X-Nico

26 unusual facts about Pacific War


Adriel N. Williams

Following V-E Day, Williams returned to the United States with the 436th Troop Carrier Group, where the unit was to be reequipped with C-46s for duty in the Pacific theater.

Akira Mutō

Promoted to lieutenant general just prior to the start of the Pacific War, Mutō served as director of the Military Affairs Bureau at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Arifin Bey

He went to Japan as a scholarship student during the Pacific War, when Indonesia was under Japanese occupation, and found himself in Hiroshima in 1945, when the city was hit by an atomic bomb.

Armed Forces of the Philippines

MacArthur expanded the Philippine Armed Forces with the revival of the Navy in 1940 and the formation of the Philippine Army Air Corps (formerly the Philippine Constabulary Air Corps), but they were not ready for combat at the start of the Pacific War in December 1941 and unable to defeat the 1941–42 Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

Battle of Lunga Point

Battle for Henderson Field, a battle that took place October 23 – 26, 1942 during the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific War of World War II.

Battle of Tassafaronga, a battle that took place November 30, 1942 during the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific War of World War II.

Doomben Racecourse

The racecourse was inaugurated in 1933 and subsequently was shut down during the Second World War, when it was used by allied troops during the Pacific War.

Fourth Battle of Savo Island

Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, a battle that took place November 12 – 15, 1942 during the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific War of World War II.

French Indochina

In September 1940, during World War II, the newly created regime of Vichy France granted Japan's demands for military access to Tonkin following the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, which lasted until the end of the Pacific War.

Furman Stewart Baldwin

Furman S. Baldwin served as a navy pilot in the Pacific theater during World War II and served as a civilian for the Department of Defense at The United States Military Academy at West Point until his retirement in 1985.

Iriomote Coal Mine

In 1941, the Pacific War had started and many workers were drafted for military service with the Japanese Imperial army.

Island hopping

Leapfrogging is a strategy of island hopping used by Douglas MacArthur of the Allies in the Pacific Theater of World War II in which many of the enemy's strong points are neutralized at minimum cost by being bypassed and then cut off from resupply.

John Augustine Collins

Following the outbreak of war with Japan, Collins was appointed Commodore Commanding China Force, the RN-RAN cruiser and destroyer force based in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, under the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command.

John D. Winters

He served in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, but his obituary does not list the branch of service.

Kampira Falls frog

This was the situation by the time World War II interrupted further research, with some even believing it did not exist at all.

Kim Yong-Sik

The expansion of Japanese offensives during the Pacific War in 1942 led to the cessation of sporting competitions in the country and Kim's spell at Pyeongyang FC came to an end.

Minoru Wada

He was motivated by a desire to minimize the loss of life through aiding to effect a swift end to the Pacific War.

Nick Stahl

In 1998 he played a doomed young soldier during the World War II Pacific War in The Thin Red Line.

Pacific Campaign

Pacific War, fighting between the Allies of World War II and the Empire of Japan in the Pacific during World War II

Teng Yu-hsien

In 1939, the Pacific War became much more heavily, thus Teng resigned from his job and evacuated to Cyonglin of Hsinchu with his family, then served as a teacher in the Cyonglin Public School (芎林公學校).

Tobu Kumagaya Line

Construction of the line was planned during the Pacific War to provide transportation for the military supply factories located in the area.

Uichiro Niwa

It was Imperial Japan's efforts to invade and colonize other Asian countries that eventually led to the deterioration of diplomatic relations between Japan and the U.S. in the years leading up to the Pacific War.

The Noda government chose to nationalize the islands on the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident, which served as a pretext for the Imperial Japanese Army to invade northeastern China, which became a step leading up to the Pacific War.

Walter Lincoln Hawkins

By controlling much of the Pacific theater in World War II, the Japanese had cut off much of America’s rubber supply from Southeast Asia.

William Joshua Blackmon

He served with the U.S. Army 585th Engineers Company from 1943 to 1945 during World War II, mostly in the Pacific Theater (New Guinea, Southern Philippines, Luzon).

Yi Eungro

Next year, he was accepted to the art exhibition of Chosun, under the title of Mukjuk(inkwashing bamboo) and then graduated from Gawabata Art school which was shut down during Pacific War.


1942 Rose Bowl

After the 1942 Allied victory in the Battle of Midway and the end of the Japanese offensives in the Pacific Theater during 1942, it was deemed that the West Coast was no longer vulnerable to attack, and the Rose Bowl game continued on in the Rose Bowl Stadium.

377th Fighter Squadron

As a result of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the sudden end of the Pacific War, the deployment plans were canceled, however the unit was retained as part of the Second Air Force under Continental Air Forces and reassigned to Biggs Field, Texas, being equipped with P-51 Mustangs.

Earl E. Anderson

With the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific, Anderson and the Yorktown were transferred there, where they participated in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, the Salamaua-Lae campaign, and the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.

Invasion of Salamaua–Lae

The Invasion of Lae-Salamaua, called Operation SR by the Japanese, was an operation by Imperial Japanese forces to occupy the Salamaua-Lae area in the Territory of New Guinea 8–13 March 1942 during the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Japan campaign

The Japan Campaign was a series of battles and engagements in and around the Japanese Home Islands, between Allied forces and the forces of Imperial Japan during the last stages of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

Japanese cruiser Tokiwa

As the Pacific War situation deteriorated further for the Japanese Empire, Tokiwa laid thousands of mines in the waters off Okinawa in June 1944 and Yakushima in February 1945.

Japanese cruiser Tsugaru

The cruiser Tsugaru should not be confused with the Pacific War era minelayer of the same name.

Pik-Sen Lim

Lim was born under the name of Lim Phaik-Seng in Penang, Malaysia, Straits Settlements (occupied by Japan at the time of her birth), and was the daughter of the palm oil millionaire Lim Cheng-Taik.

Prince Kuni Asaakira

Prince Kuni was promoted to rear admiral on 1 November 1942, and was given personnel of the Southwest Area Fleet (5 October 1942) the Japanese occupation of Timor in the Pacific War.

USS SC-500

After World War II service in the U.S Navy, SC-500 was selected for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan.

Whitey Platt

He missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons while serving with the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

Yoshinao Kodaira

Participating in many of the Pacific War battles and campaigns as a member of several units, including the fighter units of the aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Chiyoda, Kodaira was officially credited with destroying 13 enemy aircraft.