Pacific Ocean theater of World War II - wikipedia Pacific Ocean theater of World War II For naval operations in the Southwest Pacific area, including the Netherlands East Indies, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and New Guinea, see South West Pacific theatre of World War II. For the overall military theater in Asia and the Pacific, see Pacific War. For other uses, see Pacific Theater ( disambiguation ) Japanese naval aircraft prepare to take off from an aircraft carrier. The Western Allies ' command structure in the Pacific Campaigns of World War II Europe Poland Phoney War Winter War Denmark & Norway France & Benelux Britain Balkans Eastern Front Finland Western Front ( 1944 -- 45 ) Pacific War China Pacific Ocean South - East Asia South West Pacific Japan Manchuria ( 1945 ) Mediterranean and Middle East North Africa Horn of Africa Mediterranean Sea Adriatic Malta Yugoslavia Iraq Syria -- Lebanon Iran Italy Dodecanese Southern France Other campaigns Atlantic Arctic Strategic bombing America French West Africa Madagascar Contemporaneous wars Chinese Civil War USSR -- Japan Border Wars French -- Thai Ecuadorian -- Peruvian War Ili Rebellion U.S. 5th Marines evacuate injured personnel during actions on Guadalcanal on November 1, 1942. USS Bunker Hill hit by two Kamikazes in thirty seconds on 11 May 1945 off Kyushu The Pacific Ocean theater, during World War II, was a major theater of the war between the Allies and the Empire of Japan. It was defined by the Allied powers ' Pacific Ocean Area command, which included most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, while mainland Asia was excluded, as were the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, Australia, most of the Territory of New Guinea and the western part of the Solomon Islands. It officially came into existence on March 30, 1942, when US Admiral Chester Nimitz was appointed Supreme Allied Commander Pacific Ocean Areas. In the other major theatre in the Pacific region, known as the South West Pacific theatre, Allied forces were commanded by US General Douglas MacArthur. Both Nimitz and MacArthur were overseen by the US Joint Chiefs and the Western Allies Combined Chiefs of Staff ( CCoS ). Most Japanese forces in the theater were part of the Combined Fleet ( 聯合 艦隊, Rengō Kantai ) of the Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ), which was responsible for all Japanese warships, naval aircraft, and marine infantry units. The Rengō Kantai was led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, until he was killed in an attack by U.S. fighter planes in April 1943. Yamamoto was succeeded by Admiral Mineichi Koga ( 1943 -- 44 ) and Admiral Soemu Toyoda ( 1944 -- 45 ). The General Staff ( 参謀 本部, Sanbō Honbu ) of the Imperial Japanese Army ( IJA ) was responsible for Imperial Japanese Army ground and air units in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. The IJN and IJA did not formally use joint / combined staff at the operational level, and their command structures / geographical areas of operations overlapped with each other and those of the Allies. In the Pacific Ocean theater, Japanese forces fought primarily against the United States Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army. The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and other Allied nations also contributed forces. Major campaigns and battles Central Pacific Theater Attack on Pearl Harbour 7 December 1941 Battle of Wake Island 7 -- 23 December 1941 Doolittle Raid 18 April 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea 4 -- 8 May 1942 Battle of Midway 4 -- 7 June 1942 Guadalcanal Campaign 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943 Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign 1943 -- 44 Makin Island raid 17 -- 18 August 1942 Battle of Tarawa 20 November 1943 Battle of Makin 20 -- 23 November 1943 Battle of Kwajalein 14 February 1944 Battle of Eniwetok 17 February 1944 Attack on Truk Island 17 -- 18 February 1944 Mariana and Palau Islands campaign 1944 Battle of Saipan 15 June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea 19 -- 21 June 1944 Battle of Guam 21 July 1944 Battle of Tinian 24 July 1944 Battle of Peleliu 15 September 1944 Battle of Angaur 17 September 1944 Battle of Leyte 20 October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf 23 October 1944 Battle of Iwo Jima 19 February 1945 Battle of Okinawa 1 April 1945 North Pacific Theater Aleutian Islands Campaign 1942 -- 43 Battle of the Komandorski Islands 26 March 1943 References Jump up ^ Cressman 2000, p. 84 ^ Jump up to : Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) p. 717 Jump up ^ Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) pp. 759 -- 760 ^ Jump up to : Silverstone ( 1968 ) pp. 9 -- 11 Jump up ^ Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) pp. 651 -- 652 Jump up ^ Kafka & Pepperburg ( 1946 ) p. 185 Jump up ^ Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) p. 751 Jump up ^ Ofstie ( 1946 ) p. 194 Jump up ^ Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) p. 761 Jump up ^ Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) p. 765 ^ Jump up to : Potter & Nimitz ( 1960 ) p. 770 ^ Jump up to : Ofstie ( 1946 ) p. 275 Bibliography The following references are arranged in inverse chronology : Toll, Ian ( 2012 ). Pacific Crucible : War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941 -- 1942. W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 0 - 393 - 34341 - 3. Miller, Edward S. ( 2007 ). War Plan Orange : The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897 -- 1945. