Remaining true to its promise to Admiral Nimitz: to honor all who served and supported the war effort in the Pacific, the Museum proudly presents the facts, stories, and authentic artifacts of the Pacific War for today and generations to come.
The Admiral Nimitz Foundation is a Texas 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation headquartered in Fredericksburg whose sole purpose is to support and operate the National Museum of the Pacific War. The Foundation honors Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and the men and women who served in and supported WW-II Asiatic-Pacific Theater Operations by educating and inspiring future generations.
In the decade before World War II, it was the Republic of China, then striving to develop national unity, a modern economy and political institutions, that first felt the impact of Japan's growing power and international ambitions. China was the first attacked and the first to fight back. China paid the highest price of any of the Allied Nations in the war with Japan. Through the trials and strains of a long and bitter war, the Republic of China and the United States remained firm Allies.
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| Shiba Kokan, Chinese painter (1747-1818) who introduced Western cultural influences into China, with two unidentified Japanese and European men |
Anti-Western sentiment in China ~~ China viewed foreign goods and influences with disdain. Until 1853, Japan was even more isolated but then embraced Western technology and chose to compete with the West on a global stage. As events exposed China's weakness, the Japanese attitude toward China changed from admiration to disrespect.
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| Dutch ships set sail for the East Indies |
1853 ~~ The Crimean War broke out between Russia and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire.
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| Naval battle between Taiping and Qing fleets on the Yangtze River |
1860 ~~ Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States.
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| Peking's Upper North Taku Fort lay in ruins after British forces defeated the Qing army in a key battle of the Second Opium War |
1870 ~~ Germany defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War.
1885 ~~ Chester W. Nimitz born in Fredericksburg, Texas, February 24.
1900 ~~ Galveston hurricane - the largest loss of life from a natural disaster in U.S. History.
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| Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, 1841-1909 Assassinated by a Korean nationalist while in Manchuria |
In 1895, a peace treaty ending the Sino-Japanese War established Korea's independence, ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and the Pescadores Islands to Japan, and gave Japan a military and trade foothold in China. Japan expected to be recognized as Asia's first imperial power.
Instead, Russia, France and Germany united to prevent Japanese encroachment into Manchuria. This Triple Intervention embittered the Japanese. When Russia's Siberian railway reached Vladivostok in 1891, Japan saw a threat to its economic interests in Korea and Manchuria.
When Britain and the U.S. refused to intervene, Japan gave in to the European powers. On May 5, 1895, Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito announced withdrawal of Japanese forces from the Liaodong Peninsula in exchange for an additional indemnity.
Christian Missionaries were unpopular with both the Qing Dynasty and many peasants. The Boxers -- the Chinese name translates as "Righteous and Harmonious Fists" -- laid siege to the foreign legations in Peking (Beijing). Japan joined the Western powers in a relief expedition to lift the siege. Lurid newspaper accounts of the rebellion discredited the Qing Dynasty in the eyes of the West. The consensus of military observers of the relief expedition was that the Japanese soldiers were brave and well disciplined.
1905 ~~ Chester W. Nimitz graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy.
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| Japanese soldiers in Korea, Sept/Oct 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War |
After the First Sino-Japanese War, Russia supplanted Japan in controlling the geographically strategic Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria. Through its rail concessions, Russia dominated most of Manchuria. The Qing Dynasty had lost control of its ancestral home.
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| Retreat of the Russian Army after the Battle of Mukden |
The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 ~~ Port Arthur on the Liaodong Peninsula met a long-standing Russian desire for a warm water port. Russia also wanted to control Korea, which lay between Vladivostok and Port Arthur. A Russian presence in Korea, only about 100 miles across the Strait of Tsushima from Japan, represented a serious threat.
The Japanese Navy surprised and defeated the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur. The Japanese Army landed in Korea and swept into Manchuria. Japan's rapid-fire victories over a major European power stunned the Western world.
1906 ~~ San Francisco earthquake and fire left over 225,000 homeless.
1911 ~~ Revolution in China.
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| The three-year old ruler of 430 million souls |
Pu-Yi, Emperor of China (standing); his father, Prince Chun, regent and controller of the nation, and his younger brother. Before her death the Empress Dowager appointed the three-year-old son of Prince Chun Emperor and the Prince himself regent. When the new Emperor was proclaimed he was declared the adopted son of the Emperor Tung Chih, and thus the traditions of the imperial succession, broken by Empress Dowager when the late Emperor came to the throne, were maintained. One of the first acts of the baby ruler was to canonize his predecessor and to punish nominally the doctors called to the late rulers. For the new reign the title Hsuan Tung ("Promulgating Universally") has been chosen.
