CHAPTER 15

Midway to Hiroshima

DEVASTATION ON THE BEACHES OF TARAWA IN THE GILBERT ISLANDS AS DAZED SURVIVORS SEARCH FOR THEIR FALLEN COMRADES. JAPANESE MACHINE-GUN POSITIONS HAD MADE SHORT WORK OF THE MARINES AS THEY EMPTIED FROM THEIR LANDING CRAFTS.

Buoyed up by their whirlwind successes of the previous six months, the Japanese decided to extend their outer defensive perimeter to the extreme west. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, intended to invade the easternmost island of the Hawaiian chain, Midway. In the north, he planned to take possession of the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska, off Alaska. After the conquest of these islands, Yamamoto intended to invade Hawaii itself. Then, he believed, the USA would be forced to surrender, leaving the Japanese masters of the entire Pacific area.

The Japanese lost four carriers, half their entire carrier fleet, hundreds of aircraft and over 3500 expertly trained pilots and seamen. These were losses the Japanese were never able to make up, and their relentless advance across the Pacific had been delivered its first and most decisive blow

To carry out his intricate battle plan, Yamamoto gathered together over 140 ships, including the four powerful aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu, and placed them under the command of the Pearl Harbor veteran, Vice-Admiral Nagumo. By splitting his forces in two, sending one force to the Aleutians, and concentrating the other on Midway, Yamamoto hoped to divide the already weakened US fleet. However, it was a plan that failed disastrously, as the surprise on which Yamamoto depended for success was blown wide open by US code-breakers, who had discovered that the Japanese attack was scheduled for 4 June 1942.

THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE USA’S FIGHTBACK IN THE PACIFIC, US ADMIRAL CHESTER NIMITZ, WHO TOOK CHARGE OF THE US PACIFIC FLEET AFTER REAR-ADMIRAL KIMMEL WAS DISMISSED FOLLOWING THE DISASTER AT PEARL HARBOR.

A JAPANESE CRUISER OF THE MOGAME CLASS ON FIRE AFTER BEING ATTACKED BY PLANES OF THE US TASK FORCE DURING THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY.

The battle opened with a Japanese raid by 35 dive-bombers, 36 torpedo bombers and 36 fighters on Midway Island. US planes stationed on Midway suffered heavy losses, but the resistance put up by the island’s defenders, who continued to raid the Japanese fleet, convinced Nagumo that a second raid was necessary before the invasion could take place. It was while his planes were refuelling and rearming on the carrier flight decks that disaster struck. The US carrier force, which Admiral Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific fleet, had been able to concentrate on Midway, now came into action with stunning effect. Within five minutes, the whole direction of the war in the Pacific was changed. Planes from the US carriers Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise plunged down on the Japanese fleet with little warning and, soon after, a suicidal raid by US torpedo-bombers wreaked confusion on board the Japanese ships. These carriers were sunk, forcing Nagumo to call off the invasion.

In total, the Japanese lost four carriers, half their entire carrier fleet, hundreds of aircraft and over 3500 expertly trained pilots and seamen. These were losses the Japanese were never able to make up, and their relentless advance across the Pacific had been delivered its first and most decisive blow. The US success was achieved despite their being heavily outnumbered by the Japanese in both planes and ships. Even more surprising was the fact that the pilots of the Enterprise and Hornet had never experienced carrier-to-carrier warfare before. Though the Americans lost the Yorktown, they had turned the tide of the war in the Pacific and seized an initiative they were never to relinquish.

LOADING A DEMOLITION BOMB ON BOARD THE USS ENTERPRISE DURING THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF THE ATTACK ON GUADALCANAL, WHICH COMMENCED 7 AUGUST 1942.

In spite of the disaster suffered at Midway, and the previous failure to take the Papua New Guinea capital, Port Moresby, the Japanese attempted to continue their advance in the south-western Pacific. If they could succeed in capturing Port Moresby, they would be only 300 miles north of Australia, and that would enable them to disrupt at will the supply lines between Australia and the USA.

General MacArthur, however, was determined to move onto the offensive. He launched two operations designed finally to stem the Japanese advance and begin the massive task of driving them back across thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean, where they had already begun to form their ‘South-East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’. To start with, MacArthur sought to lift the threat from Australia by clearing the Japanese from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Both tasks were made extremely difficult due to limited resources and the fanatical ferocity of the Japanese defence.

