US troops firing a shot. The next series of operations in the vicinity form parts of a strategy called "Breaking the Bismark Barrier."
JUNE 30, 1943:
US retakes Attu, one of the Aleutian Islands. Some call it a nonevent when the Japanese capture them and a nonevent when the US recapture them. Nobody wants to be up in the Bering Sea and most of the Aleutian conquests are propaganda efforts for one side or the other. In fact, when the Yanks capture one island, no Japanese remained.
"We should have left it to he Innuits," a Yank commander says.
JULY 18, 1943:
US troops get a new portable anti-tank rocket called a "bazooka."
AUGUST 2, 1943:
Japanese give up their New Georgia position and move to Kolombangara Island in the Central Solomons.
AUGUST 6, 1943:
US destroyers sink three Japanese destroyers enroute to Kolombangara. Japanese defeated in naval battle of Vella Gulf, Solomon Islands, by Americans and New Zealanders.
AUGUST 15, 1943:
US troops occupy Vella Lavella in the Solomons and land on Kiska in the Aleutians. Hasley prepares Vella Lavella as a forward base for his landing on tip of the largest Solomon Island, Bougainville.

SEPTEMBER 21, 1943:
Japanese evacuate Arundel and Sagekarassa in the Solomons, and US forces land on Cape Gloucester. At last MacArthur has lept from New Guinea to New Britain Island, as envisioned by the "Watchtower" strategy. He is delighted, despite the fierce and costly fighting.
OCTOBER 5, 1943:
US attacks Wake Island in the Central Pacific. This manoeuver and several that follow surround the Japanese at Rabaul, New Britain, and cutting off their supplies.
OCTOBER 12, 1943:
US maims Japanese installation and air elements at Rabaul. The squeeze on the Japanese here is increasing in intensity; surrounding the Imperial troops is replaced by direct attack.
OCTOBER 18, 1943:
US attacks Japanese air base at Buin on Bougainville.
NOVEMBER 1, 1943:
US forces invade Bougainville
NOVEMBER 2, 1943:
Naval engagements begin near Rabaul, New Britain Island.
NOVEMBER 9, 1943:
Strong Japanese reinforcements cause heavy fighting on Bougainville.
NOVEMBER 13, 1943:
US begins bombing of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands.
NOVEMBER 20, 1943:
US troops land on Makin and Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. As the Japanese had pushed so far east, this was a strong point to be taken in the effort to shrink the defense perimeter of the Home Islands. The same could be said of the later invasion of Wake Island.
NOVEMBER 23, 1943:
Fierce Tarawa battle won by US. Submarine Lipscomb Bay sunk in the Solomons. One man who died left behind a son, Thomas Sanchez: Rabbit Boss, Mile Zero, and Day of the Bees.
NOVEMBER 26, 1943:
US forces land on Cape Gloucester in New Britain Island. MacArthur's landing on New Britain Island and Halsey's pressure on Bougainville, a strategy called "Operation Cartwheel," complete the isolation of Rabaul.
DECEMBER 4, 1943:
US and Japanese Naval battles near Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
DECEMBER 30, 1943:
US forces occupy the airfield at Cape Gloucester in New Britain.

1944

JANUARY 23, 1944:
US forces invade Parry in the Eniwetok Atoll and bomb Saipan, Tinian, and Rota in the Marianas. Invasions here and those in the Marshalls and Carolinas make progress in the Allied advance across the Pacific. Occupying the Marinas provides an advanced air strike capability for US B29s against Japan.
JANUARY 25, 1944:
Chinese begin counteroffensive against Japan in Burma.
JANUARY 29, 1944:
US forces occupy Admiralty Islands.
JANUARY 31, 1944:
US landings on Marshall Islands.
FEBRUARY 7, 1944;:
US forces take Kwajalein in Marshall Islands; the Japanese were pushed from a northern direction now.
FEBRUARY 18, 1944:
US naval air force strikes Truk Island in the Carolines, which, with Rabaul, constituted the two major Japanese air centers.
MARCH 8, 1944:
In Burma, British and Indian divisions advance from the Irrawaddy enroute Mandalay.
MARCH 15, 1944:
The 17th Indian Division , with US air support, holds Meiktila.
MARCH 16, 1944:
US forces capture airfield on Manus in the Admiralties. The Japanese defense perimeters are pushed farther back every day. Soon the Home Islands would be all that remained of the Empire of Japan.