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| Crudely processed tea leaves from the countryside are weighed and inspected at a tea-processing firm |
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| Porters carry tea chests to the shipper. Decorated sea chests often became collectibles in the West |
The intrusion of Western influences exposed China's internal weakness. The introduction of opium to pay for Chinese tea and silk was corrosive to a Confucian society. When China decreed opium illegal and confiscated it, Britain declared war two different times to force China to accept the sale of opium. Losing both Opium Wars undermined China's sovereignty when she was forced to grant major concessions to Britain and other Western nations. Britain gained access to China's ports and control of Hong Kong.
Two internal rebellions further weakened the Qing Dynasty. The Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was led by a teacher named Hong Xinquan, whos ideology combined Confucian utopianism and Protestant beliefs. The Panthay Rebellion (1856-1873) grew out of Muslin minority resentment of the Han and Manchu rulers.
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| Interior of angle of North Fort immediately after its capture. August 21, 1860, by Anglo-French forces in one of the key battles of the Second Opium War |
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| Mukden in flames: Russian army prepares to evacuate Mar 10, 1905 |
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| John Milton Hay, 1897 |
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| Foreign armies in Beijing's Forbidden City during the Boxer Rebellion |
Within the Forbidden City, conflict brewed between moderates who feared that war against the foreign powers would topple they dynasty and the Ironhats, a faction that wanted removal of all foreigners.
In the countryside, Christian missionaries and Chinese converts were blamed for natural calamities and crop failures. Bands of armed men roamed the countryside. A leaflet distributed in Shantung Province proclaimed, "until all foreigners have been exterminated, the rain can never visit us." Some Ironhats encouraged the Boxers.
The Boxers believed that by entering into a state of spiritual possession, they would be invulnerable to bullets.
"Take away your missionaries and your opium, and all will be well." ~~ Prince Kung, Qing Leader, to British Minister to China
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| Japanese Food Chest |
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| Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last Shogun, in traditional dress with a modern European rifle at his side |
Japan is the new threat ~~ Commodore Perry encountered a Japan with a figure-head emperor and a powerful shogun. Within 20 years, Japan transformed itself from a feudal society into a modern state with a military based on Western models. Despite Western influences, Japan retained its traditional culture. The Meji Restoration of 1868 raised the status of the emperor. The Shinto religion was elevated to emphasize the emperor's direct lineage from the sun goddess, Amerterasu Omikami.
Although parliamentary government was introduced, the Imperial Army and Navy, which were independent of civilian control, were the real power behind the throne.
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| The Warship Matsushima, flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Sino-Japanese War, built in 1885 by the French |
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| President Theodore Roosevelt introduces Russian and Japanese plenipotentiaries, Aug. 1, 1905 |
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The Horrors of World War I's trench warfare caused Europe and the U.S. to conclude that war should be avoided, if at all possible. President Woodrow Wilson placed his hopes on the new League of Nations as a forum for peace. The battle over ratification in the U.S. Senate sharpened differences between internationalists and isolationists who wanted no part of European affairs.
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| Destruction in Kobe, Japan from the Rice Riots of August 11, 1918 |
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| Tokyo police station burning during the Great Kanto Earthquake |
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| Marunouchi after the Great Kanto Earthquake, Sept. 1, 1923 |
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| The Two Platforms ~~ Poster attacking Radical Republican supporters of black suffrage during the 1866 Pennsylvania race for governor |
The Race Issue ~~ The participants in the two world wars held deeply-rooted views of cultural and racial superiority. China's ancient, rich cultural heritage gave a sense of superiority that led to the rejection of Western ideas. Japan's samurai heritage played into a sense of military and racial superiority that justified its harsh treatment of those considered inferior, such as the Koreans.
Rudyard Kipling's popular 1899 poem "The White Man's Burden," inspired by American acquisition of the Philippines, could be read as justification for Europe's colonial empires. American views of race justified, in their minds, the conquest of Native American tribes and enslavement and segregation of blacks.
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| Portrait of Admiral Heihachiro Togo |
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1917 ~~ Bolshevik Revolution incited civil war in Russia.
1919 ~~ The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I.
1922 ~~ Benito Mussolini formed first Fascist government in Italy.
1927 ~~ Charles Lindbergh made the first trans-Atlantic flight becoming an instant international celebrity.
1928 ~~ Herbert Hoover elected President of the United States.
1929 ~~ "Black Thursday," October 24, the first day of the stock market crash.
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| War in Europe |
1933 ~~ February 15: President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt narrowly escaped assassination in Miami. March 3: President Hoover signed an Act of Congress making "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem.
1936 ~~ May 9: Mussolini's Italian army invaded Ethiopia.
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| A solemn crowd gathers outside the New York Stock Exchange after the crash, 1929 |
World War I left European economies shattered. Americans turned inward to indulge in the excesses of the "Roaring Twenties." When the stock market crashed, the U.S. joined the global depression.
