From Paul Holsinger's Colloquium 5

UNITED STATES MILITARY ACTIVITY IN THE PACIFIC THEATER
December 7, 1941-September 2, 1945
A Brief Chronology

1941

December 7: Japanese Naval Forces Attack the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Other attacks occur on Guam, Wake Island, and Midway

December 8: Japanese begin their offensive in the Philippines on
Luzon and Mindanao

December 23: American Naval and Marine personnel surrender
Wake Island after two weeks of holding out

1942

January 2: Japanese Forces Occupy Manila. American Forces
Under Douglas MacArthur retreat to the Bataan Peninsula

January-February: American Naval Forces stopped repeatedly in counter-attacks on Japanese forces in the Pacific

February 27-29: International Naval Force including United States
Navy almost totally eliminated in the Battle of the Java Sea

March 11: MacArthur leaves the Philippines with a promise to Return.
First American Forces begin to arrive inthe Pacific including garrisoning
New Caledonia and Australia

April 9: American Forces on Luzon Surrender. The Bataan Death March begins

April 18: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and Other Japanese cities takes place

May 2-8 Battle of the Coral Sea. Japanese plans to Attack Australia repelled

May 6: General Wainwright Surrenders Corregidor and Calls On All American Troops to Do Likewise

May 10: Last Official American Surrender in the Philippines.
The Greatest Single Defeat of American Forces In History

June 4-6: The Battle of Midway. America's First Dramatic Victory in
World War II and a Prelude of the Future

June 6-7: Japanese Forces Capture Attu and Kiska Islands in the Aleutians

August 7: American Marines Begin to Land on Guadalcanal in the Solomons Islands

August 17: The "Gung-Ho" Raid by American Marine Raiders on Makin Island in the Gilberts

August-December: Continual Bloody Fighting takes Place on Guadalcanal.
The American Forces slowly begin to win

November 19: American Army Forces begin to Attack New Guinea

1943

February 9: American Victory on Guadalcanal. More than 10,000
Japanese killed in battle; 1600+ Americans die. All signs point to an ominous future before American forces can defeat the entrenched Japanese in the Pacific

March 2-4: Naval Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Japanese reinforcements to
New Guinea turned back. A major American victory at sea

April 18: American planes shoot down and kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto,
the planner of Pearl Harbor and the Commander of the Japanese Combined
Fleet in the Pacific

May 11: American Forces Attack Attu in the Aleutians

May 29: Attu Recaptured after weeks of bloody fighting

July 3: American Forces Attack New Georgia in the Solomons

August 15: American and Canadian Forces Recapture Kiska in
the Aleutians

November 1: American Attacks Begin on Bougainville in the Solomons

November 20: United States Marines Land on Tarawa in the Gilberts.
Last Fighting takes place on the 23rd with the Japanese Forces annihilated
but more than a 1000 Americans dead

December 26: First Marine Corps Division Lands on New Britain
Near Cape Gloucester

1944

January-March: Systematic destruction of Japanese Forces continues on Bougainville despite heavy enemy counterattacks

January 31: American Marine Forces begin landing on Kwajalein Atoll in the
Marshall Islands. Japanese surrender on February 4th but not until nearly
everyone of the 8700 defenders have been killed

February 17: U.S. Forces Attack Eniwetok in the Marshalls. Last Fighting takes place on the 23rd with only 66 Prisoners taken out of 3400 Japanese defenders

June 14-17: Battle of the Philippine Sea ("The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"): A Great American Naval Victory

June 15: First American Landings on Saipan. Last organized Resistance takes
place on July 9th with more than 27000 dead on the Japanese side

July 21: American Forces return to Guam when the 3rd Marines begin
landing troops. Three days later, more Americans storm the beaches of Tinian

September 15: First Marines begin to Land on Peleliu in the Palaus
ostensibly to help the planned American attack on the Philippines

October 20: The American Army begins to land on Leyte as
MacArthur "returns"

October 25-26: Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Largest Naval Battle in History
results in a Great American Victory and the virtual decimation of the
Japanese Navy

November: First Concentrated Kamikaze Attacks on the American Navy
begin off the Philippines

December 31: Leyte Falls with nearly 70,000 Dead Japanese Defenders.
American forces lose 15,000 killed and wounded.

