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

25 The IC HI-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]

ICHI-GO and Operation KOGO (p 703) Stilwell’s Strategic Priorities (p 706) Field Marshall Shinroku Hata (p 707) Operation TOGO-I and the Battle of Changsha and Hengyang (p 708) The Cancellation of ANAKIM and Stilwell’s New Plan (p 710) The Training of X-Force (p 714) The Building of the Ledo Road (p 716) The Road to Myitkyina (p 718) The Battle of Myitkyina (p 718) The Battle of Mogaung (p 722) Myitkyina Falls at Last (p 723) Stilwell: Victory into Defeat (p 725) The Battles of Kweilin and Liuzhou (p 727) Stilwell’s Strategic Failures (p 729) ICHI-GO Runs out of Steam and the Future of Asia Deliberated at Yalta (p 731)

The Japanese Army, largely because of the diminution of the Japanese Navy and logistical constraints, had been virtually powerless to stop the Allied advance in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in 1943. Further losses were anticipated by Army GHQ in the following year, with General MacArthur expected to sweep up the northern New Guinea coast toward the Philippines. New Guinea was viewed as a holding operation to delay the inexorable American advance. With its shorter lines of supply, the Philippines was seen as the place to block MacArthur’s advance toward Japan. A great naval victory in this area was also hoped for. On the Asian continent the Japanese Army, not so dependent on naval supply, was logistically less constrained. Hence the Japanese Army’s focus at the beginning of 1944 was the establishment of a position of strength in China, Burma and Northern India. [Map: 25.1]

ICHI-GO and Operation KOGO: [Map: 25.2] On New Year’s day 1944, Chiang Kai-shek sent a cable to President Roosevelt in Washington warning him that the strategy agreed with Stalin at the Tehran Conference at the end of November 1943 [codenamed EUREKA], with its entire emphasis on the European front, would leave China open to attack. “Before long Japan will launch an all-out offensive against China.”1 Western intelligence sources disagreed. Meanwhile Chiang’s Chief of Staff, Joseph Stilwell, was more intent on the recapture of Burma from where he had been expelled two years earlier. Chiang would not have to wait long for his fears to be proved correct.

In April 1944, the launch of Operation IC HI-GO, the largest military operation in Japanese history, was part of a belated Japanese Army strategy to vanquish all of mainland Asia and was coordinated with Operation U-GO’s invasion of India. Clearly losing the maritime war in the Pacific, the Imperial Japanese Army determined on one last throw of the dice on the Asian mainland. If successful, overland supply lines from Burma to southern Korea could be secured. In addition Japan hoped for a bargaining chip with which to negotiate with America. If the Kuomintang government could be annihilated, America would be faced with having to invade and conquer China whose freedom had ostensibly been the casus belli of the Pacific War. Japan also hoped to interdict Chennault’s Tenth Air Force bombing of the Japanese home islands from bases in southern China. As Hirohito recalled in his Dokuhaku Roku (post-war testament),

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