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| Mother and children during the Great Depression Elm Grove, California, August 1936 |
1937 ~~ Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific while attempting an equatorial flight around the world.
A terrified baby sits amongst the ruins of South Shanghai's railway station after the Japanese bombing of August 28, 1937. Civilians were often innocent victims of the Japanese military's total war strategy.
1937 ~~ Hitler informed his military advisors of his intention to go to war.
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| The capture of Shanghai |
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The Japanese Army had a foothold in Shanghai to protect her trade concession and determined to go on the offensive. 300,000 of the best Chinese troops defended Shanghai while the Japanese had 200,000 troops with superior armor, artillery and air support. The Nationalist Army's determined house-to-house defense shocked and angered Japanese commanders and set the stage for later brutality.
The Japanese broke through the bottleneck at Shanghai by flanking the Nationalists with an amphibious landing. The road to Nanking lay wide open. On December 8, 1937, Chiang evacuated his capital.
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| USS Panay, River Gunboat PG-45 |
Nanking lay west of Shanghai on the Yangtze River. As Japanese troops moved to attack Nanking, they had orders to fire on any river shipping. On December 12, 1937, the USS Panay, an American gunboat, was sunk and Britain's HMS Ladybird lost a crewman. The Japanese quickly apologized and paid an indemnity, and the incident was quickly smoothed over.
The fall of Shanghai made Nanking, Chiang's capital, a potential trap for his army. On December 8, 1937, the Nationalists began a massive transfer of government, military, and industrial assets to Chunking (Chongqing) in the mountainous Sichuan Province of Central China. As the Japanese neared the outskirts, Chiang's army melted away. Nanking lay at the mercy of the Japanese.
The Japanese inflicted terrible losses on the Nationalists at Shanghai and Nanking, destroying the best of Chiang's divisions. As the Nationalists retreated, they engaged in a "scorched earth" policy, and the Japanese offensive stalled in China's vastness.
Chinese troops sabotaged dams and levees. Whole factories were relocated inland. Bloody, large-scale battles were fought at locations such as Wuhan and Tai'-erzhurang. The Japanese retaliated with the "Three Alls Policy" -- kill all, loot all, burn all.
1937 ~~ Japan recognized Franco's fascist government of Spain.
1938 ~~ British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met Hitler in Munich and proclaimed "peace in our time."
Japan's quagmire in China. "In the China Incident they'd say, 'We took such and such a place,' but they'd never mention that ... the fighting there was still going on, and on, and on." ~~ Tanisuga Shizo
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| Japanese troops attack Chinese positions at Wuhan in 1938 |
Japanese efforts to expand from Manchuria into Outer Mongolia in 1939 led to a major defeat at the hands of Soviet troops at Nomonhan. By 1940, the war in China was a stalemate.
In the spring of 1940, Germany swept into France and the Low Countries. Backed up to the English Channel, British troops evacuated from Dunkirk, abandoning their equipment on the beaches. In forty days Hitler became master of Western Europe.
Britain was in peril. Just weeks before, Congress had refused to fund $2 billion for defense; after Dunkirk, $10.5 billion and the first peacetime draft were approved. President Roosevelt called up the National Guard.
As the German Wehrmacht rolled through Poland, the Soviet Union struck from the east. Hitler and Stalin followed the signing of a non-aggression pact with the partition of Poland.
December 8, 1940, shortly after noon, the President addressed a Joint Session of Congress. His speech met with thunderous applause, shouts and shrill whistles. In less than an hour, without debate, both houses voted overwhelmingly, to declare war.
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| Concerned by increasing turmoil in Europe, Congress declared American neutrality on Sept. 5, 1939 |
Nimitz takes command ~~ President Roosevelt quickly named Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to take command of the shattered Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. On the last day of 1941, aboard a submarine, USS Grayling, Nimitz assumed his new duties.
Allied against a world-wide Axis juggernaut, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill held a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. from December 22, 1941 through January 14, 1942. The "Europe First" strategy and agreement that the new "United Nations" would not sign separate peaches with Germany or Japan.
"Europe First" ran counter to public sentiment that demanded revenge on the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. Australians were arguably even more upset. The Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were at their doorstep.
Civilian construction workers fought side-by-side with the Marines, but without air cover or enough troops to defend all the beaches, the choices were surrender or annihilation.
The Death of Two Gallant Ships ~~ On November 29, 1941, the Japanese 2nd Fleet sailed from home waters on a mission that exceeded the Pearl Harbor raid in its scope. The same day of the air raid on the Philippines, December 8, 1941, the 2nd Fleet supported the Japanese 38th Division's assault on Hong Kong and the 25th Army's invasion of Malaya. Hong Kong surrendered on December 25, known as "Black Christmas." As 1941 drew to a close, the way to Singapore, "the Gibraltar of the East," lay open.
