Japan
A Gamble for Peace: Ellis Zacharias & the South Pacific
By Todd Raffensperger“I submit that it was the wrong decision. It was wrong on strategic grounds. And it was wrong on humanitarian grounds.” Read more
Japan
Unnecessary Hell: The Battle of Peleliu
By Eric NiderostIn the predawn hours of September 15, 1944, the official start of the two-month Battle of Peleliu, a powerful fleet of U.S. Read more
Japan
Top Flying Tiger: General Claire Chennault
By Michael D. HullLaden with 500-pound bombs and incendiaries, 10 Japanese twin-engine Mitsubishi Ki21 Sally bombers took off from the Hanoi airfield in Indochina on the morning of Saturday, December 20, 1941. Read more
Japan
The Long Lance Torpedo at Guadalcanal
by David Alan JohnsonThe bogey man of the U.S. Navy during the Guadalcanal campaign was not the Zero fighter or the I-class submarine. Read more
Japan
The Battle of Peleliu: Was it necessary?
by Eric NiderostIf Peleliu was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Pacific Theater, it was also one of the least known until recently. Read more
Japan
Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki: Underwater Peril at Pearl Harbor
By John PerryDuring the early hours of December 7, 1941, five midget submarinesof the Imperial Japanese Navy waited to enter Pearl Harbor, the anchorage of the U.S. Read more
Japan
The USS Panay: First Step on the Road to War
By Eric NiderostAround 10 o’clock on the morning of December 13, 1937, New York Times correspondent Hallett Abend received an unexpected visitor: Rear Admiral Tadao Honda of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Read more
Japan
World’s First Smart Weapon: the ‘Bat’
By Alan AlpersOn May 27, 1945, U.S. Naval Reserve Lieutenant Leo Kennedy was patrolling from his station at Yonton Field in Okinawa. Read more
Japan
USS Rasher: The Legendary Undersea Warrior
By Kelly BellAt 12:30 am, October 9, 1943, Commander Edward S. Hutchinson spotted his first targets as a submarine commander. Read more
Japan
Hollywood’s Dream Factory During World War II
By Herb KugelWorld War II came to the Hollywood motion picture studios, the “Dream Factories” as they were sometimes called, the day after Pearl Harbor. Read more
Japan
Rescue at Ladd Reef
By Paul FaraceAs the submarine USS Cod left Apra harbor, Guam, on the afternoon of June 26, 1945, for her seventh war patrol, her crew of 97 officers and enlisted men were all but certain that their new assignment was to be junk hunting—a thankless and dangerous job that in the words of one Cod crewman saw “Uncle Sam risk a seven million dollar submarine and crew to sink a leaky sailboat not worth more than $20,000!” Read more
Japan
USS Astoria Sunk: The Disaster Off Savo Island
By John DomagalskiAdmiral Ernest King could not believe what he was reading. The graying 63-year-old chief of U.S. naval operations had been awoken from his sleep. Read more
Japan
The Shinano Carrier: How Allied Forces Sunk Such a Secret
By Kelly BellThe first torpedo struck the Shinano carrier farthest aft. Over the next 30 seconds three more warheads detonated against the massive aircraft carrier’s hull, working their way forward. Read more
Japan
The Battle of Cape Esperance: A Sorely Needed Naval Victory
By David Alan Johnson“One large, two small vessels, one six miles from Savo off northern beach, Guadalcanal. Will investigate closer.” Read more
Japan
Japan’s “Diving Shells” in the Battle of Cape Esperance
By David Alan JohnsonThe eight-inch shell that penetrated the cruiser’s hull and threatened to blow up her forward magazines was a Type 91 armor-piercing shell, which had been designed to continue through the water when it fell short of its target and penetrate the ship’s hull below the waterline. Read more
Japan
Japanese Transports Major Losses
By John W. WhitmanJapan had serious difficulties deploying her manpower, and a few examples illustrate some of the worst events. Read more
Japan
Boyd Wagner: Early American Ace
By Sam McGowanCommon wisdom has long held that Japanese pilots and aircraft, particularly their fighters, were superior to the American, Australian, and British counterparts they faced in combat in the Philippines and Southeast Asia in the opening months of U.S. Read more
Japan
Flying with the Jolly Rogers
By Glenn BarnettThe 90th Heavy Bombardment Group, known as the Jolly Rogers, was an element of the Fifth Air Force headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. Read more
Japan
Beasts of War
By Chuck LyonsNot all World War II heroes were men or women. Some were four-legged, hoofed, or winged. They included horses and mules, elephants, and dogs as well as more exotic animals such as bats, camels, reindeer, and pigeons. Read more
Japan
Vinegar Joe and the Burma Road
By William StroockWhen the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Joseph Stilwell was already a highly regarded officer. Read more