MARCH 27, 1944:
Admiral Mineichi Koga, Yamamoto's successor, meets the same fate - death in the air. US forces encircle a 100,000 troop Japanese holdout on Rabaul, New Britain Island, isolating them. "Operation Cartwheel" is a success; over one hundred thousand troops eventually withered away in Rabaul with a single shot being fired.

APRIL 22, 1944:
US forces land in Hollandia, New Guinea and surprise the Japanese, as they expected a landing elsewhere. There are many settlements in the northwest area of new Guinea, but MacArthur takes the less defended ones in his effort to surround the Japanese.
APRIL 23, 1944:
US forces capture Hollandia, New Guinea.
MAY 7, 1944:
Fortieth Division of US Sixth Army secures Hoskins Airdome in New Britain.
MAY 22, 1944:
US bombards Wake Island.
MAY 27, 1944:
US forces land on an important site, Biak Island, New Guinea.
JUNE 15, 1944:
US bombs Tokyo. General Curtis LeMay has developed a low-flying incinderary strategy known as "scorched earth." Planes are kept aloft on a 24-hour per day basis.
US troops land on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
JUNE 19, 1944:
Battle of the Philippine Sea: US wins, and Japan suffers heavy losses including 300 aircraft and the carriers, Taiho and Shokaku. A pilot dives onto a torpedo to save his ship, becoming the founder of the Kamikazi missions. This was the largest carrier battle of the war. FDR signs the GI Bill, providing financial and
educational benefits to returning veterans.
JUNE 22, 1944:
Japan retreats in India.
JULY 9, 1944:
In a raging battle, US forces land on Saipan Island in the Marianas east of Luzon.
JULY 19, 1944:
Tojo resigns as Japan's Prime Minister.
JULY 21, 1944:
US forces land on Tinian; napalm used for the first time in the Pacific Theater.
JULY 24, 1944:
US invades Guam in the Mariana Islands to retake the first American holding captured by the Japanese. Admiral Raymond Spruance benefits from the 1942 lesson of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher who pulled his carriers away from Savo Sound which brought about the worst US naval defeat and nearly scuttled the Guadalcanal landing. Spruance does not allow the enemy to lure him away from his designated assignment. He also benefits from superior radar on the carrier Lexington to calculate Japanese direction, speed, etc.
JULY 27, 1944:
FDR meets with MacArthur, Nimits, and other COs in Hawaii to plan strategy.
JULY 28, 1944:
US wins battle of Biak. The US objective becomes denying the home islands the resources of SE Asia and providing a staging area for the final assault in November, 1945, on Kiyushu. Okinawa is needed, as the Japanese fleet remains a formidable factor to be reckoned with.
FDR is standing for a fourth term, and US political as well as military leaders like General Marshall convince Admirals King and Halsey that the Philippine liberation needed to be the objective. At the time, it was not clear whether the Japanese had pulled their inner defensive perimeter prior to Leyte or during the campaign.
Planning for the Philippine campaign takes place on New Guinea at Lake Santini above Hollandia. The conclusion of the New Guinea campaign secures all objectives, covering 1,000 miles in fourteen months. The isolation of the remaining Japanese forces make this operation possible.
The Leyte invasion is scheduled for October 20, Mindinao, December 15, and Luzon January 9. Forces are convened in Hollandia from all over the Pacific, as far in the rear as Noumeia 800 miles in the rear (it was not wrested from the Japanese). Hollandia, the major staging area, is 2100 miles from Leyte.
AUGUST 10, 1944:
US secures Guam, to complete the conquest of the Marianas.
AUGUST 24, 1944:
Japan continues to withdraw from India. Japanese transport ship, UkIshiima Maru, carrying POWs and comfort women is sunk by US submarine.
SEPTEMBER 6, 1944:
The Pacific Task Force 38 attacks Palau in the Carolines, a pre-bombardment be3forwe the landing.
SEPTEMBER 15, 1944:
US forces capture Morotai in the Halmeheras, which brings the Philippines in range of bombers and fighter planes. Some consider this the first strike in the Philippine campaign.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1944:
US forces land on Ulithi, northeast of the Palu Islands, and announce the Palus are secure a week later, which pushes the Japanese back and neutralizes some of their Philippine invasion forces.
