Figure 1.--

The Asian War was fought in three operational areas which often overlapped. On the Asian continent, both in China and Southeast Asia, it was primaily a ground war. In the Pacific it was pimarily a naval war, although the outcome of the principal naval battles were determined largely by naval aciation. War plans in both America and Japan had conceived of a climatic fleet action, the outcome of which would be determined by big-gun battleships. Both navies were dominated by big-gun admirals. And the Japanese had the largest battleships which could outgun American battle ships limited by the Panama Canal. But this climatic action never came even though the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the greatest naval battle in history. Even the Pacific War required ground actions, as assult troops were needed to seize Japanese held islands . The Japanese believed that the Americans would not have the fortitude to persevere in attacks on their island fortresses. This proved to be one of many mistaken assessments. At considerable cost, the Home Islands were brought within range of air attack and invasion. Uttimately it war the air war that decisively determined the outcome of the War with the dropping of the two atmic bombs. Yet some historians believe that it was the Soviet offense in Manchuria that convinced the Japanese to surender. The Atomic Bombs providing an honorable excuse for the unthinkable act of surrender,

Pacific War

The Japanese military during the 1930s gained almost complete control over the government. Civilian politicians attempting to resist the military were assassinated. The depression of the 1930s hit Japan hard. The militarists decided that the solution to the economic crisis was to carve out an empire in Manchuria, China, and southear Asia. This meant war. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations as a resulted of the criticism of her military operations in Manchuria and China (1933). Japan invaded China proper in July 1937, launching the Second Sino-Japanese War. The well equipped Japanese forces rapidly occupied almost the entire Chinese coast of China and ten moved up rivers and railroad lines into the interior. The Japanese in the process committed war atrocities on an unpresidented level against the Chinese civilian population. Despite the Japnese onslaught, the Chinese government never surrendered. America even before entering the war against Japan funelled supplies to the Chinese through Burma. A covert operation set up the Flying Tigers to provide the Chinese a creditavle air capability. Japan joined the Axis powers Germany and Italy which since 1939 had been at war with Britain. Hoping to avoid war in the Pacific, the United States and Britain responded to the Japanese actions with an oil boycott. The result was an oil shortage. The Japanese militarists were unwilling to change their policy. The only force standing between the Japanese and thecresources of Southeast Asia was the United States Pacific Fleet and the British garison at Singapore. A Japanese carrier taskforce on December 7, 1941, executed a surprise attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. It was a brilliant tactical victory for Japan, but perhaps the greatest mistake in modern military history as it brought a suddenly united America into the War. The American carrier victory at Midway dealt a crippling blow to the Imperial Navy in June 1942. American shipyards were turning out the new Essex clss carriers that would engage the weakened Imperial Navy in 1943. These carriers in 1943 and 1944 destroyed the Iperial Fleet. With new island bases wresstle from the Japanese, the United States begins the stratehic bombardment of the Japanese mainland. The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, and the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on August 8. The success of the Soviet Army convinced evebn many hard-line military officers that defeat was inevitable. Emperor Hirohito on August 14 decided to surrender unconditionally. The formal surrender was held underneath the guns of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

The CBI

The Asian theater of World War II is sometimes included as part of the Pacific War, but they were actually a largely different theater of war. Japan in both instances was the aggressor country, but there were major differences between the two, includung the countries Japan attacked and the geographic area. The Asian theater is sometimes called the China, Burma, India (CBI) theater. Not included is this acronym is Indochina (Vietnam). Malaya, and Singapore. The CBI Theater was really two separate thraters, China and Southeast Asia. Japan began its campaign against China by seizung Manchuria (1931). It then invaed China proper (1937), a campauign theu called the China Incident. The campaign in China proved to be no incident and Japan proved incapable of desisively defeating the Nationalist forces, although they seized large areas of China. China was at the center of the Pacific War which ws fought largely in Oceania. It was Japan's desire to finally emerge victorious from the 'China Incident' that led to the Pacific War. Much of the Japanese Army was deployed to China, but after some major battles at the onset, the Chinese developed the stategy of avoiding combat basically withdrawing to the unterior where theJapanese could not get at them. So by the outbreak of the Pacific War, China while occupying most of the Japanese Army was not a major combatant. The remainder of the CBI theater was with the exception of Thailand, colonies of Britain and France. With France defeated by the Germans (1940) it was the British that was the recipient of the full force of the Japanese offensive after Pearl Harbor (1941). The result was the rapid loss of all those colonies in Southeast Asia and by a smaller force than that of the British defenders. Within only a few months, the Japanese were on the borders of India. Britain's 'protected' sunjects were shocked by the ease and rapidity of the Japanese conquest. Some were elated by the defeat of the British, but soon found themselves in the hands of a more brutal and rapacious conquerer. The British managed to repulse Japanese efforts to invade India. It was the most poorly reported theater of the War and fought against a backdrop of intractable jungle, tropical diseases, and nationalist unrest. America aided Britain to an extent, but american military planners were determined not to commit major forces to the Asian continent. The Japanese perpetrated attricities against POWs and civilian interness as well as the indigenous population. And Britain's reputation was sullied by the hoirendous Benhal famine which could have been prevented.

Created: 3:16 AM 7/23/2013
Last updated: 3:16 AM 7/23/2013