The Japanese had other ideas. A base was established at Buna, on the north coast of New Guinea, from which Japanese soldiers aimed to trek over the perilous Kokoda Trail, which ran across the Owen Stanley mountains, before dropping down to attack Port Moresby. With Australian troops, aided by local natives, resisting the Japanese advance, the USA began its assault on the Solomon Islands. On 8 August 1942, the US Marine Corps went ashore on Guadalcanal, so signalling the start of some of the most fearsome fighting of the entire Pacific campaign.

THE VAIN BUT BRILLIANT US GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR IN A CHARACTERISTIC POSE, WITH PIPE IN MOUTH.

General Hideki Tojo was the man directly responsible for Japan’s decision to go to war against the British and the USA. By the time he became prime minister in 1941, after serving as army minister since 1940, Tojo had already gained a well-deserved reputation as a military hard-liner. He was Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, which, quasi-independently, entered into full-scale war with China in 1937. Tojo was a committed nationalist who believed Japan’s army should play a leading role in the country’s government. The decision to attack Pearl Harbor was largely Tojo’s. The successes of the other Axis powers, Germany and Italy, in Europe during 1940 had convinced him that Japan should take advantage of the weakened state of the European imperialists to extend her own empire in the Pacific. In 1944, however, Japan’s spectacular victories began to turn into equally spectacular defeats. After the US capture of Saipan put Allied bombers within range of Japan, Tojo was forced to step down as prime minister. In 1948, after failing to commit suicide, he was hanged for war crimes and for planning to wage aggressive war.

US MARINES OFFERED FIERCE RESISTANCE TO THE JAPANESE IN ORDER TO DEFEND THE AIRFIELD ON GUADALCANAL. THE MEN ABOVE WERE AMONG THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE EFFORT.

US troops came ashore quickly, meeting little resistance, and proceeded to capture a half-constructed Japanese airfield. Renaming it Henderson Field, the Marines held on to it for dear life, as the US Navy on its own was hard pressed to supply them. Even without the airfield, the Japanese could reinforce their garrison on Guadalcanal. But the Japanese realised the importance of the airfield, and launched a huge offensive against it on 23–6 November. The Marines defended the airfield by every means at their disposal, from machine-guns and rifles to fists and boots.

While the fighting continued on Guadalcanal, General MacArthur had become concerned at the lack of progress being made against the Japanese in New Guinea. In order to get results, he sacked commanders whom he believed showed insufficient fighting spirit. MacArthur’s judgement was harsh. He had little knowledge of the conditions his US and Australian troops were fighting under, but his quest for results could not be denied. He told General Robert Eichelberger, the new man in charge, to take New Guinea or ‘not come back alive’. By December 1942, Eichelberger had taken Buna, providing the Allies with their first land victory in the Pacific campaign.

Meanwhile, Guadalcanal was proving a magnet for both the Japanese and the US forces. The Japanese military had no doubts about the island’s importance, describing the battle to hold it as ‘the fork in the road that leads to victory for them or us’. Groups of fast Japanese destroyers, dubbed the ‘Tokyo Express’ by US sailors, brought reinforcements in at night, while the US Navy did its utmost to stop them. By the end of the year, sufficient losses had been sustained by both sides to name the waters closest to the island ‘iron-bottomed sound’, but in the battle of attrition, the Japanese were slowly, but surely, coming off worse. By January 1943, they conceded the inevitable, as attempts to reinforce the island met with unacceptable casualties. Troop withdrawals began that same month, and the island was successfully evacuated by February.

MacArthur’s judgement was harsh. He had little knowledge of the conditions his US and Australian troops were fighting under, but his quest for results could not be denied. He told General Robert Eichelberger, the new man in charge, to take New Guinea or ‘not come back alive’

These Allied victories on Guadalcanal and New Guinea proved decisive. Now, the Allies could begin advancing up the Solomon Islands chain, towards Bougainville and the Bismarck Archipelago, where the Japanese had a massive naval base at Rabaul. Once these outposts of the Japanese Empire had been neutralised, the Allies could press on towards the Philippines and, eventually, to the Japanese home islands themselves.