OCTOBER 20, 1944: Admiral Kincaid's US Seventh Fleet escorts the Sixth Army's first landing parties on Leyte. 130,000 US troops come ashore, including MacArthur, who announces, "I have returned."
OCTOBER 24, 1944:
US 1st Cavalry Division units cross from Leyte to Samar. 64,000-ton Japanese battleship Musashi and four carriers, three other battleships sunk in Leyte Gulf.
OCTOBER 25, 1944:
The battleship Yamashiro is sunk in the last action fought between battleships. The first Kamikaze missions sink four US escort carriers. Admiral "Bull" Halsey tricked by the Japanese into abandoning his post in the San Bernadino Strait.
OCTOBER 26, 1944:
US Navy wins Battle of Leyte Gulf. The momentous Battle of the Philippine Sea – actually four different engagements – plays a fundamental role in the capture of Leyte. 216 US ships are involved and 64 Japanese. Owing to errors in judgment on both sides, the outcome remains in doubt throughout the engagement, but a US win gives the navy no major opposition in the Pacific. Japan's navy has sustained calamitous losses.
The Japanese navy is no longer an offensive force, and the Imperial commanders' reckless reinforcement of the army from around the empire ends any hope of saving Luzon.
NOVEMBER 7, 1944:
US forces repel Japanese airborne Leyte operation and capture Bloody Ridge on Leyte. Around Ormoc and the San Ysidro Peninsula, 35,000 Imperial troops oppose 183,000 Sixth Army troops. Losses at that point are 2200 US dead and 24,000 Japanese. During the next months another 1500 US troops die on Leyte, out of a peak strength of 260,000. Japanese dead are between 50,000 and 80,000, depending on the source.
NOVEMBER 23, 1944:
US sinks four enemy destroyers and a cruiser.
NOVEMBER 17, 1944:
Aircraft carrier Junyo sunk by US submarine in the China Sea.
NOVEMBER 29, 1944:
Japanese carrier Shinano is sunk by US submarine Archerfish. The unsinkable carrier's life lasted only 17 hours. On land, enemy airpower proves stronger than expected, with land reinforcements from the west side of the island. Bad weather slows landing strip construction, b ut gradually the Sixth Army has advanced to the west coast, leaving southern Leyte to face formidable forces of nature and eventual annihilation. By December 1, only pockets of resistance remain.
DECEMBER 3, 1944:
Japanese retreat in Burma.
DECEMBER 13, 1944:
Heavy cruiser Nashville damaged by Kamikaze enroute to Mindinao.
DECEMBER 15, 1944:
US forces land on San Augustin, Mindoro. Island is secured after a three-month campaign from December 15, 1944 – February, 1945, waged primarily by the Sixth Army. Kamikazes and naval assaults against US PT boats slow the conquest, and lack of air superiority proves costly to resupply efforts. Subsequent AAF based on the airstrip here prevents the Linguayen from becoming a mass slaughter.

DECEMBER 18, 1944:
Typhoon hits US Task Force 38 hit in Philippine Sea; three destroyers sink, others damaged.

1945

JANUARY 2, 1945:
US landing force for the Philippines leaves Leyte: six battleships, sixteen escort carriers, ten cruisers, and dozens of destroyers, landing ships, and support vessels carrying over 200,000 troops. Kamikazes attack. Japanese bomb Saipan in the Marianas.
JANUARY 6, 1945:
US fleet begins preliminary bombardment of Luzon in preparation for landing. A minesweeper is sunk and twelve other vessels damaged.
JANUARY 9, 1945:
S-Day, or Strike Day: 30,000 US troops from the Sixth Army, including the 40th Division, land on Luzon to face 250,000 Japanese troops commanded by the "Tiger of Malaya," General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The US troops are the vanguard; they will be joined by 170,000 others later. They establish a large beachhead in Lingayen Gulf. B-29 Bombers attack targets on Formosa and Okinawa.
JANUARY 13, 1945:
MacArthur goes ashore.
JANUARY 15, 1945:
US forces move out from the Lingayen beachheads, heading north, south, and east; now they encounter withering fire from the enemy; the Japanese outnumber US troops, are well-entrenched and supplied. US forces close on Rosario.
