Pacific Theater
Daring Doolittle Raid Survivors
By Joseph ConnaughtonThe first good news in the war for the United States had been the Doolittle Raid on April 18. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Pacific Theater during World War II is generally regarded as the area of military confrontation between the Allied powers and Imperial Japan. The Pacific Theater consists of the entire operational expanse of the war from the Aleutian Islands in the north to Australia in the south, including island chains such as the Solomons, Gilberts, Marshalls, and Marianas. The China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater is also considered a major component of the Pacific Theater.
Pacific Theater
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
Pacific Theater
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
Pacific Theater
Island-Hopping at Tarawa
By John WalkerRear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki, commander of the elite Japanese garrison entrenched on tiny Betio Island in the central Pacific Ocean, boasted in mid-1943 that his heavily fortified island redoubt could hold out “against a million Americans for a thousand years.” Read more
Pacific Theater
FDR’s Dilemma: Did Politics Trump Strategy?
By Robert A. RosenthalIt was late November 1943, almost two years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II. Read more
Pacific Theater
Fateful Decision: The Dropping of the Atomic Bomb
By Flint WhitlockOn August 7, 1945, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, President Harry S. Truman announced, “The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East. Read more
Pacific Theater
Newly Identified Remains from the USS Oklahoma Makes News in Hawaii
By Michael HaskewOn the morning of December 7, 1941, the battleship USS Oklahoma was moored along Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, outboard of the battleship USS Maryland. Read more
Pacific Theater
Ernie Pyle: Fated at Ie Shima
By Roy Morris Jr.Ernie Pyle did not want to go to Okinawa. He was too old, too tired, and—some said—too jaded for yet another American invasion of ferocious enemy territory. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Tokyo War Crimes Trials
By Roy Morris Jr.When the Tokyo War Crimes Trials opened in the former hilltop headquarters of the Japanese military at Ichigaya on May 3, 1946, American-born chief prosecutor Joseph Keenan faced a difficult task. Read more
Pacific Theater
Fire Control at the Battle of Surigao Strait
by David Alan JohnsonOne of the main reasons for the success of the battleships West Virginia, Tennessee, and California at Surigao Strait was their Mk 8 fire control radar, which was used in conjunction with the Mk 8 rangekeeper computer. Read more
Pacific Theater
World War 2 Casualties & Caring for the Wounded
By Jon DiamondThe U.S. military employed an organized system for the treatment of soldiers severely wounded while fighting in the Pacific, including their evacuation stateside if needed. Read more
Pacific Theater
Clash in the Sibuyan: David McCampbell
by John WukovitsThe most decorated naval aviator of the war, David McCampbell entered the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea with the reputation as an ace. Read more
Pacific Theater
The Ill-Fated Goettge Patrol: General Alexander Vandergrift
by John WukovitsBorn in 1887 in Virginia, Alexander Archer Vandegrift was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1909. Read more
Pacific Theater
Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey
By Glenn BarnettJust before dawn, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise turned into the wind to launch her planes. Nervous and excited pilots roared into the darkness of the vast Pacific toward the unsuspecting Japanese. Read more
Pacific Theater
Charlie Bond’s Air Duels
By Bob BerginOn May 4, 1942, American Volunteer Group (AVG) pilots Charlie Bond and Bob Little were in the alert area at Paoshan, China, a small grass aerodrome just north of Burma. Read more
Pacific Theater
Veterans Day Special: A Gallery of Heroes
By Al HemingwayWhen the United States was plunged into World War II on December 7, 1941, more than 16 million Americans answered their country’s call and donned a uniform. Read more
Pacific Theater
MIS-X’s Shadowy Secrets: Aiding Allied POW Escapes
By Chuck LyonsDuring World War II, one American intelligence unit was so secret it was known only by its post office box number, 1142. Read more
Pacific Theater
Merrill’s Marauders Fought Tenaciously In Burma
By Michael D. HullA series of swift victories took Japanese troops to the gates of India in 1941-1942 when British and Indian units fell back to the Assam hills northwest of Burma. Read more
Pacific Theater
General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell
By Kevin M. HymelGeneral Joseph Stilwell was one of the United States’ best military commanders, yet in the course of America’s involvement in World War II he never led U.S. Read more
Pacific Theater
William Nolan: Remembering the Bataan Death March
By John WukovitsStaff Sergeant William Nolan dared not raise his hopes this August day in 1945, but something unusual was unfolding. Read more
