Contents - Hirohito's War

Appendices
Map, Diagram, Drawing and Chart List
Notes and Additional Resources
Acknowledgments
Introduction and Background


PART I    Meiji Restoration: 1868
1 Empires in Conflict
[1868–1931]
[Maps: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11]
[Photos]
 
PART II    Japan versus America and the World: 1931–1941
2 Ultra-nationalism and the Death of Democracy
[1930–1936]
[Maps: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4]
[Photos]
3 Japan versus China: From Phoney War to Total War
[1937–1941]
[Maps: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6]
[Photos]
4 Mobilization for War in Asia: America and Japan
[1931–December 1941]
[Map: 4.1 A] [Chart: 4.1 B] [Map: 4.2] [Chart: 4.3]
[Photos]
 
PART III   Hirohito’s Whirlwind Conquests:
December 1941–June 1942
5 Pearl Harbor: Yamamoto’s Great Mistake
[7 December 1941 in Hawaii and Washington: 8 December 1941 in Tokyo]
[Drawing: 5.1] [Maps: 5.2, 5.3, 5.4]
[Photos]
6 Plan ORANGE and MacArthur’s Philippines Debacle
[December 1941–April 1942]
[Maps: 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 ]
[Photos]
7 Invasion of Malaya: Yamashita’s ‘Bicycle Blitzkrieg’
[December 1941–February 1942]
[Maps: 7.1 A, 7.1 B, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5]
[Photos]
8 Fall of Singapore: Churchill’s Sacrificial Pawn
[January 1942–February 1942]
[Map: 8.1]
[Photos]
9 Burma Corps: Humiliation Then a Fighting Retreat
[January 1941–May 1942]
[Maps: 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5 ]
[Photos]
10 Dutch East Indies and Japan’s Quest for Oil
[December 1941–June 1942]
[Maps: 10.1, 10.3, 10.4, ] [Diagram 10.2 ]
[Photos]
 
PART IV   ‘Victory Disease’: Japan’s Reversal of Fortune:
June–December 1942
11 Limits of Empire: Doolittle and New Military Strategies
[February 1942–May 1942]
[Maps: 11.1 A, 11.1 B, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6 A, 11.6 B, 11.7]
[Photos]
12 Battle of the Coral Sea: The First Carrier ‘Shoot-Out’
[April 1942–May 1942]
[Maps: 12.1 A, 12.1 B, 12.2]
[Photos]
13 Battle of Midway: Nimitz’s Lucky Day
[4–7 June 1942]
[Maps: 13.1, 13.2, 13.3]
[Photos]
14 Battles of the Kokoda Trail: Aussies Triumphant
[June 1942–September 1942]
[Maps: 14.1, 14.2, 14.3 ]
[Photos]
15 Guadalcanal: Battles of Tulagi, Savo Island, Tenaru and East Solomons
[May 1942–August 1942]
[Maps: 15.1, 15.2 A, 15.2 B, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7 ]
[Photos]
16 Guadalcanal: Battle of Edson’s (Bloody) Ridge
[August 1942–November 1942]
[Maps: 16.1, 16.2, 16.3]
[Photos]
17 Guadalcanal: Henderson Field and the Santa Cruz Islands
[September 1942–January 1943]
[Maps: 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 17.5]
[Photos]
18 Battles of Buna-Gona-Sanananda: MacArthur’s Lies and Neglect
[November 1942–February 1943]
[Maps: 18.1, 18.2 ]
[Photos]
19 Guadalcanal: Battle of Tassafaronga and Final Reckonings
[October 1942–February 1943]
[Maps: 19.1, 19.2 ]
[Photos]
 
PART V  Toil and Sweat: The Pacific, India, Burma, and China:
January 1943–June 1944
20 Battle of the Bismarck Sea: Tipping Point of US Air Supremacy
[January 1943–March 1943]
[Drawing 20.1]   [Maps: 20.2, 20.3, 20.4, 20.5, 20.6, 20.7]
[Photos]
21 Yamamoto Assassinated and the Battle of New Georgia
[March 1943–October 1943]
[Maps: 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 21.4 A, 21.4 B, 21.5, 21.6 ]
[Photos]
22 The Huon Peninsula: Operation CARTWHEEL Completed
[September 1943–April 1944]
[Maps: 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4 ]
[Photos]
23 The Isolation of Rabaul and the Starvation of Bougainville
[November 1943–August 1945]
[Maps: 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, 23.4, ]
[Photos]
24 The Battles of Arakan, Imphal, and Kohima: Slim Boxes Clever
[August 1943–July 1944]
[Maps: 24.1, 24.2, 24.3, 24.4, 24.5, 24.6, 24.7, 24.8 ]
[Photos]
25 The ICHI-GO Campaign and the Battle of Myitkyina
[January 1944–August 1945]
[Maps: 25.1, 25.2, 25.3, 25.4, 25.5, 25.6, 25.7, 25.8, 25.9, 25.10 ]
[Photos]
26 Battle for China: FDR, Chiang, Mao, and ‘Vinegar Joe’
[January 1942–August 1945]
[Charts: 26.1, 26.2 ]
[Photos]
27 Jump to Hollandia: MacArthur’s Greatest Victory
[March 1944–October 1944]
[Maps: 27.1, 27.2, 27.3, 27.4, 27.5, 27.6 ]
[Photos]
28 Pacific Island Hop: The Gilberts, Marshalls, and Carolines
[May 1943–June 1944]
[Maps: 28.1, 28.2, 28.3, 28.4, 28.5, 28.6 ]
[Photos]
 