An American war reporter on Tarawa described a typical scene: ‘As soon as (the flame-thrower) touched him, the Jap flared up like a piece of celluloid. He was dead instantly, but the bullets in his cartridge belt exploded for a full 60 seconds after he had been charred to almost nothingness’

In addition to the push towards Rabaul, moves were also under way to open up the central Pacific, and the Marshall Islands. On 20 November 1943, the Marines landed at Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. They quickly captured the 2.5-mile-long island, which was defended by 4500 Japanese. They fought for it, literally, to the last man, but at the cost of over 1000 US soldiers. Although US casualties were insignificant compared to those borne by the Japanese, the numbers of those killed and wounded shocked American public opinion. What they had to realise, though, was that the USA had to expect these levels of casualties every time they attempted to eject the Japanese from one of their hundreds of island strongholds. Japanese soldiers refused to surrender as a matter of routine, even when faced with overwhelming firepower, numbers, resources and certain death. Their determination to fight to the finish made the war in the Pacific especially bitter and particularly bloody.

US soldiers had to use flame-throwers and dynamite to bring the Japanese out of their coconut log pillboxes. An American war reporter on Tarawa described a typical scene: ‘As soon as (the flame-thrower) touched him, the Jap flared up like a piece of celluloid. He was dead instantly, but the bullets in his cartridge belt exploded for a full 60 seconds after he had been charred to almost nothingness.’

US MARINES ON TARAWA PREPARE TO BREAK OUT OF THE BEACHHEAD AND MAKE FOR THE JAPANESE AIR STRIP. THE STRUGGLE FOR THIS ISLAND, LITTLE LARGER THAN NEW YORK’S CENTRAL PARK, COST THE USMC OVER 1000 DEAD.

The Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, hoped that this fanatical resistance would enable the Japanese Empire to make up the massive gap in wealth and military resources that existed between the USA and Japan. He believed that the US troops, whom the Japanese had considered ‘soft’, would tire of receiving this kind of punishment as they pushed across the Pacific Ocean towards the Japanese home islands. Tojo, however, was sadly mistaken if he thought the Allies lacked the resolve to pursue the war to total victory.

President Roosevelt and his commanders were both impressed and horrified by resistance shown by the Japanese and they developed strategies to deal with it. One was the new military technique that became known as ‘island-hopping’. The other was the invention of a super weapon that would change the shape of warfare for ever.

‘Island-hopping’ was a process whereby the USA could use its superiority at sea and in the air to capture the smaller and weaker Japanese-held islands, then use the occupied territory to establish new bases that would isolate and neutralise the larger Japanese concentrations in the area. One such base to be indirectly assaulted in this way was Rabaul. Once islands surrounding Rabaul had been seized, in 1944, the base was isolated and left to ‘wither on the vine’. This technique saved money, time and, most vitally, lives. By 1944, using the ‘island-hopping’ strategy, the USA was ready to begin the liberation of the Philippines.

AS THE ISLAND-HOPPING STRATEGY BEGINS TO PAY OFF, ALLOWING THE USA TO COMMENCE THE LIBERATION OF THE PHILIPPINES, THESE US MARINES TAKE A MOMENT TO LEND A MORE PERSONAL HELPING HAND.

THE US COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

As the island-hopping proceeded, so did the work on a super weapon designed to bring about a speedy Japanese surrender. The atomic bomb was also designed to make sure that the Allies beat the Germans to the making of this most deadly of weapons. Most of the early work undertaken by the Allies on the bomb had been done in Britain, but the British lacked the resources to pursue the research to its conclusion. The project was therefore passed on to the USA soon after it joined the war in December 1941. President Roosevelt devoted the $2 billion necessary for the project, and US, British, Canadian and other scientists began a race against time to complete the bomb before their enemies got there first.

The USA destroyed 26 Japanese ships and damaged another 25, but their victory was not without loss. One US carrier was wiped out by a new Japanese weapon, the kamikaze pilot, a title that meant ‘divine wind’

Despite, or because of, the increasingly swift Allied advance across the Pacific, Japanese resistance, already dogged, became increasingly fanatical. The Japanese High Command decided that the Philippines must be defended at all costs and, accordingly, the warscarred remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy were committed to the destruction of the American invasion force. The confrontation on 24 and 25 October 1944 became known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf and remains to this day the biggest single naval battle ever fought. The Japanese plan was simple. The Imperial Navy’s remaining aircraft carriers would be used as bait to draw off the US ships defending the invasion force, while Japanese battleships attacked the undefended troops coming ashore.

