Japan had been engaged in military conquest in East Asia since the invasion of Manchuria 1931, later moving its way through China and Indochina.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought America into the Pacific War, followed soon after by the loss of the Guam and the Philippines. Thousands of Americans based there became POWs for the duration, enduring horrific prison camps, “Hell Ships” and forced labor. The Allies lost Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Australia and India were threatened with invasion. The Doolittle Raid on Japan brought a morale boost amidst the early defeats.
America and its allies fought back at sea, defeating the Japanese at Midway, then in a series of campaigns on islands few had even heard of before the war, some just large enough to hold an airfield big enough to support the next invasion. The Philippines would be retaken in 1944-45 first at Leyte, then on Luzon. In each instance, the Japanese fought to nearly the last soldier.
America built an unprecedented naval, air and amphibious assault capability by 1945. Invasions at Iwo Jima and Okinawa brought the Allies within reach of Japan itself before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki finally convinced Japan to surrender.
These are excerpts of stories of the men and women who Served in the Pacific. Airmen who flew long-range bombing missions, cargo missions across “The Hump” to China, sailors aboard the ships that supported the landings of Marines and soldiers who fought in jungles and mountains.
Most are now gone, it’s imperative that their stories survive.
