Sean Sheehan - World War II. The Pacific

E-book published in 2012 by Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., in association with Arcturus Publishing Limited, 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151-153 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3HA. Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.

Please visit our web site at: www.worldalmanaclibrary.com
For a free color catalog describing World Almanac Librarys list of high-quality books
and multimedia programs, call 1-800-848-2928 (USA) or 1-800-387-3178 (Canada).
World Almanac Librarys fax: (414) 332-3567.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sheehan, Sean, 1951

World War II: The Pacific / by Sean Sheehan.

p. cm. (Atlas of conflicts)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61535-605-8 (e-book)

1. World War, 1939-1945CampaignsPacific AreaJuvenile literature. [1. World War, 1939-1945

CampaignsPacific AreaMaps for children.] I. Title. II. Series.

D767.S5296 2004

940.5426dc22

2004045159

This North American edition first published in 2005 by
World Almanac Library
330 West Olive Street, Suite 100
Milwaukee, WI 53212 USA

This U.S. edition copyright 2005 by World Almanac Library.
Original edition copyright 2004 by Arcturus Publishing Limited.
Additional end matter copyright 2005 by World Almanac Library.

Produced by Arcturus Publishing Limited.
Series concept: Alex Woolf
Editor: Philip de Ste. Croix
Designer: Simon Burrough
Cartography: The Map Studio
Consultant: Paul Cornish, Imperial War Museum, London
Picture researcher: Thomas Mitchell

World Almanac Library editor: Gini Holland
World Almanac Library design: Steve Schraenkler
World Almanac Library production: Jessica Morris

All the photographs in this book, except for that appearing on page , were supplied by Getty Images
and are reproduced here with permission. The photograph on page was taken by Joe Rosenthal and is reproduced courtesy of Popperfoto.

Editors Note:
In Japanese and Chinese, family names are placed first, but they are used in this book as given names as they were by the West during World War II. The exception is Mao Zedong, who continued as a leader until his death in 1976, and became internationally known, with correct reference to his family name, as Chairman Mao.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 08 07 06 05 04

Japanese troops parade through the Chinese city of Shanghai, which they captured in November 1937 after more than four months of fighting.

A fter many centuries of isolation from most of the world, Japan was well on its way to becoming a modern country by the 1930s. With seventy million people to feed, Japan welcomed Western technology but lacked natural resources, such as oil and rubber, which were vital for a modernizing country. Unlike nations such as Britain and France, Japan also lacked an overseas empire in Asia that could provide it with wealth and natural resources. To remedy this, Japan took aggressive action to occupy Manchuria (a region in northern China) in 1931. Six years later, Japan extended its control by going to war with China. This 1937 invasion of China, however, did not lead to a complete victory there.

A WAR ECONOMY

During the 1930s, governments in Japan spent more and more on their military buildup. These statistics show Japan developing a war economy.

Military budget as percentage of total government spending:

1931 29 percent

1932 38 percent

1933 39 percent

1934 44 percent

1935 47 percent

1936 48 percent

1937 72 percent

1938 75 percent

1939 72 percent

1940 66 percent

From The Oxford Companion to World War II, edited by I.C.B. Dear

When World War II started in 1939, it was at first a European war that mainly involved Germany fighting other western European nations. This outbreak of war in Europe encouraged Japanese leaders who saw further military expansion as the only way to make their country rich. By 1941, France and the Netherlands had been defeated by Germany, and Britain seemed reluctant to interfere. Japan seized this opportunity to take over the Asian colonies of these weakened European powers. The natural resources of these colonies would enable Japan to defeat China, build up its own empire, and stop relying on imports from hostile foreign countries like the United States.

THE UNITED STATES The United States was the major stumbling block to Japans ambitions. Although only the Philippines and a few islands in the Pacific were under U.S. control, the United States had its own ambitions in the region. The United States particularly wanted to influence events in China, and had no intention of sharing naval power in the Pacific with Japan. In 1941, Japan began to run out of essential imports after the United States restricted its trade. This economic war got more bitter when Japan moved into southern French Indochina (now Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). The United States and Britain froze all their Japanese funds and cut essential oil supplies to Japan.

Japan either had to back down, by withdrawing from Manchuria, China, and French Indochina, or seize control of both the European colonies in Asia and their natural resources. This would bring armed conflict with the U.S., but one way of dealing with this threat would be to launch a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy and destroy its Pacific fleet.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy, planned a surprise attack on Hawaii that was meant to destroy the U.S. fleet that had been stationed there since the previous year. In late November 1941, Yamamoto sent the code Climb Mount Niitaka for six Japanese aircraft carriers to set sail from the northeast of Japan and travel some 4,039 miles (6,500 km) to Hawaii, maintaining radio silence to avoid detection.

Japan, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the United States held possessions with key natural resources in the Southwest Pacific before war broke out in December 1941.

On December 7, early in the morning, 183 Japanese planes gathered in a V-formation after taking off from the six aircraft carriers positioned north of Hawaii. It took them more than an hour to reach the island of Oahu, guided to their target by music from a local radio station. Shortly before 8 A.M., bombs began to rain down on the islands harbor and airfields. A second wave of attackers arrived at 8:40 A.M. and inflicted more damage. U.S. losses totaled eighteen sunk or badly damaged ships, including six battleships, 162 aircraft, and the lives of 2,403 servicemen and civilians. The Japanese lost twenty-nine planes and their crews.