By Patrick Allitt, Emory University
Aircraft carriers played a vital role in the American Pacific war strategy. The battle of Midway was the first in history in which rival naval fleets never even came over each other’s horizon, being fought instead by carrier-based aircraft. American seaborne forces seized a succession of Pacific islands from which aircraft could bomb the Japanese mainland.
The Doolittle Raid
America launched the Doolittle Raid when a group of modified American bombers were flown off the aircraft carrier Hornet at maximum range so that they could drop some bombs on Japan.
The raid wasn’t very destructive in itself, but it demonstrated to the Japanese politicians and generals that Japan itself was potentially vulnerable, and that the emperor himself might be bombed.
The Battle of Coral Sea
In the spring of 1942, the American and Japanese fleets encountered one another in two great naval battles; first, the battle of Coral Sea, and then, the battle of Midway. These battles had the reassuring effect of showing the Americans that they could meet the Japanese on equal or superior terms.
Apart from everything else, the Americans’ technological efficiency and technological superiority meant that they were able to keep their fleet running very effectively and repair it quickly. The American carrier Lexington was sunk at Coral Sea, but the battle inflicted very heavy damage on the Japanese fleet, and forestalled a potential Japanese invasion of Australia, which for a while also seemed highly probable.
This is a transcript from the video series A History of the United States, 2nd Edition. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Island of Midway
It was the battle of Midway where the two fleets never even came within a horizon of each other. This was part of a planned second attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, who hoped to be able to take over the island of Midway, and then, if possible, launch further attacks on Pearl Harbor.
By then, though, American code-breakers had worked out what was happening, and so they were able to deploy the American fleet in a position to prevent the Japanese gaining surprise, as they had done six months previously.
The Battle of Midway
During the battle of Midway, American dive-bombers succeeded in sinking four of the enemy’s aircraft carriers in the space of just about five minutes.
The Japanese carriers’ decks were full of planes that, having flown one raid, had returned to reload and rearm. In other words, the decks of the aircraft carriers were covered with fuel hoses, bombs, torpedoes, and the planes themselves, and these, when hit, became a great burning inferno, which literally set fire to all four of the aircraft carriers.
At Midway, the American aircraft carrier Yorktown was sunk, but the Japanese losses were incomparably greater.
America’s Pacific Strategy
The American forces concentrated on recapturing islands that were held by the Japanese, on which they could build air bases, so that they could attack subsequent islands, and eventually get into the Japanese shipping lanes, and attack the Japanese mainland itself.
There were two basic strategies pursued by the American forces in the Pacific. The approach favored by Admiral Nimitz, the navy commander, was to jump along these islands directly toward Japan itself; in other words, take the war to the enemy as quickly as possible.
The army commander, General MacArthur, favored a more southerly land route, starting in Australia and reconquering from the Japanese, first New Guinea and then the Philippine Islands.
Early in 1943, American code-breakers worked out that a flight of aircraft was going to be carrying Admiral Yamamoto, the man who’d planned the Pearl Harbor raid. They were able to intercept his planes and shoot them down, a great morale booster for the Americans and a corresponding morale crusher for Japan itself.
Nevertheless, for a very long period, the contest of forces was close, and desperate battles on land and at sea took place as the two forces contended.
Seizing Saipan
When the Japanese islands were invaded, desperate battles ensued. The Japanese virtually always fought to the very last man because, according to their marshal code, to be taken prisoner was very shameful. At the island of Saipan, for example, a bayonet charge killed all the remaining soldiers. They charged against American machine guns, while hundreds of Japanese civilians on the island committed suicide.
Saipan is in the Mariana Islands and was conquered in June 1944, just after D-Day in Europe. From then on, Japan itself was in range of American bombers. As soon as the island had been retaken, airstrips were built and bomber planes were flown in, so that from there they could launch raids against Japan itself.
Conquering Iwo Jima
As the war approached the Japanese mainland in 1944 and 1945, Japanese resistance became even stiffer, though by then defeat was surely inevitable. The American campaign against Iwo Jima, despite this heavy prior bombardment, led to 7,000 American deaths, and the wounding of about another 13,000.
Iwo Jima is a very small island, but its defenders were tenaciously determined to fight to the last man. The ongoing struggle of the Americans led to the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi has since become the basis for the Marines’ Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Okinawa Onslaught
Next, after Iwo Jima, was Okinawa. This campaign was even more costly in American lives. There were 12,400 Americans killed in the attempt to retake Okinawa, and 50,000 more were wounded.
This was also the campaign in which kamikaze aircraft began to appear. These were suicide missions, and all the aircraft would be filled with explosives, with the pilot locked into the cockpit and only enough fuel to get out to the place where the American fleets were sailing. The idea was for the pilot to guide his plane directly into the superstructure of the American warship itself.
From November 1944 onward, American bombing planes, supported by long-range fighters, were making round-the-clock attacks on Japanese industry and cities. In other words, there was almost no respite for the Japanese people.
Common Questions about the Pacific Theater of World War II
The Battle of Coral Sea was fought in the spring of 1942.
Early in 1943, American code-breakers worked out that a flight of aircraft was going to be carrying Admiral Yamamoto. They were able to intercept his planes and shoot them down, a great morale booster for the Americans.
From November 1944 onward, American bombing planes, supported by long-range fighters, were making round-the-clock attacks on Japanese industry and cities. This left no respite for the Japanese people.
