Island Hopping (also known as leapfrogging); to travel from island to island, especially to visit a series of islands in the same chain or area. (dictionary.com) Island Hopping is a military strategy in which U.S. forces moved (or traveled) from island to island, using the previously captured island as an air base to capture the next island. Island Hopping was also known as "Operation Cartwheel". During WWII, U.S forces used this strategy against the Japanese Imperial Army, and in return, beat them while capturing and claiming many of their surrounding islands, such as Tarawa Atoll, the Marshall Islands, and the Mariana Islands. The success of the Island Hopping Campaign allowed the U.S. to bomb Japan using atomic bombs and to quickly end the war. To learn more about atomic bombs, click here.
The Leaders
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General Douglas MacArthur
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Important Islands and Battles
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Tarawa
Tarawa Atoll is apart of the Gilbert Islands (along with Betio), which are located in the (Central) Pacific Ocean. This is where Island hopping first began; the U.S used this military strategy to launch their Pacific Campaign against the Japanse in efforts to go against them in the war. One island that the U.S had their eye on was Betio, located in Tarawa Atoll, which was a moderatly small island, and easy to secure. However, trouble struck when low tides occured and they were unable to reach shore on their own, many marines gave up, jumped off the ship (that was 500 yards away from shore) and made their way towards the island.
U,S troops opened fire at Tarawa on November 20th, 1943, in hopes of securing Tarawa, the Marshall, and Mariana Islands in order to beat Japan in their Pacific Campaign. The Japanese held 4,500 troops, whereas the United States had 18,000 marines in total. After three days of battle, U.S troops captured and secured Tarawa Atoll; this was their first defeat against Japanese armed forces. More than 2,000 United States marines were wounded, while 1,000 were declared dead. The casualty rates from this specific battle shocked many American citizens; they were very high, all over one small island. Click here for video Philippines
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Okinawa
This was the last (and known to be the greatest, largest, and most ambitious landing) in the Pacific War and of World War II. The Battle of Okinawa was also known as “Operation Iceberg” as the battle was fought in the Ryukyu Islands, in the center of Okinawa. Okinawa was Japan’s last attempt at winning the war, however, they failed to do so as the Allies were rising against them. In the Okinawa Campaign, which ran from April 1st—June 22nd, 1945, 287,000 troops of the United States' Tenth Army were up against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-Second Army. By the end of the 82-day campaign and battles, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers in total, while the U.S troops had more than 65,000 wounded and 14,000 dead.
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http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_okinawa1.html
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