Prince of Wales and Repulse ~~ Sunset, December 8, 1941, the Battle cruiser HMS Repulse and battleship HMS Prince of Wales sailed from Singapore with a four-destroyer escort to intercept the Japanese invasion fleet. On the 10th, 88 Japanese planes flew through a furious fusillade of shells and sank both ships at the cost of four aircraft. It was the first time that maneuvering capital ships at sea had been sunk entirely by air attack.
In December 1941, 5,000 Japanese Americans were serving in the armed services. They were immediately reclassified as 4-F (unfit for military service) or 4-C (enemy aliens) and discharged. Through it all, Japanese Americans remained loyal. Not one was tried for any crime or act of espionage or sabotage.
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| Mealtime at Manzanar Internment Camp |
Once internees arrived at their permanent camp, they came under the War Relocation Authority. Eight of the ten camps, which eventually housed 120,000 people, were located in remote, desolate deserts.
Entire families were assigned apartments measuring 20 x 25 feet. Furnishings included Army cots, a pot-bellied stove, and shelves and furniture made of scrap lumber. One internee reflected: "Aside from the absurdity of living that way, life went on pretty much as usual."
Internees still managed to create stable living arrangements with their own schools, medical clinics, and camp newspapers. Each day began with the Pledge of Allegiance. Camps even had USOs for Japanese American soldiers "home" on leave.
"Every place we go we cannot escape the dust. Inside of our houses, in the laundry, in the latrines, in the mess halls, dust and more dust, dust everywhere." ~~ Young Topaz, Utah Internee
The round up of German, Italian, and Japanese aliens following the attack on Pearl Harbor was based on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Internment of American citizens was another matter. Many Japanese American families were multi-generational and included both citizens and resident aliens.
State officials and congressional delegations from the West Coast advocated removal. Until the Roberts Commission was issued in late January 1942, support for internment was weak. Although intended to assess command responsibility for Pearl Harbor, the report impugned the loyalty of Japanese Americans.
February 19, 1942 ~~ President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War to designate "military areas" and remove "any and all" threats. Despite the broad language, the target was clearly Japanese Americans.
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| Whole families of Japanese Americans line up to board a train to an internment camp |
Doolittle Raid ~~ The attack on Pearl Harbor was only the first of a series of military disasters for the Allies. President Roosevelt felt the need to shore up America's confidence. A successful strike against the Japanese homeland might be just the right tonic.
Escape to China ~~ One B-25 landed in Soviet territory were it was confiscated and the crew interned. The other 15, out of fuel, either crash landed, or the crews bailed out over the China coast. Of the 80 men on the raid, 77 survived. The Japanese executed thousands of Chinese in retaliation for assisting the downed airmen.
On April 4, 1942, three weeks after General MacArthur escaped from Corregidor to Australia, Nimitz received orders that he would share command in the Pacific with MacArthur. MacArthur's new Southwest Pacific Theater would include Australia, the Philippines, New Guinea, and the surrounding islands. Nimitz would command the vast expanses of ocean called Pacific Ocean Areas.
An estimated 25,000 American soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and 45,000 Filipinos surrendered on Bataan. At least 7,000 died on the march, their corpses left along the road. Not all Japanese soldiers treated prisoners harshly; some shared food and cigarettes. Conditions were little better at their destination, Camp O'Donnell. Each day, malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and brutality claimed the lives of up to 400 American and Filipino prisoners.
"Common sense dictates that we cannot afford to slug it out with the probably superior approaching Japanese forces." ~~ Nimitz
Nimitz was under no illusion as to the challenge, the Midway was critical. Trusting his allegiance team, Nimitz believed that his smaller carrier groups could achieve the tactical advantage of surprise and issued orders accordingly: Reinforce Midway with men, planes and supplies; recall all carrier fleets to Pearl Harbor under radio silence.
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| Admiral Yamamoto |
After the Doolittle raid, Admiral Yamamoto felt personally mortified. The army and navy had failed to protect the nation and the Emperor. The raid led the Imperial Army to drop opposition to Yamamoto's idea of following up Midway with the seizure of Hawaii. Two divisions began training for an amphibious assault of Hawaii, whose capture was intended as a bargaining chip in negotiations to end the war.
Yamamoto still believed that a knockout punch was necessary because time was on the side of America. If successful in drawing the U.S. Pacific Fleet into a battle of annihilation, a weakened U.S. Navy would be pushed back to the West Coast.
Officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, convinced that they had won at Coral Sea, felt certain of victory at Midway. Some even thought that the U.S. Navy would be too demoralized and undermanned to engage Yamamoto's fleet at all.