JANUARY 16: Linguayen airstrip becomes functional, and now air coverage repels further kamikaze assaults. due to air coverage from the Linguayen airstrip. On the nights of the 16 and 17th, a Japanese banzai charge is wiped out by elements of the Fortieth Division.
The Fortieth Division drives ahead, expanding beachhead to a depth and front of 30 miles in each direction. The taking of Rosario seals Yamashita into a defensive position in the Iocos Mountains of NE Luzon with 150,000 troops. His defense base is hampered by the Sixth Army's capture of his headquarters and the hard fighting.
JANUARY 20, 1945: As a result of these US military successes, Japan's leaders set forth a new outline of army and navy operations. This sets the "final defensive battle" to be waged on Japan proper. The outer defensive perimeter will be Formosa, the Bobins, part of the China coast, and So. Korea. Military scholars should marvel at comparing the Japanese strategic war plans of 1942 and 1945.
JANUARY 21, 1945:
US Fortieth Division takes Tarlac on Luzon.
JANUARY 23, 1945:
US Fortieth division forces a bridgehead at Bambam and encounters the main Japanese lines in the Bambam Mountains.
JANUARY 25, 1945:
US forces take Calapam and secure Mindoro. The Sixth Army is urged by MacArthur to avoid the Japanese strong points and dash to Manila. Krueger demurs because of logistic problems: inexperienced support troops and engineers unused to supporting large troop movements and the requisite railroad and pipeline construction required. Nor is the evidence available to supply this infrastructure if and when it becomes available.
JANUARY 27, 1945: Krueger's Sixth Army, reinforced by two divisions, works on securing Clark Field and simultaneously rolls south on highway 3 toward Manila.
JANUARY 29, 1945:
US XI Corps lands at San Antonio on Luzon in an amphibian operation to open up the neck of the Bataan Peninsula. US Army Fortieth Division Artillary Rangers liberate POWs at Cabantuan. Another shore-to-shore amphibian operation from Subic Bay puts troops of the Eleventh Airborne ashore south of Manila. After heavy fighting, they find themselves on the ridge between Laguona De Bay SE of Manila and Manila Bay.
FEBRUARY 1, 1945:
Elements of the 40th Division reach Clark Field in Luzon. Encountering stiff resistance, Yanks still struggle to open neck of the Bataan Peninsula.
FEBRUARY 1, 1945:
The First Cavalry Division and Tank Batallion with MC air coverage heads south and passes over the Bulacan River at Novalicks Bridge, which is saved from demolition within two days.
FEBRUARY 3, 1945:
US Eleventh Airborne Division lands on Luzon. 3,700 POWs, survivors of the Bataan Death March, are freed from Santo Tomas prison. The troops rush on and secure another specialized objective: the City of Aacona Palace Prison across the Pasig river.
FEBRUARY 5, 1945:
US forces reach Manila, defended by 20,000 Japanese. General Eichenberger lands paratroopers from his Eighth Army in southern quadrant of the city, which prompts MacArthur to prematurely announce, "Manila is secure."
FEBRUARY 12, 1945:
US bombers hit Corregidor and landing sites around Manila Bay.
FEBRUARY 14, 1945: The Kenbu Group of 30,000 troops Continue to threaten Clark Field from formidable defensive mountain activity. Sacobia ridge behind the airfield renders it vulnerable. Artillery installation on Sacobia Ridge spotted during fatal reconnaissance flight. Locating site enables capture of Clark Field. Lt. Col. Wallace takes over command of the 143rd battalion.
FEBRUARY 16, 1945: Correigador is recaptured and Manila bay secured. Harbor facilities rapidly expanded – 50,000 in March, 90,000 in May. By August 24,111 ships could be berthed at once.
Yamashita evacuates Manila and fight in the mountains around Baguio east of the city, but leaves behind a small force, which came under the command of the imperial navy; it strengthens the defenses and places Admiral Iwabachi in command. He dedicates himself and his troops to fight to the death, along with Yamashita's remnants, 3700 men. This command disaster is not resolved, and by time the two talk, there is no way out. Manila is sealed off by US forces. The subsequent vicious house-to-house combat decimates the city, even though there was no bombing, since the combatants resorted to artillery fire in the conflict for control of the city.
The fighting above Manila and Nicholas Field on the isthmus overlooking the city is especially violent. One senior officer signals,
"Tell Halsey to stop looking for the Japanese fleet; it's dying on Nichols Field."
