Events
February15, 1942
Japan captures Singapore
March9
Japan captures Java
April9
Japan captures the Philippines
April18
Doolittle Raid on Tokyo
May4–8
Battle of the Coral Sea
June3–6
Battle of Midway
Key People
-
James Doolittle
U.S. Army colonel who led daring air raid on Japanese
mainland in April 1942
-
Yamomoto Isoroku
Japanese admiral who orchestrated attacks on both
Pearl Harbor and Midway
The Japanese Onslaught
After its initial attacks on Pearl Harbor and Allied interests
throughout the Pacific, the Japanese navy continued to expand its
conquests over the coming months. On February 15, 1942,
Japanese forces took Singapore, which was a very humiliating
defeat for Britain. On March 9, after a series
of extended sea battles, the Dutch colony of Java surrendered.
On April 9, the U.S. territory of the Philippines also
fell to Japan. Island colonies, territories, and nations in Southeast
Asia continued to fall one after the other as Japanese forces exploded
across the South China Sea and into the Bay of Bengal, threatening Burma and
even India.
The Doolittle Raid
On April 18, 1942,
U.S. forces launched a daring air raid to demonstrate that Japan
itself was susceptible to Allied attack. Lieutenant Colonel James
Doolittle led the ingenious campaign, which originated from
the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Although
aircraft carriers were designed to launch fighters, not bombers, Doolittle
specially prepared a squadron of sixteen B-25 bombers
to fly from the Hornet. The bombers were stripped
of all equipment and parts not absolutely necessary for the flight
and loaded on board the Hornet with a minimum cargo
of bombs.
The lightweight planes managed to take off from the Hornet and fly
more than 800 miles
to Japan, where they dropped bombs on oil reservoirs and naval facilities
in Tokyo and several other cities. The planes then continued on
to China to land. Low on fuel, all sixteen planes crash-landed,
but two went astray into Japanese-held territory and another landed
in Vladivostok, in the eastern USSR. Although the raid did minimal
damage to Japan, it was a powerful psychological victory for the
United States and demonstrated that the Japanese homeland was indeed
vulnerable.
The Battle of the Coral Sea
By late spring 1942,
Japan had captured most of Southeast Asia and turned its attention
southward. In early May, Japanese invasion fleets were ordered to
take over Tulagi in the Solomon Islands and Port Moresby
on New Guinea—the location of a major Allied base and
the last Allied outpost standing between the Japanese navy and Australia.
U.S. forces in the area were alerted in advance because of intercepted
Japanese radio transmissions. Two American aircraft carriers (the
USS Lexington and USS Yorktown),
along with several cruisers and destroyers, were dispatched to stop
the attacks and protect Port Moresby. The Japanese landed at Tulagi
on May 3, before American ships could arrive
on the scene. The next day, planes from the Lexington attacked
the Japanese forces on the ground at Tulagi and then turned south
to join the Yorktown in defending Port Moresby.
The Americans and Japanese finally engaged each
other on May 7 in the Battle
of the Coral Sea. The entire battle was carried out by carrier-based
aircraft, without any ships exchanging shots—the first time in history
that a naval battle was waged exclusively from the air. Both sides
suffered heavy losses, and the Lexington was sunk. While
material losses were comparable for each side, the Allied forces
succeeded in their central goal of protecting Port Moresby.
Japan’s New Plan
Following the humiliation of the Doolittle Raid and the
failure to take Port Moresby during the Battle of the Coral Sea,
Japanese strategists knew that something had to be done to eliminate
the threat from U.S. aircraft carriers. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku,
who had planned the Pearl Harbor attack, was again put in charge.