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1 - 59114 - 500 - 7. Cressman, Robert J. ( 2000 ). The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1 - 55750 - 149 - 1. Drea, Edward J. ( 1998 ). In the Service of the Emperor : Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska : University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0 - 8032 - 1708 - 0. Hakim, Joy ( 1995 ). A History of Us : War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 - 19 - 509514 - 6. Silverstone, Paul H. ( 1968 ). U.S. Warships of World War II. Doubleday and Company. Potter, E.B. ; Chester W. Nimitz ( 1960 ). Sea Power. Prentice - Hall. Kafka, Roger ; Pepperburg, Roy L. ( 1946 ). Warships of the World. New York : Cornell Maritime Press. Ofstie, Ralph A. ( 1946 ). The Campaigns of the Pacific War. Washington, D.C. : United States Government Printing Office. World War II Asia and the Pacific China South - East Asia North and Central Pacific South - West Pacific Europe Western Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East North Africa East Africa Italy West Africa Atlantic North America South America Casualties Military engagements Conferences Commanders Participants Allies ( leaders ) Australia Belgium Brazil Canada China Cuba Czechoslovakia Denmark Ethiopia France Free France ( from June 1940 ) Greece India Italy ( from September 1943 ) Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Philippines ( Commonwealth ) Poland South Africa Southern Rhodesia Soviet Union United Kingdom United States Puerto Rico Yugoslavia Axis and Axis - aligned ( leaders ) Albania Bulgaria Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China Independent State of Croatia Finland Germany Hungary Free India Iraq Italy ( until September 1943 ) Italian Social Republic Japan Manchukuo Philippines ( Second Republic ) Romania Slovakia Thailand Vichy France Armed neutrality Resistance Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Czech lands Denmark Estonia Ethiopia France Germany Greece Hong Kong Italy Japan Jewish Korea Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malaya Netherlands Northeast China Norway Philippines Poland Anti-communist Romania Thailand Soviet Union Slovakia Western Ukraine Vietnam Yugoslavia Monarchists Timeline Prelude Africa Asia Europe 1939 Poland Phoney War Winter War Atlantic Changsha China 1940 Weserübung Netherlands Belgium France Armistice of 22 June 1940 Britain North Africa West Africa British Somaliland North China Baltic States Moldova Indochina Greece Compass 1941 East Africa Yugoslavia Shanggao Greece Crete Iraq Soviet Union ( Barbarossa ) Finland Lithuania Syria and Lebanon Kiev Iran Leningrad Gorky Moscow Sevastopol Pearl Harbor The outbreak of the Pacific War Hong Kong Philippines Changsha Malaya Borneo ( 1941 -- 42 ) 1942 Burma Changsha Java Sea Coral Sea Gazala Dutch Harbor Attu ( occupation ) Kiska Zhejiang - Jiangxi Midway Rzhev Blue Stalingrad Singapore Dieppe El Alamein Guadalcanal Torch 1943 Tunisia Kursk Smolensk Gorky Solomon Islands Attu Sicily Cottage Lower Dnieper Italy Armistice of Cassibile Gilbert and Marshall Islands Burma Northern Burma and Western Yunnan Changde 1944 Monte Cassino / Shingle Narva Korsun -- Cherkassy Tempest Ichi - Go Overlord Neptune Normandy Mariana and Palau Bagration Western Ukraine Tannenberg Line Warsaw Eastern Romania Belgrade Paris Dragoon Gothic Line Market Garden Estonia Crossbow Pointblank Lapland Hungary Leyte Ardennes Bodenplatte Philippines ( 1944 -- 1945 ) Burma ( 1944 -- 45 ) 1945 Vistula -- Oder Iwo Jima Western invasion of Germany Okinawa Italy ( Spring 1945 ) Borneo Syrmian Front Berlin Czechoslovakia Budapest West Hunan Guangxi Surrender of Germany Project Hula Manchuria Manila Borneo Taipei Atomic bombings Debate Kuril Islands Shumshu Surrender of Japan End of World War II in Asia Aspects General Famines Bengal famine of 1943 Chinese famine of 1942 -- 43 Greek Famine of 1941 - 1944 Dutch famine of 1944 -- 45 Vietnamese Famine of 1945 Air warfare of World War II Blitzkrieg Comparative military ranks Cryptography Diplomacy Home front United States Australian United Kingdom Lend - Lease Manhattan Project Military awards Military equipment Military production Nazi plunder Opposition Technology Allied cooperation Total war Strategic bombing Puppet states Women Art and World War II Aftermath Expulsion of Germans Operation Paperclip Operation Osoaviakhim Operation Keelhaul Occupation of Germany Territorial changes of Germany Soviet occupations Romania Poland Hungary Baltic States Occupation of Japan First Indochina War Indonesian National Revolution Cold War Decolonization Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany Popular culture War crimes Allied war crimes Soviet war crimes British war crimes United States war crimes German ( Forced labour ) / Wehrmacht war crimes Holocaust Aftermath Response Prosecution Italian war crimes Japanese war crimes Unit 731 Prosecution Croatian war crimes against the Serbs against the Jews Romanian war crimes Wartime sexual violence German military brothels Camp brothels Rape during the occupation of Japan Sook Ching Comfort women Rape of Nanking Rape of Manila Rape during the occupation of Germany Rape during the liberation of France Rape during the liberation of Poland Prisoners Finnish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union German prisoners of war in the United States Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Japanese prisoners of war in World War II German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Romanian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union Soviet prisoners of war in Finland Bibliography Portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pacific_Ocean_theater_of_World_War_II&oldid=831967410 '' Categories : Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II Pacific theatre of World War II Theaters and campaigns of World War II Military history of Japan during World War II Military history of the Pacific Ocean Hidden categories : Articles containing Japanese - 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Question: what was the last major battle in the pacific wwii
Answer: Battle of Okinawa