World War II: The Pacific Theater

The origins of the war predate Dec. 7, 1941; tracing the events that lead up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; Japan's interest in taking over China; the strategic need for oil and other supplies threatened by the US-controlled Philippines.

The attack on Pearl Harbor is a tactical success for Japan; it also proves to be one of the most irresponsible strategic decisions in the history of warfare; the events that occur on the day of infamy; how and why the US is caught off guard.

During the first six months of 1942, the Japanese military juggernaut moves from success to success in the Pacific; the Japanese wreck Allied naval forces in the Java Sea; the invasion of the Philippines; Douglas MacArthur's escape to Australia.

In 1942, the United States needs a morale boost; the Doolittle Raid against Tokyo is a public relations coup; many of the operational decisions in the Pacific Theater revolve around logistics and supplies; equipping planes with enough fuel.

Codebreaking is one of the most captivating stories in World War II, both in Europe and the Pacific; Americans stationed in Hawaii wrestle with Japanese intercepts; what they can decipher; even partial codebreaking contributes to success in battle.

The Battle of the Coral Sea is the first naval battle in history fought entirely by carrier-based airplanes; the Japanese inflict more tactical damage; the sinking of the US carrier Lexington; they fail to conquer Port Moresby in New Guinea.

The Japanese are determined to capture an American base on a tiny atoll in the middle of the Pacific; the changing nature of naval warfare; recognition of the important role carriers play; reflecting on how critical decisions affect the outcome.

Even before the victory at Midway, Ernest J. King wants to initiate an offensive; his first target is the island of Guadalcanal, where the Japanese are building an airfield; the dueling personalities in the US command; seizing the airfield.

The battle for the Solomon Islands is a grinding six-month campaign; multiple bloody engagements on both land and sea; Admiral Yamamoto and the Japanese high command cut their losses; the waters nearby become known as Ironbottom Sound.

General MacArthur is a controversial figure, a complex commander who finds himself sharing command of the Pacific with US Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz; these two commanders conduct a dual campaign on both New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands.

For all the military planning and fighting, much of the American success in World War II is due to the country's industrial output: the Grumman-built F6F Hellcat fighter planes, Essex-class aircraft carriers, and weapons produced at a record rate.

By 1944, the American strategy is to island-hop across Micronesia; the first step was the island of Tarawa; following the invaders; how a tidal anomaly and Japanese defenders lead to a bloodbath; 3,000 Marines are killed or wounded in three days.

By 1944, the impetus in the Pacific Theater shifts in favor of the Americans; the lessons of Tarawa; the stepping-stone strategy as the US military advances from the Gilberts to the Marshalls; the Japanese quagmire in China and its effect on the war.

One of the reasons Japan attacks the United States is because it needs a secure supply of oil to fight China; by 1944, Japan's supply lines fall; the US, too, is stretched in June 1944; simultaneous campaigns planned; a confrontation in the Pacific.

Since the 1930s, both the American and Japanese war strategists assume that any war between the two countries would be decided by a major sea battle in the western Pacific; the Battle of the Philippine Sea is nothing like what the planners imagined.

Shifting attention from the sea to the sky; the US Army Air Forces conduct both tactical and strategic air campaigns; the technology and personalities of the air war against Japan; the devastation American bombs bring to the Japanese homeland.

American submarines play important roles in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Leyte Gulf; the biggest contribution of the submarine force is not in sinking warships; it is in the destruction of Japanese maritime trade; the US submarine warfare.

General MacArthur leaves the Philippines at the start of the war; MacArthur's meeting with President Roosevelt; the general's long preparation for his return; the sandy beaches of the island of Leyte, the site of his return to the Philippines.

Professor Symonds calls the Battle of Leyte Gulf the greatest naval battle in history; the Japanese have a tough plan; the Americans in Leyte Gulf teeter on the brink of disaster; the US Navy inflicts a decisive defeat on the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Admiral William F. Halsey leads the American carrier forces during the Philippine campaign; in December 1944, he makes several command decisions amid a typhoon that lead to a naval investigation; seeing first-hand what the admiral faces.

Iwo Jima is the iconic battle of the US Marine Corps; a living symbol of the determination and sacrifice of the Marines; reviewing why Iwo Jima becomes a strategic target; watching the battle unfurl; considering its tragic consequences.

By spring 1945, the United States seeks to cut off Japan's supply line to the islands of the South Pacific; an invasion of the island of Okinawa can achieve this objective; Operation Iceberg shatters any prospect of the Japanese victory in the war.

During the bitter fighting for the Japanese island of Okinawa, American sailors confront a horrifying new peril; Japanese suicide bombers from the sky; the history of this vicious battle tactic; the horror of being attacked by human bombs.

A new era in human civilization; Japan is defeated, but the government refuses to surrender; President Truman and Churchill issue a declaration calling for prompt destruction if Japan refuses to surrender; justifying the use of the atomic bombs.