Imperial Japanese Navy Archives - TogetherWeServed Blog

WW2 – Battle of Guadalcanal

Though it probably didn't feel like it at the time, the Allies in the Pacific Theater of World War II were able to respond to the Japanese advances relatively quickly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor wasn't the only surprise target that day. The Imperial Japanese Navy also struck targets held by the Dutch and British and the American-held Philippines. The Naval Campaign at Guadalcanal By August of 1942, just nine months after its coordinated surprise attacks across the...

WW2 – The Battle of the Bismarck Sea

Battlefield Chronicles, World War II

As 1942 turned to 1943, a victorious end to World War II in the Pacific Theater was still far from assured for either side of the conflict. The Allies were celebrating a string of strategic victories over the course of the previous year. After the devastation of Pearl Harbor, the Americans scored a major victory against the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. A few months later, U.S. forces launched the Solomon Islands campaign, invading Guadalcanal and its strategic...

George Walters, The Civilian Who Fought at Pearl Harbor

Military Myths and Legends, World War II

World War II was a total war, meaning that once the United States entered the war, everyone fought it somehow. The troops, of course, did the fighting, but civilians on the home front made sacrifices, collected scrap and grew gardens to keep food fresh for the soldiers and sailors on the real front. There was also the American workforce, who built the machines and materials needed to do the job. From the very moment the U.S. was thrust into World War II, civilians were ready to do their...

Japanese Tried A Second Raid on Pearl Harbor

Military Myths and Legends, World War II

Everyone knows about the first bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Less well known, however, was the second attack. And there was almost a third. The first one was just a warm-up. The Imperial Japanese Navy planned several more attacks on the U.S. mainland - starting with California and Texas. It was called Ke-Sakusen (Operation Strategy), better known as "Operation K." Its aim was four-fold: (1) to assess the damage at Pearl Harbor; (2) to stop the ongoing rescue and salvage...

WW2 – The Battle of Saipan

Battlefield Chronicles, World War II

War inevitably equals mass casualties, whether numbering in the dozens or the hundreds, or the hundreds of thousands - this truth that has accompanied war for thousands of years. A generally accepted fact is that these casualties, whether civilian or military, are usually the direct result of enemy soldiers attacking, disease, and famine in the wake of an invasion. Sometimes, however, other means account for mass deaths in war. Such was the case of the Battle of Saipan in the Second World War...

PO3 Robert Eugene Bush, U.S. Navy (1944–1945)

Profiles in Courage, World War II

Robert Eugene Bush wasn't old enough to join the Navy when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was still in high school. His neighbor in his hometown of Raymond, Washington, was a Fireman aboard the USS Arizona. "He's still on board the Arizona," Bush said in a Veterans History Project Interview. Bush could barely stand the wait to join the war. He wouldn't be old enough until his 17th birthday in the Fall of 1943. He and a friend from school dropped out and enlisted...

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