1945

January 9: American Forces begin landing on Luzon

February 4: U.S. Forces reach the Outskirts of Manila and Prepare to Meeting more than 20,000 entrenched Japanese defenders in the city

February 19: U. S. Marines land on Iwo Jima . Four days later, the American flag is raised on Mount Suribachi but the goes on for three more months before the Japanese are finally defeated

March 3: Last Japanese Resistance in Manila. Nearly all 20,000 defenders killed and the city virtually destroyed in the American victory

March 9-10: American Incendiary Firebombing of Tokyo.
Estimates Place the Dead between 80,000 and 120,000.

April 1: On Easter, American Marines and Army personnel land on Okinawa
in the Ryukyu Islands

April 7: The Suicide Run of the Japanese Battleship the Yamato ends in the American destruction of the great ship and its crew of more than 2000 men.

April 11-June Kamikaze Attacks on the American Fleet off of
Okinawa Intensify

April- May: Systematic Destruction of Japanese Resistance in the Philippines. Meanwhile, the bloodletting on Okinawa continues

June 22: Fighting on Okinawa Comes to an End with 12,500 American dead
and 35,500 wounded. 120,000 Japanese military personnel and 42,000 civilians
die in the battles.

June 28: General MacArthur announces an end to the Fighting on Luzon even
though there are still many Japanese still fighting

July 10: First 1000-Plane American Raid on Tokyo

July 24: President Harry Truman determines to use the newly developed Atomic Bomb on Japan unless it agrees to surrender. Materials to assemble the bomb(s) sent to Tinian Island

July 29-30: The U.S. Indianapolis sunk returning from carrying
Atomic Bombs to Tinian.

August 6: First Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima. About 80,000 killed
and many more hurt

August 9: Second Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki. "Only" about
40,000 killed

August 15: VJ Day, one day after Emperor Hirohito accepts
unconditional surrender

September 2: The Japanese surrender on board the U. S. battleship Missouri

FIGHTING TO THE BITTER END
The Japanese Army in the Pacific Theater
1945

From Paul Holsinger's Colloquium 5

The American bombing campaign on Japan devastated that island nation. Some of the many statistics include the following:

Tokyo-56.3 sq. miles destroyed (50.8% of the city)
Kobe-8.8 sq. miles destroyed (56.1% of the city)
Osaka-15.6 sq. miles destroyed (26.1% of the city)
Yokohama-8.9 miles destroyed (44.1 % of the city)

In some smaller cities, American firebombing wiped out anywhere from
90%-100%. This, along with the U.S.'s "Operation Starvation" plan at sea, had clearly brought Japan to its knees economically long before August '45.

On the other hand, though the war with Japan came to an official end with the signing of surrender terms on board the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2, 1945, it was, however, many more weeks before the last Japanese armed forces finally surrendered throughout the Pacific. An example of those dates include:

Wake Island September 6, 1945

Rabaul September 6, 1945

New Britain September 8, 1945

Boreno September 8, 1945

Korea September 9, 1945

Singapore September 12, 1945

New Guinea September 13, 1945

Sumatra October 21, 1945

Saigon November 30, 1945

The last Japanese solider on Guam finally surrendered in 1960. The last Japanese soldiers of the war finally stopped "fighting" in the Philippines in 1972.

Accurate figures for the total Japanese dead during the war are, at best, speculative. Military deaths, however, top 1,500,000. There were also at least 300,000 civilian deaths, mainly from the American bombing both before the dropping of the Atomic Bombs and after them.