Pacfic War (dec 7, 1941 – sep 2, 1945)

Description:

Jap knows it cannot win against US once it fully mobilizes (war of attrition),
their aim is to conquer as much as possible within the first few months and then maintain that position hopefully long enough for China to be defeated, whereupon the US and its allies would be convinced to sign a favourable peace agreement,

US has no desire for anything less than total victory (uncoditional surrender), so they deny all Jap peace delegations sent during the war,

as predicted US immedieately starts mobilizing and by 1942 overtakes Jap in war production (US is the biggest industrial power on earth),
the US advantage only grows as the war progresses,

the war was characterized by three things:
1. Island Hopping - progressively "jumping" from island to island using specialized marines
2. Strategic Bombing - begun in large scale in 1943 US heavy bombers flew over Jap damaging its industry and infrastructre, stunting its ability to produce weapons and damaging morale,
3. Isolating Jap from its empire - Jap is an islands nation and as such needs to import materials (i.e. food, manpower, raw resources) from its colonies via shipping,
by targetting these ships (submarines, planes, etc.) the Allies could seriously damage the Jap economy and they were very successful

At the same time as Jap fought the US in the Pacific it fought in China, Birma (against the British / Indians)
and had to maintain an occupational force in all its conquered territory,
therefore Jap was overstretched across multiple fronts

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