PART VI   
29 The Great Marianas ‘Turkey Shoot’
[February 1944–June 1944]
[Maps: 29.1, 29.2 ] [Chart: 29.3]
[Photos]
30 The Invasions of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam: General Tojo Upended
[June 1944–August 1945]
[Maps: 30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4, 30.5 ]
[Photos]
31 The Battle of Leyte Gulf: ‘Bull’ Halsey’s Mad Dash for Glory
[October 1944]
[Maps: 31.1, 31.2, 31.3, 31.4, 31.5, 31.6 ]
[Photos]
32 “I Have Returned”: MacArthur Regains the Philippines
[October 1944–August 1945]
[Maps: 32.1, 32.2, 32.3, 32.4, 32.5, 32.6 ]
[Photos]
33 The Battle of the Irrawaddy River: Slim’s ‘Mandalay Feint’
[January 1945–May 1945]
[Maps: 33.1, 33.2 ]
[Photos]
 
PART VII   
34 Iwo Jima: The Iconic Battle of the Pacific War
[February 1945–March 1945]
[Maps: 34.1, 34.2, 34.3 ]
[Photos]
35 The Battle of Okinawa: Slaughter of the Innocents
[April 1945–August 1945]
[Maps: 35.1, 35.2, 35.3 ]
[Photos]
36 LeMay’s B-29 Superfortresses over Japan: Cities in Ashes
[April 1944–August 1945]
[Maps: 36.1, 36.2, 36.3, 36.4 ]
[Photos]
37 Potsdam, Hirohito, and the Atom Bomb
[July 1945–August 1945]
[Drawings: 37.1, 37.2 ] [Maps: 37.3, 37.4 ] [Charts: 37.5, 37.6]
[Photos]

Index

11 Limits of Empire: Doolittle and New Military Strategies

[February 1942–May 1942]

[Maps: 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7]

The ARCADIA Conference (p 319) Size Matters: The Limits of Empire (p 319) Victory Disease (p 321) Japan’s Indian Ocean Raid and Divided Strategies (p 324) The American Strategic Dilemma (p 326) The Logistics of Supply to China (p 328) Roosevelt Agrees an Airlift (p 330) The Hump (p 331) The Ledo–Burma Road: The Strategic Need for a Land Supply Route to China (p 336) The Restructuring of US Naval Command (p 338) Admiral Nimitz: The Cool Commander (p 339) Admiral ‘Bull’ Halsey: The Fighting Admiral (p 341) America’s Fight Back Begins (p 343) Public Relations and Roosevelt’s Plan to Bomb Japan (p 345) Lieutenant-Colonel ‘Jimmy’ Doolittle (p 346) The Doolittle Raid (p 347) Intended and Unintended Consequences of the Doolittle Raid (p 350)

The ARCADIA Conference: [Map: 11.1] With America drawn into the war with Germany by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Churchill and Roosevelt quickly needed to determine how the war with Germany, Italy and Japan should be fought and what were to be its objectives. The First Washington Conference (ARCADIA ) took place at a series of meetings in Washington between 22 December 1941 and 14 January 1942. The first declaration from the conference appeared on 1 January 1942 and was clearly intended as a New Year declaration of intention. Twenty-six Allied nations (not including France whose Vichy Government had allied itself with Nazi Germany) declared that they would adhere to the principles of the Atlantic Charter signed by Britain and America on 12 August 1941. In hindsight it can be seen that this declaration foreshadowed the creation of the United Nations. The Atlantic Charter gave warning that total war would be waged until total victory had been achieved. There was also an undertaking that each nation would not conclude a separate peace with their enemies. At a stroke Japan’s notion that it could fight a limited war and force America to the negotiating table was demolished.

In the course of the conference, British and American military committees worked out details of co-operation. The outcome was a formal standing organization known as the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS ) that was permanently established in Washington for the coordination and management of British and American war efforts. Although there were frequent disagreements within this organization, it worked in a largely productive manner for the duration of the war. Noticeably it was not something replicated by the Axis powers, though for reasons of geography and logistics it is arguable that Germany and Japan were never in a position to support each other.

Perhaps the most important decision of the conference, and one from which the Allies never wavered, was that, notwithstanding Pearl Harbor, the war in Europe would take precedence over the war in Asia. For Churchill this decision was a huge relief. For Asia, it meant that the Allied response to the rapid expansion of the Japanese Empire would necessarily be compromised.

Size Matters: The Limits of Empire: The whole premise of Japan’s aggressive military action in attacking the United States was to retain its gains in China and to expand on them so as to create a Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. An Asian bloc with Japan

......[This is a partial extract from the chapter. To purchase the book from an online bookseller, click here].