FEBRUARY 16, 1945:
US seaborne and airborne landings on Corregidor. Task Force 58 carrier aircraft attack Tokyo. Another column from the north crosses the Quezon Bridge over the Pasig River, and after fierce fighting liberates 3767 Allied internees. The Thirty-seventh enteres Manila on February 4 and released 1024 POWs from Bilbad and reaches the Posig river. MacArthur convenes a provisional military government and declares the Philippine Commonwealth reestablished.
"My country has kept its faith; your capital city, though cruelly punished, has regained its rightful place as a citadel of democracy in the east." he says.
FEBRUARY 23, 1945: By combined artillery and infantry assault by the Fortieth Division. Subsequent offensive action rendered this remnant of the enemy army to small forays and ultimate annihilation by disease and Filipino guerillas.
FEBRUARY 19, 1945:
30,000 Marines land on Iwo Jima to battle 20,000 Imperial Forces. As with Luzon, landing is unopposed; then the enemy opens fire. Joe Rogers remembers, AOne of the marine corps greatest heroes, Sgt. John Basilone led the charge, but when we hit the beach, a Japanese pillbox had us cold. Everyone cowered down except Basilone , who stood up to get the others moving. A mortar got him. A Medal of Honor winner, he was only 29 years old and had been on Iwo Jima an hour and a half.
FEBRUARY 21, 1945.
Japanese fire puts US carrier Saratoga out of commission for three months. Carrier Bismark Sea is sunk by kamikazes, who have been inflicting heavy damage on US Navy support ships around Iwo Jima. The Bismark Sea burns and explodes for three hours before it sinks. By time Skipper J. L. Pratt commands "Abandon ship," twenty percent of the crew has died. Three destroyers with their escorts spend two days and a night picking up survivors.
FEBRUARY 23, 1945: Sacobia Ridge behind Clark Field on Luzon captured and renamed Ribbel Ridge.
FEBRUARY 25, 1945:
US forces secure Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima, and hoist the flag. The photograph of the moment becomes the most famous image of World War Two, to the annoyance of camera-ready MacArthur. The marines had endured six weeks of a storm of steel andfirepower, prompting General Holland Smith to say, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."
FEBRUARY 26, 1945:
US troops secure Corregidor.
FEBRUARY 28, 1945:
At MacArthur's insistence, we move to capture the southern Philippine Islands by attacking Palawan. His fellow officers deem the move as unjustifiable and unnecessary.
MARCH 3, 1945:
US forces capture Manila.
MARCH 4, 1945: Manila cleared of Japanese but is as desolate as Cologne, Hamburg, or London.
The enemy forces who retired to South Luzon are annihilated by the Legapsi amphibious operation by the Sixth Army on April 6, 1945, thus securing the San Berdini Straits and shortening the passage to Manila Bay and Leyte for the rest of SWP.
The main remnant under Yamashita in the mountains behind Manila and NE Luzon were initially over 100,000 strong; now they were well under that. Some of the forces fought to control the dams, the city's water supply. But by the war's end, only 6200 surrendered. The remaining 50,000 surrendered only after a prolonged nuisance existence in No. Luzon.

MARCH 9, 1945:
US firebombs Tokyo. Eventually 80,000 are killed.
MARCH 15, 1945:
US Fleet enters Manila Bay and docks. By the end of MARCH the harbor has handled 50,000 tons of shipping per week; in APRIL, 70,000 tons, and in MAY, 90,000 tons.
MARCH 18, 1945:
US carrier-based planes from Task Force 58 bomb Japanese Home Islands.
MARCH 21, 1945:
Japan launches first Ohka piloted bombs from Mitsubishi bombers. Allies capture Mandalay, Burma.
MARCH 26, 1945:
14,000 more US troops land on Luzon. US forces secure Iwo Jima.
MARCH 29, 1945:
US 165th Regiment troops land on Philippine island of Negros.
APRIL 1, 1945:
US forces land at Legaspi, Luzon. Invasion of Okinawa begins.
APRIL 5, 1945:
Prime Minister Suzuki wishes to consider any possible peace offers. Emperor Hirohito refuses.
APRIL 8, 1945:
More US troops land on Negros in the Philippines. On Okinawa, US 111 Corps crosses Motobu Penninsula.