Unlike any previous conflict, the Second World War affected soldiers and civilians, men and women in equal measure, and American women lost no time in answering the call to work for the war effort in factories as well as the newly established female branches of the armed services. Following the example of the tough ‘can do’ propaganda poster, ‘Rosie the Riveter’, American women poured into the munitions factories to ensure that manufacturing levels were not adversely affected by the industry’s loss of men to the armed forces.

American women, unlike their British counterparts, were not conscripted to the war effort; high wages alone proved sufficient encouragement for more than six million to enter the workforce. Yet, even though their wages often increased, women found their average earnings were still only half that of men. By 1944 American women made up just one-third of a workforce dedicated to producing not only the munitions that the USA needed to take on the armed might of Japan and Germany, but also a quarter of Britain’s needs and 10 per cent of the Soviet Union’s.

In the event, however, the Imperial Navy suffered yet another crushing blow, and one that was to end its days as an effective fighting force. US submarines, torpedo boats and aircraft carriers proved more than equal to the challenge offered them by the world’s two largest warships, the Yamato and the Musashi. Most of the Japanese fleet was sent to the bottom after they failed to realise that their plan was on the verge of success, and committed a tactical blunder that led to their total destruction. The USA destroyed 26 Japanese ships and damaged another 25, but their victory was not without loss. One US carrier was wiped out by a new Japanese weapon, the kamikaze pilot, a title that meant ‘divine wind’. The kamikaze, on a one-way mission with his plane full of explosives, effectively committed suicide for his emperor. After performing sacred rituals, he left his base with the intention of crashing his aircraft into the nearest Allied target. As the war in the Pacific reached its final stage, the kamikaze pilot and others who were, likewise, prepared to kill themselves for the emperor, played an increasingly prominent role.

JAPANESE KAMIKAZE SUICIDE PILOTS PRESENT THEIR EMPEROR WITH A FINAL BOW BEFORE CLIMBING ON BOARD THEIR EXPLOSIVE-FILLED PLANES, WHICH THEY HOPE TO CRASH LAND INTO THE US FLEET.

DURING THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF, DESTROYERS OF THE US FLEET LAID SMOKESCREENS TO PROTECT ALLIED SHIPS FROM ATTACK BY THE JAPANESE.

The invasion of Japan was not a prospect the USA contemplated with relish. The Imperial Japanese Army and Navy had, for the last four years, displayed a desperate and suicidal wish to defeat them

With the Japanese fleet destroyed, the Americans were able to secure Leyte, and then press on north to the largest island of the Philippines group, Luzon. MacArthur fulfilled his pledge to return, and by 3 March 1945 Manila was once more in US hands. Although it was not yet clear to all those involved, the war in the Pacific had entered its final phases. By the time US troops entered Manila, the Marine Corps was well on the way to capturing Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island whose airstrips put B-29 bombers within range of Japan, and were beginning preparations for the capture of Okinawa in the Ryukus, the southernmost group of the Japanese home islands.

As had occurred many times before right across the Pacific, the Marines’ initial landings on Okinawa met with little initial resistance. But the ferocity of the Japanese will to fight back against the massive military strength of the USA had lost none of its fury. If anything, this close to the heartland of Japan, it increased. By the time the Marines had taken Okinawa on 22 June, there had been nearly 2000 kamikaze attacks, 20 or 30 per day, causing appalling damage to the US landing fleet and the Marines themselves. Yet, for all the losses they caused, the kamikaze attacks could not change the course of the war. With the capture of Okinawa, the Allies not only had another airstrip from which to carry out air raids on Japan, they also had a base from which Japan itself could be invaded.

A RARE SIGHT. JAPANESE TROOPS SURRENDER ON OKINAWA. MANY JAPANESE PREFERRED SUICIDE TO CAPTURE, YET THESE NAVAL TROOPS HAVE GIVEN THEMSELVES UP UNDER THE COVER OF THE WHITE FLAG TO A MEMBER OF THE US MARINE CORPS.

The invasion of Japan was not a prospect the USA contemplated with relish. The Imperial Japanese Army and Navy had, for the last four years, displayed a desperate and suicidal wish to defeat them. They had refused to surrender time and time again, and when resistance could no longer change the final outcome, Japanese forces had displayed a desire simply to kill as many Americans as possible before they themselves died. US Army chiefs estimated that the invasion of Japan might take until 1946 or 1947 to complete and could cost upwards of one million American dead. To lessen these expected casualties, the Americans were keen to have Stalin’s Red Army help in the invasion.

