Pacific Theater of Operations

The Pacific Theater of Operations, or PTO, was the term used by the United
States in World War II to refer to all military activity in the Pacific
Ocean and the countries bordering it.

Because of the nearly equal roles of the Army and the Navy in conducting war
in the Pacific, there was never a single commander comparable to Eisenhower
in the ETO. Indeed, the organization chart was rather tangled, with the
Joint Chiefs of Staff frequently required to be involved, and the Army and
Navy commanders reporting to both the Secretary of the Navy and the
Secretary of War. (No doubt the attendant difficulties helped motivate the
formation of the Department of Defense in 1947.)

The main commands in the PTO were the Pacific Fleet, commanded by Admiral
Chester Nimitz and the Southwest Pacific Area command, run by General
Douglas MacArthur.

After World War II, the term Pacific War was used more widely in Japan than
World War II to refer to the battles in Pacific Ocean. Until then, the
official Japanese name for the war was Dai toua sensou (?????, Greater East
Asia War). This name was chosen by a cabinet decision on December 10, 1941,
to refer to both the war with the United States and the ongoing war in
China, which began with the China Incident (or Mukden Incident). The name
was released to the public two days later, on December 12, with a government
explanation that it referred to the motivation of Asian nations to achieve
independence from the Western nations - it was not intented to set
parameters for the battlefield. Soon after the start of the war with the
USA, this term was prohibited in official documents, and the war was called
Taiheiyo sensou literally meaning the Pacific War. This latter term
has been used since that time. Less often, Jyugonen'sensou (15 Year
War) is used to refer to the war, beginning with the Japanese invasion of
China in 1931 (also called the Sino-Japanese War) to the end of World War II
in 1945. The term is used to highlight the rule of militarism over the years.

How to - Physics - History - Companies - Internet - Video Games - List of Phobias - September 11, 2001
Radio - Timelines - Chemistry - Genealogy - Family - Film - SARS - Cancer - Medicine - DVD - Calendar
Countries - Disease - Health Science - Dentistry - Economics - AIDS - Law - Autism - Statistics - Bible
Recipes - Architecture - Computers - History of the Internet - Personal computer - Apple Macintosh
War - Presidents of the United States - United States Constitution - Universe - Philosophy - Animals
Biology - United States Constitution - Marketing Topics - Sports - Television - History of Computing

Debt Help - Free Credit Report - Mortgages - Loans - Cheap Flights