APRIL 10, 1945:
Mauban on Luzon is captured.
APRIL 12, 1945:
President Roosevelt dies. Vice-President Truman succeeds the Presidency. The revisionists started complaining. Before Pearl Harbor, Americans were isolationists; only 2.5 percent favored fighting Nazi Germany, and 37.5 percent wanted to sell to both sides on a "cash and carry" basis. The notion took hold that FDR deliberately let the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor to jolt us into the war; proponents cited Agnes Meyer Driscoll's code-breaking skill as proof.
Maj. Richard Bradshaw later says, "We were all on highest alert, and we did break the code; Hawaii command was sent a telegram; since it was Sunday, it was delivered too late because the bicycle messenger overslept. FDR had embargoed the Japanese, vital oil included, but he hoped to avoid war with Japan. The day before Pearl Harbor, he sent the emperor a coexistence proposal. He joked to a friend, 'this son of man has just sent a message to the Son of God.' A
APRIL 16, 1945:
US forces land on Ie Shima near Okinawa.
APRIL 20, 1945:
US forces secure Northern Okinawa. On Luzon, we encounter heavy resistance around Baguio.
APRIL 25, 1945:
Delegates meet in San Francisco to form the United Nations.
APRIL 27, 1945:
US forces capture Baguio, where Yamashita once had headquarters.
MAY 3, 1945; Rangoon liberated.
MAY 10, 1945: More US troops land at Macalajar Bay in the Philippines. Around Okinawa, the kamikazes hit the destroyer Hadley, but the skipper, Commander B. J. Mullaney, survives to write, "I know of no destroyer's crew fighting for one hour and 25 minutes against overwhelming aircraft attacks and destroying 23 planes."
MAY 17, 1945: US carrier Ticonderoga attacks Taroa and Maleolap in the Marshalls.
MAY 23, 1945: US bombs Japanese homeland. 750,000 phosphorous bombs dropped by 500 bombers; a similar number will bomb Tokyo the next day in a "scorched earth" policy.
JUNE 10, 1945:
Australian forces invade Borneo.
JUNE 11, 1945:
US secures Okinawa. During the Okinawa engagement the Japanese air force and what remains of the naval fleet is virtually destroyed. However, victory is costly, as US casualties are also high.
JUNE 12, 1945:
Mass Japanese suicides in Oruku, Okinawa.
JUNE 18, 1945:
US General Buckner killed by enemy fire on a visit to Okinawa.
JUNE 22, 1945: Regarding Okinawa, Winston Churchill says, "The strength of willpower, devotion, and technical resources applied by the United States to this task, joined with the death struggle of the enemy . . .places this battle among the most intense and famous in military history."
JUNE 28, 1945:
Fifty countries sign the UN Charter in San Francisco.
JUNE 30, 1945: After more than six months of bitter fighting, the Philippines are recaptured. The Luzon campaign has lasted 173 days, from January 9 through June 30. Our casualties were 8297 dead and 29,557 wounded on the ground, plus 2000 navy men, mostly from kamikaze attacks. By mid February most of the naval transports were freed for the upcoming actions if the Central Pacific. Japanese naval and ground losses are now incalculable, and the Imperial Navy has ceased to be an offensive weapon. Ground forces are reduced to a few hundred thousand.
JULY 2, 1945:
Another B-29 bombing raid on Dai Nippon. Mass exodus from cities.
JULY 14, 1945:
Last of Japanese shipping sunk in Tsugaru Strait.
JULY 16, 1945:
Atomic bomb tested at Los Alimos, New Mexico, USA.
JULY 20, 1945:
US test flight from Marianas simulates delivery of A-Bomb.
JULY 26, 1945:
Potsdam Declaration: Allies demand unconditional surrender from Japan. Yamamoto flagship Yamato sunk off of Okinawa. Japanese radio no longer broadcasts, ACome out, and MacArthur, then we will send you tumbling to hell.
JULY 28, 1945:
Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki makes ambiguous but belligerent response to Potsdam Declaration.
AUGUST 2, 1945:
Heaviest US air raid against Japan to date.
AUGUST 6, 1945:
Col. Paul Tibbetts delivers first atomic bomb at 8:15 a.m. The uranium 235 fission weapon is dropped from the aircraft named the "Enola Gay," after his mother. Explosion is equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT. "A devastating choice," Samuel Eliot Morrison wrote,". . . Abut less costly in human life than an invasion, and fewer civilian lives were lost than in the Allied bombing of Hamburg."