ABOVE: SURVIVORS OF THE BLAST. WELL OVER ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY THE EXPLOSION AND THE AFTEREFFECTS OF THE RADIATION IT RELEASED.

BELOW: THE CREW OF THE ENOLA GAY, THE B-29 THAT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB OVER HIROSHIMA, POSE FOR A SNAPSHOT SHORTLY BEFORE TAKE-OFF, AUGUST 1945.

THE RUINS OF HIROSHIMA, AUGUST 1945. THE ATOMIC BOMB UNLEASHED UNBELIEVABLE DEVASTATION ON WHAT WAS A THRIVING JAPANESE CITY.

Harry S. Truman (had to) decide whether or not to drop the new atomic bomb on Japan. Truman believed he had little choice but to use the bomb

The Soviet dictator, welcoming the chance to extend his influence into Manchuria and Japan itself, agreed, though he did not declare war on Japan until 8 August 1945.

Air strikes were the inevitable prelude to the invasion, but while they were in progress, an extremely difficult choice had to be made. President Roosevelt had died suddenly on 12 April, and it fell to his Vice-President, Harry S. Truman, who succeeded him, to decide whether or not to drop the new atomic bomb on Japan. Truman believed he had little choice but to use the bomb. No matter how dreadful it was, it could shorten the war and save American lives.

On 6 August 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. This new device unleashed an explosive force equivalent to 20,000 tons of high explosive, killing some 78,000 people and injuring another 78,000. Hiroshima itself was virtually vapourised, blasted out of existence by the awesome power harnessed inside a single bomb. On 9 August after Hiroshima failed to prompt a Japanese surrender, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. This time, 26,000 died and over 40,000 were injured. The dead, however, were the lucky ones, for the wounded suffered in ways never seen before as radiation burned and slowly poisoned them. Decades later, the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still dying. The Americans had ended a war with the most fearsome weapon ever devised and one that would cast its malignant shadow over generations yet unborn.

THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE USS MISSOURI GATHER TO WATCH THE JAPANESE DELEGATION ARRIVE TO SIGN THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENT OF SURRENDER, TOKYO BAY, 1945.

THE JAPANESE DELEGATION ARRIVES.

Six days later, on 14 August, the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, who was regarded as divine by his subjects, made his first-ever radio broadcast. Hirohito explained to his people, who were hearing his voice for the first time, that ‘the war has developed, not necessarily to our advantage’. It was as close as the Emperor could get to admitting defeat. On 28 August, US troops began the occupation of Japan, and on 2 September General MacArthur accepted the official capitulation on board USS Missouri, moored off Tokyo Bay. With the end of the fighting in the Pacific, the Second World War reached its final conclusion, almost six years to the day after it had begun.

IN HAWAII, WHERE IT ALL STARTED FOR THE USA, EARLY RISING WORKERS AND SERVICE MEN CELEBRATE THE JAPANESE SURRENDER AND THE ALLIED VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC, REPRESENTING THE CLOSING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR’S FINAL CHAPTER.

The prelude to the Allied invasion of Japan was an intensive bombing campaign designed to cripple Japan’s war economy, communications, resources and will to fight. Unfortunately, such widespread strategic bombing inevitably led to horrific numbers of civilian casualties.

US raids over Japan proper began towards the end of 1944. The principal aircraft used was the B-29 ‘Super-fortress’. As the offensive progressed, debate grew within the US Army Air Force about the most effective tactics. Eventually, after some heart-searching, precision bombing was abandoned in favour of the carpet bombing of Japan’s cities, which often contained houses built of paper and wood as a defence against earthquakes. Consequently, the incendiaries delivered in low-level night-time attacks, using up to 500 bombers at a time, led to firestorms right across Japan. The authorities were helpless in the face of this gargantuan assault. Attempts by civilians to put out the flames were pathetic. All they had was the regulation sandbag and bucket of water to contend with a phenomenal 10 million incendiary bombs, many containing napalm, which rained down from the skies. Many Japanese families who attempted to escape the flames by hiding in water tanks were later found dead after being boiled alive. By July 1945, nearly one million Japanese civilians had been killed as firestorms ate their way through Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Kawasaki and Yokohama.