Worle War II in the Pacific

World War 11 in the Pacific

                                                 by Collette

The United States officially became involved in the war against Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7^th, 1941. President Roosevelt and his administration had been planning and slowly activating programs to convince the American public to declare war on the Axis powers in Europe. It was reported the President wanted an incident to unite the American public behind him in the war declaration. The attack on Japan provided the initiative to get support for his position. America declared war and fought on two fronts at the same time.

Beginning as a defensive war in the Pacific, the US employed “island hopping” to fight against the Japanese. Because Japan controlled all of the major islands in the Pacific, there was no way America could fight on every island. Picking and choosing strategic islands to attack as the United States moved toward Japan became the battle plan. The Japanese had underestimated how long it would take the US to rebuild the ships and planes destroyed at Pearl. We were soon on the offensive and worked our way toward the Japanese islands.

The war ended with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The official surrender occurred on August 15, 1945, VJ Day. The peace treaty was signed September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, named after President Truman’s home state.

The following sources may prove interesting reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_War
www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/index.html
www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/pacific-major-battles
www.ahctv.com/wwii-in-the-pacific