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Pearl Harbor To Final Victory
Volume One: 1941-43 Attack and Counterattack
December 7, 1941 - the horrific Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor nearly destroys the U.S. Pacific Fleet.American morale reels, but within six months, it's the enemy's turn to suffer at the Battle of Midway, losing 4 aircraft carriers, one cruiser, and 322 planes.The U.S. went on the offensive, launching a deadly campaign of amphibious assaults that began with the Solomon Islands.It was there, on one obscure island, that U.S. Forces would learn the grueling and bloody nature of war in the Pacific - Guadalcanal.U.S. forces begin rolling back Japan's early advances starting with Tarawa - only two miles long but capturing it took the four bloodiest days of the entire Pacific campaign.Meanwhile, on the Asian mainland G.I.s, Marines and their allies fight desperately for every yard of the Burma Road.
Volume Two: 1944-45 Victory in the Pacific
The tide of war was turning and the Japanese were on the run.First on Saipan, where 16,525 Americans are killed or wounded repelling waves of banzai charges.Then Tinian falls, and the U.S. captures airbases within striking distance of Tokyo.In October 1944, Japan's imperial navy is effectively knocked out to the war in the largest naval battle ever to take place, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.As the end drew ever nearer, U.S. forces return to the Philippines and liberate Manila after four months of bitter jungle-fighting.Next came Iwo Jima and a 36-day battle that was the bloodiest in Marine Corps history.Finally, Okinawa - the last stop on the way to Japan, and its defenders were prepared to fight to the death.After 83 days of fighting, only 10,755 Japanese were taken alive.The remaining defenders, 110,000 of them, were dead.Following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered on the deck of the battleship Missouri.The empire of the Rising Sun had fallen.
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