On June 4, 1942, PBY pilot Howard Ady radioed "... two carriers, two battleships, bearing 320 degrees, distance 180 miles, course 135 degrees, speed 25 knots."
Warned of the enemy's approach, Midway manned its anti-aircraft batteries and scrambled every flyable plane. The first Japanese strike on Midway inflicted no critical damage. American anti-aircraft fire and fighters knocked down nine Japanese planes and damaged another 14.
At 7am, Nagumo received a message from Midway strike leader Lieutenant Joichi Tomonaga: "There is a need for a second attack." Fifteen B-17s from Midway attacked the Japanese carriers a second time. Their high altitude bomb drops made impressive splashes but all missed. Dive bombers took a low angle approach that produced no hits but lost eight aircraft shot down. Japanese carrier operations were thrown into confusion.
"The whole coarse of the war in the Pacific may hinge on the developments of the next two or three days." ~~ CINCPAC Command Summary, June 3, 1942
At 7:30am, a half hour into rearming for a second attack on Midway, Nagumo received a critical message from a scout plane: "Enemy ships are five cruisers and five destroyers." Nagumo cancelled the second Midway strike and prepared for returning first strike planes. A second scout reported, "... enemy force accompanied with what appears to be an aircraft carrier bringing up the rear." After recovering the first strike planes, Nagumo retired to the northeast.
Based on the most recent sightings of the enemy carriers, Admiral Spruance threw all his dive bombers and torpedo planes into the battle. Enterprise's dive bombers reached Nagumo's reported location only to find empty sea. Without fighter cover, the torpedo bombers were easy targets. Zeros shot down all 15 of Waldron's squadron and 10 of 14 off Enterprise. Twenty-five torpedo planes had been sacrificed; yet not one torpedo had hit its target.
Admiral Yamamoto's powerful "Main Body" with the super battleship Yamato was still intact. He ordered four cruisers to bombard Midway in an effort to draw Spruance's carriers into a night battle. Spruance declined to engage the Japanese in a night action when the advantage swung to the surface ships. Instead, he retired eastward until daylight. The next morning, he resumed aerial searches for enemy ships.
"Midway operation cancelled." ~~ Yamamoto's order was issued at 3am on June 5, 1945.
By day the Marines faced air raids from Rabaul and at night endured naval bombardment. ". . . anybody who says a naval bombardment isn't worse than any artillery shelling is absolutely crazy ...." ~~ Lt. Colonel Edwin A. Pollock, Commander 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines
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| 6th Marine Division operates in northern Okinawa |
The night after the Marines landed, seven Japanese cruisers and a destroyer moved down the narrow channel between the Solomon Islands. An Allied fleet of five heavy cruisers and five destroyers guarded the two channels leading to Guadalcanal.
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| Hudson bombers of the Royal New Zealand Air Force |
Because most of Guadalcanal's land battles took place at night, the "Cactus Air Force" was able to provide close air support to the ground forces in only a few daylight actions. Fighter and other aircraft on Henderson Field were especially valuable in inflicting severe losses on elite Japanese naval attack squadrons. ("Cactus" was the American code name for Guadalcanal.)
The success of American attack aircraft during daylight runs caused the Japanese to use fast warships at night for the "Tokyo Express" to deliver supplies. Japanese soldiers began referring to Guadalcanal as "Starvation Island."
Unless socked in by weather, daylight meant air action between Japanese fighters and bombers from Rabaul and the "Cactus Air Force." Coast watchers alerted Henderson Field of approaching aircraft. American pilots barely had time to scramble and gain vital altitude. Despite losses, enough replacements arrived to keep the "Cactus Air Force" flying: The 54 aircraft of late August grew to 71 in September.
"Mosquito Gulch" was the name the pilots and ground crew gave to the strip of coconut trees between the air field and the beach where they pitched their tents. It was where they endured the same nightly naval bombardments as the ground troops.
These "Cactus" aircrews included Major Robert Galer and Major John L. Smith, commander of VMF-223. Both were recipients of the Medal of Honor for the Guadalcanal service.
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| "Cactus" Aircraft |
Necessity, not planning, was the reason for the famous "Cactus Air Force" being a mixed Marine, Navy, and Army Air Force command. Despite being cobbled together, it performed an indispensable role in the long campaign for Guadalcanal. Australian and New Zealand air units supplemented the Cactus Air Force.
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| Admiral Aubrey Fitch meeting with native Guadalcanal coastwatchers |
Without advance warning of Japanese fleet movements and air raids, the defense of Guadalcanal might have failed. A unique group known as the "coastwatchers" radioed information on approaching enemy aircraft, warships, transports, and supply barges. Thus alerted, Guadalcanal's defenders could estimate the time that the enemy would make their appearance. An Australian, Lt. Commander Eric Feldt, supervised 64 stations in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Japanese executed civilians caught transmitting intelligence data for espionage. Survival depended on the loyalty of the native population.
