 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
When Japan invaded China to protect its interests the United States
waited until the summer of 1941 to retaliate with a trade embargo to cut
the country's oil supply.This was done after negotiations had failed to
halt Japan's aggression in China. It was the final act which led the
Japanese to decide to prepare for war against the United States and was
Kaisen Zen-ya - "the eve of war."Their objective was to sink the United
States Pacific Fleet so it would not interfere with Japan's conquest of
the East Indies and the Philippines for the area's supplies of oil and
other strategic resources. At that time the Philippine Islands was
U.S. territory.
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese launched an air strike at
Shinjuwa (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) which consisted of 6 aircraft carriers,
183 planes,2 battleships,2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser,9
destroyers,3 submarines and 8 oilers. The day's rising sun brought with
it the dawn of war. In response to the Shunobu's coded fleet signal of
"Niitaka-Yama-Mobere" ("Climb Mount Nitaka"), Japan's "Wild Eagles" dove
out of a morning sky to reek death and destruction on a sleeping
American fleet of 145 ships... all at anchor. The U. S. territory of
Guam was attacked, partly by forces stationed on Saipan, and conquered
by the Japanese on December 10th.
The Northern Marianas would not play a major role in the war for
another two and one-half years. United States war planning groups had
developed a course of action known as the "Appreciation And Plan For The
Defeat Of Japan." This plan recognized that the most effective way to
defeat the Empire was to destroy its capacity to resist without invading
the home islands, thus avoiding the high cost in men and materiel of an
invasion. This could be accomplished by aerial bombardment directed at
Japan's industrial base. In terms of a geographic location from which to
launch such strikes the Mariana Islands fulfilled all the requirements.
However, the islands could not be secure if other islands in the central
Pacific east of the Marianas remained capable of launching attacks on
the sea lanes stretching across the Pacific from supply depots in Hawaii.
Plans to launch an offensive against the Japanese were initiated
in 1943 at the Quadrant Conference held in Quebec. President Roosevelt
received the proposal that the Allied effort in the Pacific should be
directed first toward the Gilbert Islands, then the Marshalls followed
by Wake, the Eastern Carolines and then the Marianas. It was at Saipan
that American military planners were presented with the problem of how
to cope with a dense civilian population, the first to be encountered
in the Pacific war. The U. S. forces were to be under the overall
command of Admiral Chester Nimitz. The American drive across the Pacific
would be two-pronged. While Nimitz fought his way across the central
Pacific, General MacArthur would advance across the southwest Pacific to
the Philippines. The islands of the central Pacific either succumbed one
by one under the shear weight of American forces or were bombed,
neutralized and bypassed. With their supply lines cut, the defenders of
by-passed islands were left to starve. After the fall of the Marshall
islands, no other island in the central Pacific would be invaded by
American ground forces until the American armada reached the waters off
the Marianas and the island of Saipan.
Sources:
- Excerpts from this
section were taken from the author's book, Ghost
Fleet Of The Truk Lagoon,
Japanese Mandated Islands and the book
Saipan In Flames
as well as from the text of his map entitled,
Battlefield Map Of Saipan
- 1944.
- Time Magazine - October
30, 1944
- Japan was occupied
by U. S. forces until Sept. 8,1951.
- Fletcher Pratt,
The Marianas War, New York: William Sloan Assoc.,
1948, p.266.
Stephenson, H.W., Analysis
Of Battle Statistics For The Pacific War In W
W II, #30, Bennington
Vt.
- Bowers, Neal
M. ,Problems Of Resettlement on Saipan, Tinian and Rota,
Mariana Islands, Pacific
Science Board, National Research Council and
the United States Navy,
1950, page 69.
- Richards, Dorothy E.,
United States Naval Administration Of The Trust
Territory Of The Pacific
Islands, Office Of Chief Naval Operations, U.
S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D. C., 1957.