General Walter Krueger agrees, saying at least 1.6 million Imperial troops were garrisoned on Japan's home islands to defend them.
AUGUST 7, 1945:
A reticent Japanese broadcast refers to "new type of bomb" used on Hiroshima.
AUGUST 8, 1945:
Japanese broadcast describes US as "having surpassed Genghis Khan in hideous cruelty." US mines Korean and Japanese harbors to effect blocade. USSR declares war on Japan.
AUGUST 9, 1945:
US drops second A-Bomb on Nagasaki. Soviets deploy 1,500,000 troops to fight Dai Nippon in Manchuria.
AUGUST 10, 1945:
Japan broadcasts acceptance of Potsdam Declaration provided the Emperor remains on the throne.
AUGUST 15, 1945, V-J Day:
Emperor Hirohito broadcasts telling his people to "endure the unendurable" and surrender. Prince Higashi- Kuni, a Yamato, will head new government.
SEPTEMBER 2, 1945:
Surrender treaty ratified on US battleship "Missouri." Americans celebrate AVJ (Victory over Japan) Day. Sixteen million American men and women served in uniform during the war; two-thirds were in the army and army air force. The rest were navy and marines. Though not in any branch of the service, the merchant marines risked their lives to supply the troops; oil provided by the Esso fleet, for example, was vital to the war effort. The war's approximate death toll: 50,000,000. The US lost 300,000 dead, Britain, 500,000; German losses exceeded 4,500,000; Japan lost around 2,000,000; France, 500,000; Russia, 20,000,000; Holland, 200,000; China, 30,000,000; India, 1,500,000; Yugoslavia, 1,000,000; Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and Bulgaria, 500,000; and Italy, 1,500,000. Historians and statisticians compute the participants' costs of World War Two (in millions of US dollars, 1946 value). Allies: Australia, 10,036; Belgium, 6,324; Canada, 20,104; China, 49,072; France, 111,272; India, 4,804; Netherlands, 9,624; New Zealand, 2,560; Norway, 992; South Africa, 2,152; United Kingdom, unknown; United states, 288,000; USSR, 93,012; Axis: Germany, 212,336; Italy, 21,072; Japan, 41272. Governmental expenditures during World War Two for war material and armaments added up to $1, 154 billion. Britain, $120 billion; the United States, $317 billion; the Soviet Union,$192 billion; Italy, $4 billion; Germany, $272 billion, and lesser amounts for other nations. (These and all figures continue to be US dollars in 1946 values). Official government expenditures did include allowance for damage to civilian property. Approximate losses due to damage: Soviet Union, $128 billion; Britain, $5 billion; Germany, $75 billion; and other European countries, approximately $230 billion total.

Epilogue:
On October 25, 1945: UN Charter signed. Macarthur orders all military statues in Japan destroyed, so naval officers cut Yamamoto's in half and threw it into a lake. However, they made a chart of where it sank, and later men dredged up the head and shoulders.
Liberated American POWs are forced to sign confidentiality documents drawn up by the Army stating they would not tell what happened in the Japanese biological warfare and slave labor prisons. If they did, they faced Court Martial.
At the War Crimes trials, MacArthur finds some Japanese guilty, exonerated others. Mitsuo Fuchida of Pearl Harbor fame, for example, survived, prospered, and writes his memoirs. The men who hang go to the gallows shouting,"Banzai!"
On February 23, 1946: General Yamashita executed in Los Banos in the Philippines after sham of a Amilitary trial. Though generally considered innocent of any specific war crimes, he had the misfortune to have done combat mano a mano with MacArthur in the Philippines. MacArthur executes him. In 1989, the Japanese government offered the Philippine government $250 million to return General Yamashita's bones for a proper Shinto burial. The Philippine government refused. Crown Prince Akihito had planned a birthday party for himself the day of the executions, but he cancelled it. He did, however, get in his usual round of golf. In 1989, Hirohito died after the longest reign of any 20C monarch. August 1, 2001; Prime Minister Ichiro Koizumi made an official visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the bodies of the war criminals hung by the allies are interred; the monument is the symbolic heart of Japanese militarism. In protest, China and Korea threatened to sever relations with Japan.