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Battle Of Tawara Essay

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The Seizure of Gilberts and Marshalls was a high price to pay for a few hundred acres of coral. The Battle of Tawara lasted from November 20th – 23rd, 1943. During this battle, which occurred in the Central Pacific, the Americans lost just as many soldiers as the Japanese. One has to ask, was this seizure even necessary? The Americans used and lost so many of its resources, that it was not financially burdensome. The Americans are already known to be a super power; they have the largest navy in the world and are experienced fighters of war. Yes, Australia is one of alley that we had kept in mind during the onset of the war but we could have done this a different way. The Americans needed to gain some type of control with the Pacific and the seizure was necessary but the way that they did it was not. The American forces had only a combination of 1389 more fatalities, wounded and missing in action than the Japanese. That is actually at the same time a significant and insignificant amount. Its insignificant because in other wars, more …show more content…

They made this battle more tedious than what was planned for the Americans. The Japanese basically rigged the space. For instance, the island of Betio measured approximately two miles long and a half-mile wide, it was crisscrossed with several defenses: 100 pillboxes (dug-in concrete bunkers), seawalls, bomb shelters, an extensive trench system for defensive movements and an airstrip were supported by coastal guns, antiaircraft guns, heavy and light machine guns and light tanks. The beaches were naturally ringed with shallow reefs, which were covered with barbed wire and mines. All of these deterrents hindered the Americans from achieving smooth access to the area. Japan had control over this atoll and the components within for a few years and the Americans were coming in to take over without acknowledging that

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But fortunately for the United States, they were able to intercept and decipher the Japanese code. This gave the United States enough time to gather up forces to fight against the Japanese. The Japanese goal was to end the United States involvement in the Pacific. A couple months before the Battle of Midway the United States was able to launch a surprise Attack against the Japanese which they were launched from the island of Midway. The United States was able to successfully bomb the Japanese mainland.

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Because of this, the United States had to increase military forces in Hawaii. They needed to be ready just in case an attack was to happen. Military forces in Hawaii were preparing for an attack. The Japanese had an advantage because they had many intelligence officers from Japan that were in Hawaii. This allowed for them to go around and locate areas where the U.S. ships and planes were.

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In June 1942, the Japanese army had seized the United States owned islands in end of Alaska’s Aleutian chain. The reason for invading Attu and Kiska might have been to turn away U.S. forces during their attack on Midway Island in the central Pacific. Exactly six months after the attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, they invaded and occupied Attu and Kiska. Americans were surprised that the enemy could take over the United States soil.

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During the months following their occupation, Japanese soldiers learned to adapt to the extreme conditions of Attu and Kiska, while the Japanese navy kept the soldiers well-supplied. It took the U.S a little under a year to finally put together a strategy to go and claim back their land. By March, 1943 the U.S navy set up a blockade of Attu and Kiska to restrict the amount of supplies being shipped to the Japanese. Americans were left shocked after Japan claimed any of their soil, no matter how dreadful the environment. Some people feared the takeover of the Aleutian Islands would lead to an invasion of the mainland of Alaska.

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Secondly, Japanese people were willing to do anything to win the war like kamikaze attacks (Doc. C). “In these kamikaze attacks, more than 3,000 ruthless Japanese pilots were killed, and there were more than 7,000 casualties among American, Australian, and British personnel (OI/http://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/first-kamikaze-strikes). This quote shows just how much japan was willing to do.

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This gave a huge advantage to the allies because they were able to attack Japan, which would eventually lead to the end of the war. Shrinking the Japanese empire and regaining territory is how the United States won the war, and this would have not happened if the United States were still on the defensive side protecting themselves from the growing Japanese Empire. The Battle of Midway was the biggest turning point because it displayed the importance of air superiority in the rest of the war. The casualties that the Japanese faced during the Battle of Midway would change the course of the war. Losing four aircraft carriers and hundreds of trained aircrew was a severe setback for the Japanese Navy and affected naval operations, “In addition, Midway [...] demonstrated the newly dominant role of aircraft carriers and aviation in naval combat—they were the first major naval battles in history fought entirely by aircraft”(Eysturlid).

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A long-standing debate in American history is when the United states gained the upper hand against Japan in World War. Some say it happened at the Battle of Midway, while others claim it to be Guadalcanal. Both had their significances and contributions to the American victory, but the victory at Guadalcanal is likely to not have occurred had Japan won the Battle of Midway. The American victory at Midway did several things for them, firstly they gained morale and momentum in the pacific, they essentially destroyed the Japanese navy’s surface fleet, and they secured Midway Atoll. When combined, the resulting outcome spells out the start of Japan’s failure to when the war.

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At the time, Japan did not have the necessary natural resources an industrial nation required; therefore, the United States and the western parts of Europe were supplying Japan with these resources: coal, iron, steel, copper, rubber, and petroleum (Higgs). Without these resources, Japan would collapse in a matter of months. In order to sustain their military, they would need coal, iron, steel, and petroleum to supply their military. Japan had to act fast, or else their whole economy would crumble. On the islands that American took away from Japan during the imperialist stages in the late 19th century, such as Hawaii and the Philippians, had these resources.

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Once the United States started pushing forward, the Japanese opened

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Japanese fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made plans to lead the Japanese Navy and attack the 2 islands that make up Midway Atoll. He thought that the U.S. could not win a battle based so close to its broken Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto was expecting to ambush America, but America surprised them with the ambush. American Navy successfully sank the Japanese Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu aircraft carriers, with 322 planes and over 5,000 soldiers on them. Japan also lost the heavy cruiser

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The main deficiency with Japan’s war plan for Midway, as Symonds pointed out, came from the assumption that the Americans would react and behave in the way that the Japanese wanted, enough for them to strangle and beat down U.S. forces enough to drag them to the negotiation table as they had done with the Russians in the Russo – Japanese War. One mistake that Symonds pointed made on the part of the Japanese regarding their Midway plan was that attacking the island itself provided no advantage for them but everything for the Americans. Japan did not have the resources to both take over Midway and maintain the island, but it boosted all the benefits for the Americans because Midway provided land-based air cover, shorter logistic lines and was close enough to repair facilities that the U.S. forces did not have to stress. Essentially by picking this island, the Japanese had lost another step in the overall battle. Midway was closer to the U.S. bases which were crawling with American submarines and therefore easier to protect instead of the geographical location of Japan were trying to provide resources to Japanese on the would be occupied island would stretch out Japan’s already depleting sources as pointed out by Commander Miyo.

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