As 1942 drew to a close, heavy fighting continued on land and on sea as U.S. ground forces broadened the defensive perimeter around Henderson Field. On their side, Japanese commanders recognized a deterioration of unit combat capability. Marine and Army units conducted a grinding campaign against organized units of starving Japanese troops that lasted into January 1943. By the end of the month, resistance had collapsed into isolated pockets. The Japanese began a phased withdrawal of 17th Army survivors.
Living and dying in a tropical rain forest ~~ ".... a mass of slops and stinks and pestilence; of scum-crested lagoons and vile swamps inhabited by giant crocodiles; a place of spiders as big as your fists and wasps as long as your finger, of ... tree leeches ... scorpions ... centipedes whose foul scurrying across human skin leaves a track of inflamed flesh... By night, mosquitos came in clouds -- bringing malaria, dengue ... And Guadalcanal stank. She was sour with the odor of her own decay ..." ~~ Private Robert Leckie
As the fighting wore on, the enemy suffered even more. "I never dreamed of retreating over the same mountainous trail through the jungle we crossed with such enthusiasm ... we haven't eaten in three days and even walking is difficult ... I must rest every two meters." ~~ Lt. Keijiro Minegishi
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| Four Marines carry a stretcher bearing wounded Marine Baine Kerr |
The Human Toll ~~ Army and Marine casualties on Guadalcanal reached about 1,600 killed in action. Over 4,000 were wounded. Removing an injured combatant from Guadalcanal's rugged terrain was arduous and dangerous. The U.S. Navy experienced even more deaths in the long, violent Guadalcanal campaign. Ironbottom Sound was littered with ships that entombed many Allied and enemy crewmen. Over 4,600 sailors and Navy airmen were killed and almost 1,800 wounded.
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| Civilians caught in a war zone |
Australian advance on Buna-Gona ~~ Buna and Gona were two small villages on the north coast of New Guinea less than 10 miles apart. On Christmas Eve 1942 Sergeant Jack Latimore led a tank crew into another fight against the Japanese. A Japanese 3" gun knocked out Latimore's tank (shown above), killing the gunner. Although badly injured, Latimore managed to get out of the tank before the fuel caught fire and shells began exploding; another crewman had escaped just before him.
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| Japanese Gun |
This 3-inch Japanese gun from the Buna battlefield destroyed three Stuart tanks before being knocked out itself. Although designed for antiaircraft and coastal defense, the barrel could be lowered to 5 degrees below horizontal, which also made it an effective anti-tank weapon. The long cylinder above the 10 foot, 8 inch gun tube absorbed recoil. Doug Hubbard, Jr. located the gun and Sergeant Lattimore's tank with the help of New Guinea aborigines. The Australian military provided transport from the Buna battlefield to Long Beach, California.
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| The Jeep |
American factories manufactured nearly 2.4 million trucks of all descriptions for military use, including large numbers of 2-1/5 ton trucks, the famous "deuce-and-a-half" and the equally famous "jeep." The jeep was originally designed by American Bantam in Butler, Pennsylvania. The first jeep was delivered to Camp Holabird, Maryland on September 23, 1940. The Army called it GPV (General Purpose Vehicle), Pilot Model, or Number One. The jeep was an immediate hit, used in every war theater because of its versatility. Jeeps transported everything from officers to wounded GIs to light artillery. Josef Stalin was especially enamored of jeeps and requested thousands.
Ships and Planes ~~ Virtually every soldier, sailor, and marine, tank and artillery piece, munitions, fuel, food -- all material of war -- went to war aboard a ship. Long-range bombers and air transports were the exceptions. Henry J. Kaiser and other shipbuilders revolutionized production methods. Because ships were too big and heavy for the assembly lines, Kaiser prefabricated ships in sections and welded them together. His yards built 30% of all ships constructed, eventually launching Liberty ships at the rate of one per day.
The military services needed more than bombers and fighters. They also had to have transport planes, search aircraft, and trainers. The Navy required that both bombers and fighters be capable of landing on and taking off from carriers, which placed different demands on aircraft designers.
In 1943, America's factories began to close the production gap. During the war, the U.S. manufactured 325,000 military aircraft of all types, more than Germany, Japan, and Italy combined.
Texas goes to War ~~ The impact of WWII on Texas, as well as the rest of America, could scarcely be overstated. People's lives were affected profoundly. The war made a physical mark on virtually every corner. Texas was transformed economically and socially virtually overnight.
Factoid: Texas' budding busing industry grew rapidly during the war, despite shortages of spare parts, drivers and mechanics. Passenger traffic on railroads exploded, much of it military.
