In the South West Pacific theatre, Japanese forces fought primarily against the forces of the
United States and Australia.
New Zealand, the
Netherlands (in the Dutch East Indies), the Philippines,
United Kingdom, and other Allied nations also contributed forces.
The South Pacific became a major theatre of the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Initially, US war plans called for a counteroffensive across the Central Pacific, but this was disrupted by the loss of battleships at Pearl Harbor. During the First South Pacific Campaign, US forces sought to establish a defensive perimeter against additional Japanese attacks. This was followed by the Second South Pacific Campaign, which began with the
Battle of Guadalcanal.
The U.S.
GeneralDouglas MacArthur had been in command of the American forces in the Philippines in what was to become the South West Pacific theatre, but was then part of a larger theatre that encompassed the South West Pacific, the Southeast Asian mainland (including Indochina and Malaya) and the North of Australia, under the short lived
American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM). Shortly after the collapse of ABDACOM, supreme command of the South West Pacific theatre passed to MacArthur who was appointed Supreme Commander,
South West Pacific Area on 30 March 1942.[1][2] However, MacArthur preferred to use the title "Commander-in-Chief." The forces remaining in South-East Asia under Japanese attack reverted to their local commanders, and were soon mostly destroyed or evacuated.
The other major theatre in the Pacific,
Pacific Ocean Areas, was commanded by U.S.
AdmiralChester Nimitz, who was also Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet. Both MacArthur and Nimitz were overseen by the US
Joint Chiefs and the British-U.S.
Combined Chiefs of Staff.
CaptainAllan Rockwell McCann was appointed to represent the Navy as the Senior Representative of Commander, Submarines, Southwest Pacific, to General MacArthur.
Japanese command
Most
Japanese forces in the theatre were part of the
Southern Expeditionary Army (南方軍, Nanpo gun), which was formed on November 6, 1941, under General
Hisaichi Terauchi (also known as Count Terauchi). The Nanpo gun was responsible for
Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) ground and air units in
Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. The
Combined Fleet (聯合艦隊, Rengō Kantai) of the
Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was responsible for all Japanese warships,
naval aviation units and
marine infantry units. As the Japanese military did not formally utilize joint/combined staff at the operational level, the command structures/geographical areas of operations of the Nanpo gun and Rengō Kantai overlapped each other and those of the Allies.
Silverstone, Paul H. (1968). U.S. Warships of World War II. Doubleday and Company.
Sulzberger, C.L (1966). The American Heritage Picture History of World War II. Crown Publishers.
Further reading
Drea, Edward J. (1998). In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
ISBN0-8032-1708-0.
Eichelberger, Robert (1989). Our Jungle Road to Tokyo (reissue ed.). New York: Battery Press.
ISBN0-89839-132-6.