Figure 1.-- Perhaps the most unlikely battlefield of World War II was New Guinea one of the most remote and primitive places on earth. The Japanese had embarked on the Pacific War to secure the resources of the Southern Resource Zone, especially oil, but a range of other raw materials such as rubber, tin, and various strategic resources as well as rice and other agricultural products. New Guinea had virtually nothing of strategic value, at least that had been developed. What New Guinea had was a strategic location. And much of the first 3 years of the Pacific War would be fought in and around New Guinea. These Papuan children and their parents in the 1930s who were barely aware of other islanders a few kilometrs away, had no way of knowing that their island would become one of the most important strategic objectives for the greatest war in human history and that massive armies, navies and air forces would soon be converging on them. And their concept of war was a small raid to secure a woman, pig, or a shurnken head or two with stone weapons little chnhed for millennia. Of course none of the American or Japanese military planners thinking about a coming war conceived of the importance that New Guinea would assume in the war.
Perhaps the most unlikely battlefield of World War II was the huge troopical island of New Guinea one of the most remote and primitive places on earth. The Japanese had embarked on the Pacific War to secure the resources of the Southern Resource Zone, especially oil, but a range of other raw materials such as rubber, tin, and other strategic resources as well as rice and other agricultural products. New Guinea had virtually nothing of strategic value, at least that had been developed. Agricultural was largely subsistemce, which would redound on the Japanese who were would be cut off by the U.S. Navy. What New Guimea had was a strategic location. Many Pacific islands that became caught up in World War II were small islands some like Iwo Jima were not even populated. This was not the case of New Guinea. The island was a huge island with a substantial, albeit primitive population. It was perhaps the most isolated corner of the world, virtually unknown to the rest of the world with iuslanders that knew nothing about the outside world that was vonverging oin them. This changed suddenly after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese lunched an offensive that swept over the South Pacific and Southeast Asia with one victory after another. This soon brough the Japanese to New Guinea, a really large island in an around which the Japanese planned a series of war winning offenives. The Japanese Army assessment was that after seizing the DEI, they did not have the strenth and logistical capability to invade Australia. And once American troops and equipment arrived in strength, a Japanese invsion of Australia would become impossible. The Japanese developed the MO (New Guinea-Port Moresby), RY (Nauru and Ocean Island), MI (Midway), and FS (Fiji-Samoa) Operations to cut off Australia from the Americans and bomb it into submission. And if you look at the map, New Guinea was at the center of all these operations. Not only was New Guinea a major battlefield, but the battles lasted more than 2 years, much of the land camopaign it fought by the Australians . New Guinea offered bases from which the Japanese could bomb Australia and support both RY and FS. The Japanese plan was to use the Imperial Fleet to carry out FS and interdict the sea lanes. After losing four fleet carriers at Midway, however, FS was no longer possible. It would take Gudalcanal and a series of fierce naval battles near and around Guadalacal to secure the sealanes to Australia. After the Japanese withdrew the Imperial Fleet from the South Pacific, New Guinea's role shifted. The Japanese no longer used it as a spring board, but rather as a land base to protect their SRZ. I would be the Japanese Army's largest commiment in the South Pacific. In fact the Army's focus on New Guinea and poor comminications with the Navy meant that they did not at first take the Marine landings on Guadalcanal seriously. The Allies also shifted. They began to New Guinaea not as a barrier, but as they moved up the coast, a pathway and staging area for the liberatiom of the Philippines.
