Existing comment:
World War II -- War in the Pacific
Tightening the Noose --
Even as the United States was completing its capture of the islands east of Japan, it began bombing the Japanese homeland.
In October 1944, General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines (he was forced to evacuate in March 1942) and began pushing back the Japanese. The Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa fell in March and June of 1945. Meanwhile, the Army Air Forces started a strategic bombing campaign against Japanese cities that met little resistance and had devastating effects. The government of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo fell in July 1944, after the loss of Saipan to the Allies. Still, Japanese militarists retained power and resisted surrender, bringing continual destruction on their own people. An invasion of Japan appeared inevitable.
The Strategic Air Campaign --
The United States tailored its bombing campaign in Japan to cause maximum devastation and break the Japanese will to fight.
In March 1945, U.S. bombers changed tactics. Instead of flying high-altitude daylight runs against industrial targets, they began low-flying nighttime attacks on cities, with incendiary bombs. Firestorms devastated property and killed civilians as well as soldiers and factory workers. On the night of March 9-10, for example, U.S. bombers destroyed sixteen square miles of Tokyo and killed close to 100,000 men, women, and children. By mid-June, most of Japan's major cities were destroyed. Aerial mines were dropped in harbors while the U.S. Navy launched carrier air attacks against coastal targets. Still the Japanese fought on. |