Internet Resources
- The Pacific Strategy, 1941-1944On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet. When Germany and Italy declared war on the United States days later, America found itself in a global war.
- Pacific TheaterView resources and primary documents from History.com.
- World War II Asia-PacificAccess a detailed list of resources on the Asia-Pacific front of World War II from West Point.
- World War II in the PacificClick through this timeline to better understand how the Axis and Allies engaged in conflict throughout the Pacific between 1935 and 1945.
Perspectives
The Pacific
The extraordinary experiences of three men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day.
Tales of the South Pacific
Tales of the South Pacific is the iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece that inspired a Broadway classic and launched the career of James A. Michener, one of America's most beloved storytellers. This thrilling work invites the reader to enter the exotic world of the South Pacific and luxuriate in the endless ocean, the coconut palms, the waves breaking into spray against the reefs, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes. And yet here also are the men and women caught up in the heady drama of World War II- the young Marine who falls for a beautiful Tonkinese girl; the Navy nurse whose prejudices are challenged by a French aristocrat; and all the soldiers and sailors preparing for war against the seemingly peaceful backdrop of a tropical paradise.
Praise the Lord and Pass the Penicillin
He was a chemistry student in college on his way home for a visit when news of Pearl Harbor came over the car radio. Like 16 million others from his generation, Dean W. Andersen was called to active military duty and spent the next 38 months of his life as a medic in the Pacific war theater. This memoir shows that the human feelings of fear, loss, anger, hate, patriotism and solidarity were the same then as they have been for every war since. The experiences of the "greatest generation" can comfort and advise young people today who may well be faced with challenges as great as those met so long ago. Based on 93 letters written home to his wife and parents during his time away at war, this book includes information that was disallowed by censors and in some cases, cut out of his correspondence. Though the history of the European theater in World War II is well documented, considerably less information is available about the war in the Pacific. The author recalls the many aspects of his experience--from landing on beaches in the South Pacific amid exotic birds and animals and interacting with the people of New Guinea, to evacuating wounded soldiers through steaming jungles and snake-infested swamps and over high mountains, to facing machine gun fire and watching snipers kill the last man in a column of marchers. The book includes many interesting photographs that have never been published, including images of the Japanese surrender.
The Last Flight of Bomber 31
Through meticulous research and unprecedented interviews with Japanese and American combatants, award-winning author Ralph Wetterhahn provides a breathtaking account of the nose-to-tail air war between American and Japanese flyers above the Bering Sea. Dubbed riders of the "Empire Express," American pilots stationed in the Aleutians flew nine-hour missions, 1,500 miles round-trip in subzero temperatures, to bomb Japanese installations in the Kuril Islands. While on his ongoing quest to givea full account of MIAs and POWs, Wetterhahn investigated the crash sites of two Empire Express planes found in the Soviet Far East in 2000 and 2001, and here re-creates their crews' daunting exploits. With unrivaled mastery of aviation, warfare, and military forensic evidence, Wetterhahn rescues from obscurity the final moments of U.S. Navy pilot Walt S. Whitman, who made a forced landing with his crew on the Kamchatka Peninsula. He also details the missions flown by Japan's pilots and the fateof Japanese captured by the Soviets and interned in Siberia. This is a moving testament to the impulse to account for all servicemen left behind.
The Jersey Brothers
The extraordinary, real-life adventure of three brothers at the center of the most dramatic turning points of World War II and their mad race to change history--and save one of their own. They are three brothers, all Navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war's most crucial moments. Bill is picked by Roosevelt to run his first Map Room in Washington. Benny is the gunnery and anti-aircraft officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only carriers to escape Pearl Harbor and by the end of 1942 the last one left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest and least distinguished of the three, is shuffled off to the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm's way. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to the Philippines and listed as missing-in-action after a Japanese attack. Now it is up to Bill and Benny to find and rescue him. Based on ten years of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and primary sources including diaries, unpublished memoirs, and letters half-forgotten in basements, The Jersey Brothers is a remarkable story of agony and triumph--from the home front to Roosevelt's White House, and Pearl Harbor to Midway and Bataan. It is the story, written with intimate, novelistic detail, of an ordinary young man who shows extraordinary courage as the Japanese do everything short of killing him. And it is, above all, a story of brotherly love: of three men finding their loyalty to each other tested under the tortures of war--and knowing that their success or failure to save their youngest brother will shape their family forever.
The Bloody Hills of Peleliu
During World War II the Japanese defenders of Peleliu had dug a network of caves that enabled them to survive the bombardment by U.S. ships with few losses, and when the Marines came ashore on September 15, 1944, they met with ferocious resistance.
Source: AVON
World War II - The Pacific Theater
Aircraft carriers became the crucial weapon of the Pacific war. By mid-1945, Allied victory in the Pacific was assured. Japanese refusal to surrender and the prospect of a costly and difficult invasion of Japan prompted the new president, Harry Truman, to approve the use of the war's greatest secret weapon, the atomic bomb.
Source: Kanopy
Iwo Jima
The key Pacific enemy-occupied island of Iwo Jima is halfway between American-held bases in the Marianas and the Japanese home islands. The battle for the island will cost both sides dearly, but ultimately, the American flag is raised in triumph. This classic program incorporates authentic WWII archival film footage and accounts from soldiers on both sides of the battleline on Iwo Jima.
Source: AVON
Aldo Giannini: Pacific Theater
The story of WWII U.S. Marine veteran Aldo Giannini who fought in the infamous Battle of Tarawa. Enduring a shrapnel injury and witnessing a staggering 3,250 U.S. casualties, Aldo reflects on a battle which gained the U.S. very little in the war.
Source: AVON