The Japanese Army’s ‘unplanned’ South Pacific campaign

Abstract

The Japanese, Australians and Americans fought a long and difficult war in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from early in 1942 through to the end of the Second World War. Unfortunately, in many ways it has become a forgotten campaign in Japanese and American histories of the war. In the case of the Japanese, this is largely because the New Guinea and Solomons campaigns were, with the exception of the battle for Guadalcanal, unglamorous and unspectacular. From the Australian perspective, the New Guinea and Solomons campaigns were a vital part of Australia’s experience in that war. In this chapter these campaigns shall be examined from the Japanese side, articulating what was happening ‘on the other side of the hill’ often enables one to gain a fuller understanding of what took place. The focus will be on the Japanese Army; more specifically, the Japanese Army’s perspective of the Pacific War, the process by which the Japanese Army committed itself to the war in the South Pacific, and an overview of some of the problems this created for the Army. The term ‘Pacific War’ when used in this chapter means the war that was begun in December 1941 against the Americans, British, Dutch, and, of course, the Australians, and was fought in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. This is to distinguish that war from the ongoing war in China, which continued to be a major focus of the Japanese Army’s attention until the end of the Second World War.