Talk:Pacific War

Attitudes Towards the Enemy

I have added a section to shed light on the attitudes that each participant in the war held towards their enemy as I was surprised that there was little mention of this on the page. I have only written about American attitudes however as this is the only side which I know enough about to write on, but I was hoping that someone more knowledgeable than me on Japanese social history could write a section on the Japanese attitudes, and it time more sections can be added for other participants such as China, Australia etc. Rhinocerous777 (talk) 09:11, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

While I do feel there can be a place for a section on this topic, I also feel that this section can only be included if it covers Japanese attitudes as well. Either someone should immediately add a subsection on Japanese attitudes, or the whole section should be removed for the time being and later reinstated when it includes a Japanese subsection.104.228.9.173 (talk) 13:37, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

Hi I am a university student and I have studied the Japanese in World War Two for the past 2 years and could write the Japanese narrative for this section. I also have studied the American attitudes so I could possibly assist with that as well. Please let me know what you think. Goldenl03 (talk) 10:15, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

This section seems to have been removed (I approve). Generally Homo sapiens individuals have a belligerent attitude towards and enemy, and each warring party is called a Belligerent. Nuances of belligerence are generally manipulated by government propaganda. A short 'Propaganda' section would make sense, each sentence having one or two links to articles on WWII Propaganda or the nature of racism during WWII—but no such dedicated articles exist. There is an article on Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States with 1300-word section on World War II; the balancing material Anti-Americanism#Japan is very short and only covers the postwar period, so a balanced NPOV will require a lot of research/editing. In Japan there is the fascinating phenomenon of "war painting," with Tsuguharu Foujita as the most famous painter; a category page for "Japanese war artists" also exists. Vagabond nanoda (talk) 00:18, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

US casualties in infobox

Meeepmep, when you amended the US casualties in the infobox by changing the number of KIA, you did not amend the total. This is not a simple addition as the source will probably have MIA as an additional casualty category. Please amend the figure according to the source. Cinderella157 (talk) 00:07, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Death Toll

The allied civilian death toll is given as 26,000,000+ but that isn't even close to the upper bound of the numbers cited. The Chinese civilian casualty toll is also grossly underestimated and the very source cited for the 1-6m estimate only states military and civilian casualties which it places at 25,000,000 as opposed to 1-6m.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/asia-pacific-war-1945 https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war Originalcola (talk) 08:12, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

https://guides.loc.gov/sino-japanese-war-1937-1945#:~:text=With%20half%20of%20China%20ruined,the%20bloodiest%20in%20world%20history.

The easiest available reliable online sources give far higher death tolls for China. Originalcola (talk) 08:14, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

• Casualties for China in the infobox reflect the scope of the article - ie from December 1941. Cinderella157 (talk) 23:23, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

  It says 1937-45 for casualties for China and total on the article. Originalcola (talk) 16:39, 23 April 2024 (UTC)

  "Estimates of 1 to 6 million Chinese civilian deaths (1937–1945)", "Civilian deaths 26,000,000+ (1937–1945)" and the source for Chinese casualties also doesn't give a number of casualties from December 1941. Originalcola (talk) 16:40, 23 April 2024 (UTC)

Timing of early events in the Pacific War

The timing of the first days of the Japanese attacks that initiated the Pacific War is confusing because the international date line separates Pearl Harbor from the rest of the events. Are there ways in which the article could make this more clear? Possibilities that come to mind include (a) putting the time and date in UTC in brackets after each statement of local time and date, or (b) tabulating a time line with UTC time and date, the name of the event, and the local date and time. There may well be a better way of presenting the information. To be clear, I am suggesting this just for the first few days of the Japanese attacks.

The importance of making this clear is to get across the massive geographic scale of the initial Japanese attacks. I do not think this comes across too well at the moment. ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 19:35, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Summary Help

I have been working slowly over the past couple of months on Draft:Attacks on the United States, which obviously has several entries from this war (like the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombardment of Ellwood. If anyone familiar with one or several of the attacks against the U.S. during the war, feel free to help perfect the summaries or help by adding additional sources/references.

Any assistance is always appreciated! You can find the World War II section in the draft here: Draft:List of attacks on the United States#World War II (December 1941–September 1945). The Weather Event Writer (Talk Page) 21:39, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Proposed lead improvements

The current lead is completely inadequate in its basic role of describing the course of the war, such as where the fighting took place, when it took place, and important names and turning points (like Midway, Guadalcanal, Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, etc.). Any encyclopedic summary of the Pacific War needs to include this information, and in accordance with common practice on Wikipedia the lead should contain links to articles covering the sub-topics (i.e. specific campaigns) where they can learn more. I have attempted a draft of what I believe is a substantially improved lead in this revision, but was reverted by User:Cinderella157. What do other editors think? — Goszei (talk) 23:17, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Here is the proposed revision, for the convenience of editors here:

The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theater, was the theater of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies in East and South East Asia, the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the brief Soviet–Japanese War, and included some of the largest naval battles in history. Fighting between Japan and the Republic of China had begun in 1937, with hostilities dating back to 1931 with Japan's invasion of Manchuria, but the Pacific War is more widely accepted to have started in 1941, when the United States entered the war against Japan and Germany.

On December 7–8, 1941, Japan attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and invaded the U.S.-held Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines and the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The Japanese achieved great success in the initial six months of the war, allying with Thailand and capturing the aforementioned territories in addition to Burma, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, New Britain, the Solomon and Gilbert Islands, and parts of New Guinea. In May 1942, Japanese and Allied aircraft carriers fought at the Battle of Coral Sea, resulting in the retreat of an invasion force intended for Port Moresby. In June, Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Midway, which is considered a key turning point in the Pacific War. After this point, the Japanese experienced great difficulty replacing their losses in ships and aircraft, while American factories and shipyards produced ever increasing numbers of both.

Major Allied offensives in the Pacific began in August 1942 with the Guadalcanal and New Guinea campaigns. These were followed by Operation Cartwheel from June 1943, which neutralized the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain by early 1944. Elsewhere, Allied forces recaptured the Aleutian Islands by August 1943, and initiated the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in November 1943, which lasted until February 1944. In the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, the Japanese fleet took heavy damage; the Allied campaign to recapture the Philippines began in October and set off the Battle of Leyte Gulf, after which the Japanese were unable to fight further surface engagements and resorted to kamikaze attacks. The rest of the war was characterized by an Allied strategy of island hopping, with invasions of the Mariana and Palau Islands, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa between June 1944 and June 1945. This enabled a blockade of the Japanese home islands and the start of a strategic air raid campaign which caused widespread urban destruction.

In China, Japan made large gains in Operation Ichi-Go between April and December 1944, while in Burma, the Japanese launched an offensive into India which was reversed by July 1944 and led to its liberation by the Allies in May 1945. From the start of the war, Allies had adopted a "Europe first" stance, giving priority to defeating Germany; after Germany's surrender in May 1945, Allied forces were shifted to the Pacific in anticipation for Operation Downfall, a planned invasion of Japan. This became unnecessary after the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 and Soviet invasion of Manchuria on 9 August, after which Japan surrendered unconditionally on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September, ending World War II. Japan lost its all of its former possessions in Asia and the Pacific, and was occupied by the Allies until 1952.

— Goszei (talk) 19:03, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

References

Notes