Factoid: Margarine, also known as "victory spread," was often substituted for rationed butter.
Factoid: When rationing of sugar, crown caps, and cork threatened the soft drink industry, Coca-Cola took advantage of the rationing exception made for the military and moved its vending machines from service stations and grocery stores to military sites.
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| Tent Housing, called "Hutments" |
Boom Towns ~~ One half million workers relocated from farms and small towns to cities and another 450,000 moved from other states to work in war production. In Orange, the population swelled by more than 20,000. Demand created by nearby military installations transformed many small towns. Killeen near Camp Hood at one time had 1,000 workers living in a tent city. Men on shift work shared "hot cots" that utilized beds around the clock. Sheds, chicken coops, and barns housed workingmen and sometimes their families. Landlord price gouging ran rampant.
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| Troops in formation on the Fort Clark parade ground |
A New Role for Women ~~ Military installations in Texas trained infantry, artillerymen, tankers and pilots. Twenty combat divisions with more than 1,200,000 troops were prepared to fight at the 15 major army camps scattered across Texas. An estimated 200,000 pilots, navigators, bombardiers, aerial gunners, photographers, and mechanics trained at more than 40 airfields and scores of auxiliary fields.
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| In San Antonio, Marine volunteers line up to board a train for boot camp |
Oveta Culp Hobby, co-owner with husband, Governor William P. Hobby, of the Houston Post and KPRC Radio, was the first commander of the Women's Army Corps with the rank of colonel. Colonel Hobby faced a daunting challenge in creating a women's auxiliary force from scratch over the opposition of many in the military.
African Americans ~~ The 80,000 African American Texans who responded to the call to defend their country served in segregated units or in menial jobs.
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| The Flying Tigers |
The American Volunteer Group ~~ When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, only a tiny amount of Lend-Lease supplies had reached China, and Colonel Claire Lee Chennault had begun training squadrons of the "American Volunteer Group" (AVG). News reporters tagged the AVG with the nickname "Flying Tigers" for the sharp teeth (actually resembling shark's teeth) painted on the P-40 noses.
The Flying Tigers' famous aircraft were built for the British under the Lend-Lease program. The British designated them the Tomahawk IIB. P-40Cs were equipped with pilot armor, a bulletproof windscreen, and self-sealing fuel tanks.
Chennault knew that a P-40 could not dog fight with the superbly maneuverable Zero. Instead, Chennault trained his AVG pilots to exploit the P-40's superior diving characteristics to attack from above and then dive away to fight again.
Guam from July 21 to August 10, 1944 ~~ W-Day, July 21 -- American forces hit two beaches flanking Apra five miles apart. The 3rd Marine Division assaulted the northern beaches under heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire. Five days later, the Japanese infiltrated stretched Marine lines in preparation for a counterattack in force. Seven frontal assaults on a battalion of the 9th Marine Regiment inflicted 50% casualties. Rear area personnel -- cooks, clerks, truck drivers, and even wounded -- joined the desperate fray.
On the south beach, the Marine Brigade and Regimental Combat Team encountered stiff opposition. Artillery fire decimated a Japanese counterattack. Pack howitzers only 100 feet behind the front lines fired point blank into the onrushing enemy. "Arms and legs flew like snow," reported one participant.
The Japanese suffered heavy losses in both counterattacks, especially among the officers. True to the Code of Bushido, the Japanese soldiers fought to the last, but the failure of the counterattacks had sealed their fate. On August 10, General Roy Geiger declared Guam secure.
Reclaiming American Territory ~~ Guam fell to Imperial Japanese forces two days after Pearl Harbor. Taking Guam meant reclaiming American territory. Apra Harbor gave the U.S. a deep water port to support operations in the West Pacific. Admiral Nimitz wanted a forward headquarters on Guam to be closer to the action. In late January 1945, he arrived on Guam with a trimmed down operations staff.
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| Japanese "Rex" Float Plane |
This Kawanishi N1K Float Plane fighter was designed to support offensive operations in advance of available airstrips. The Japanese called it Kyofu, or "Strong Wind," while the Allies gave it the code name "Rex."
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| Admiral Nimitz Barge |
At Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz's CINCPAC headquarters had a three boat flotilla. A 40-foot barge with a blue hull rather than a regulation black hull for Nimitz as a four-star admiral; a 40-foot regulation barge (black hull) used by Nimitz's Chief of Staff, a two-star admiral; and a 35-foot gray officer's motor boat used by the staff.
Rosenthal's photograph made him famous. Sergeant Lowery's image of the first flag raising became a footnote in history.
Despite the loss of his best observation point on Hill 382, Kuribayashi fought to the bitter end. During the last days of the campaign, the Marines patched together units to take Death Valley, a deep winding 700-yard gorge at the north end of Iwo. On March 25, D-Day-plus-34, the Marines fought the last battle for Iwo Jima.
As the Marines wore down the Japanese defenses, Captain Samaji Inouye, commander of the Japanese naval land forces and a member of a samurai family, ignored Kuribayashi's ban on suicide attacks. On March 8, trapped between two Marine regiments, Inouye led a 1,000-man banzi charge. Close fighting lasted through the night, but the Marines held. At daylight, they counted 784 Japanese dead.
Before the fighting ended, the first B-29 made an emergency landing, a real morale booster for the Marines on the ground. By the end of the war, approximately 2,400 American aircraft made emergency landings on Iwo Jima.
(President Roosevelt took this message to heart and started to develop a nuclear weapon before the Germans could develop theirs. We visited the K-25 Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee which told about the U.S.'s production of the two bombs that we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII.)
On July 26, the U.S. Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration, which clearly defined "unconditional surrender" as applying to the military, that it did not mean the extinction of Japan or her people. Events unfolded rapidly: bombing of Hiroshima on August 6; the Soviet invasion of Manchuria (Japanese Manchukuo) on the 8th; the second atomic bomb at Nagasaki on the 9th. Japan still had 6.3 million men under arms, including 2.9 million committed to KETSU GO, the defense of the Home Islands.
On September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, General Douglas MacArthur presided over the surrender ceremony as Allied General Commander. In attendance were representatives of all the Allies in the war against Japan. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed the Instrument of Surrender for the United States. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed for Imperial Japan.
A 10-year-old stoic Japanese boy standing at attention
having brought his deceased baby brother to a cremation pyre in Nagasaki, 1945.
Years later, Joe O'Donnell, the American photojournalist who
took this photo, spoke to a Japanese interviewer about this photograph:
"I
saw a boy about ten years old walking by. He was carrying a baby on his back.
In those days in Japan, we often saw children playing with their little
brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different. I could
see that he had come to this place for a serious reason. He was wearing no
shoes. His face was hard. The little head was tipped back as if the baby were
fast asleep.
The boy stood there for five or ten minutes. The men in
white masks walked over to him and quietly began to take off the rope that was
holding the baby. That is when I saw that the baby was already dead. The men
held the body by the hands and feet and placed it on the fire.
The boy stood there straight without moving, watching the
flames. He was biting his lower lip so hard that it shone with blood. The flame
burned low like the sun going down.
The boy turned around and walked silently away".
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| 5 Inch / 38 Caliber Gun |
Used primarily on Attack Transports, Attack Cargo, auxiliaries and armed merchant ships. The merchant ships would have a detachment of Navy Armed Guard to man the guns.
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| Mark 15 Torpedo Tube |
During WWII, United States Navy destroyers and destroyer escorts armed with torpedoes all carried trainable tubes. Trainable tubes required large clear deck areas, and in all ships retaining torpedoes were mounted topside on the ship's centerline. From this location torpedoes could be fired on either side of the ship.
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| Twin 40mm Bofors |
The first Bofors weapons were placed on ships as they were putting to sea for the Battle of Midway, and played a substantial role in the first major defeat of the Japanese Navy.
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| U.S. 105mm Howitzer M2A1 |
The M2A1 Howitzer was standard light field howitzer for the United States in World War II. They were produced in great numbers for use in both the European and Pacific Theaters.
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| Ordnance QF 25-Pounder Field Gun |
The 25-Pounder saw service throughout World War II with British and Commonwealth forces and was considered to be one of the best field guns of the war.
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| 75mm Field Gun, M2A2 |
This field gun was nearly obsolete in 1940, and was being relegated to a training role at the outbreak of WWII. A few saw service in the Philippine Islands and on Java against the invading Japanese.
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| SS Pintado |
Pintado made six war patrols in enemy waters, during which she disposed of five naval vessels and ten merchantmen of the Empire of Japan, sunk or otherwise disabled, totaling 132,000 tons of enemy shipping. During her fifth patrol, she rescued all 12 crew members of the B-29 "City of Galveston."
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| Ha-19 Submarine |
The Ha-19 was one of five Japanese midget submarines used in the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The next day, the damaged vessel washed ashore. The War Finance Committee soon put it to use to promote the sale of War Bonds. From 1942 to 1945, Ha-19 toured the United States, including a visit to Fredericksburg in 1943.
Eight War Bond drives raised a total of $185.7 billion, roughly half the cost of the war.
Ha-19 passed in front of the Nimitz Hotel during the 1943 bond tour. The hotel had been remodeled in the Mission Revival style background. Police cars and Boy Scouts escorted the truck provided by the Bigge Drayage Co., Oakland, California.
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| Ha-19 in front of the Gillespie County Courthouse, Fredericksburg, Texas 1943 |
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