ThePacific Ocean theater ofWorld War II was a majortheater of thePacific War, the war between the Allies and theEmpire of Japan. It included the U.S.Pacific Ocean Areas (command). which included most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands.

ThePhilippines, theDutch East Indies,Borneo,Australia, most of theTerritory of New Guinea, and the western part of theSolomon Islands were under a different Allied command.

On March 30, 1942, USAdmiralChester Nimitz was appointed Commander-in-Chief,Pacific Ocean Areas. In the other major theater in the Pacific region, known as theSouth West Pacific theater, Allied forces were commanded by USGeneralDouglas MacArthur. Both Nimitz and MacArthur were overseen by the USJoint Chiefs, and indirectly by the British-AmericanCombined Chiefs of Staff.

Most Japanese forces in the theater were part of theCombined Fleet (連合艦隊,Rengō Kantai) of theImperial Japanese Navy (IJN), which was responsible for all Japanese warships,naval aircraft, andmarine infantry units. TheRengō Kantai was led by AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto, until he was killed in anattack by U.S. fighter planes in April 1943.^[1] Yamamoto was succeeded by AdmiralMineichi Koga (1943–44)^[1] and AdmiralSoemu Toyoda (1944–45).^[2] TheGeneral Staff (参謀本部,Sanbō Honbu) of theImperial Japanese Army (IJA) was responsible for Imperial Japanese Army ground and air units inSoutheast 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 theUnited States Navy, theU.S. Army, which had 6 Corps and 21 Divisions, and theU.S. Marine Corps, which had only 6 Divisions. TheUnited Kingdom (British Pacific Fleet),New Zealand, Australia,Canada, and other Allied nations, also contributed forces.

• Pacific theater
  • Attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941^[3]
  • Battle of Wake Island 7–23 December 1941^[4]
  • First Philippines campaign 8 December 1941 – 8 May 1942
    • Battle of Bataan
    • Battle of Corregidor
  • Battle of Ambon
  • Battle of Timor
  • Battle of Rabaul
  • Battle of the Java Sea
  • Bombing of Darwin
  • Battle of the Coral Sea 4–8 May 1942
  • Doolittle Raid 18 April 1942^[3]
  • Battle of Midway 4–7 June 1942^[3]
  • Guadalcanal campaign 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943
    • Battle of Savo Island
    • Battle of Cape Esperance
    • Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
    • Battle of Tassafaronga
  • New Guinea campaign
  • Solomon Islands Campaign
  • Battle of the Bismark Sea
  • Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign 1943–44
    • Makin Island raid 17–18 August 1942^[5]
    • Battle of Tarawa 20 November 1943^[3]
    • Battle of Makin 20–23 November 1943
    • Battle of Kwajalein 14 February 1944^[6]
    • Battle of Eniwetok 17 February 1944^[7]
  • Attack on Truk Island 17–18 February 1944
  • Mariana and Palau Islands campaign 1944
    • Battle of Saipan 15 June 1944^[8]
    • Battle of the Philippine Sea 19–21 June 1944^[9]
    • Battle of Guam 21 July 1944^[10]
    • Battle of Tinian 24 July 1944^[10]
    • Battle of Peleliu 15 September 1944^[11]
    • Battle of Angaur 17 September 1944^[11]
  • Second Philippines campaign 20 October 1944 – 15 August 1945
    • Battle of Leyte 17 October 1944
    • Battle of Luzon 9 January 1945
  • Battle of Iwo Jima 19 February 1945^[3]
  • Battle of Okinawa 1 April 1945^[3]
• North Pacific theater
  • Aleutian Islands Campaign 1942–43
  • Battle of the Komandorski Islands 26 March 1943^[3]

Pearl Harbor-1941J

Wake Island-1941J

Bataan-1942J

Corregidor-1942J

Ambon-1942J

Rabaul-1942J

Java Sea-1942J

Coral Sea-1942

Battle of Darwin-1942J

Savo-1942J

Guadalcanal-1942A

Midway-1942A

Solomons-1942-1945/A

Bismarck Sea-1943A

Makin-1943A

Eniwetok-1944A

Kwajalein-1944A

Tarawa-1943A

Truk-1944A

Saipan-1944A

Philippine Sea-1944A

Guam-1944A

Tinian-1944A

Peleliu-1944A

Anguar-1944A

Leyte-1944A

Timor-1942J

Luzon-1945A

Iwo Jima-1945A

Okinawa-1945A

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

New Guinea 1942–1945A

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Major battles in the Pacific Theater of World War II

• Cressman, Robert J. (2000),The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II, Annapolis,MD: Naval Institute Press,ISBN 1-55750-149-1.
• Drea, Edward J. (1998),In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army,NB: 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.
• Kafka, Roger; Pepperburg, Roy L. (1946),Warships of the World, New York: Cornell Maritime Press.
• Miller, Edward S. (2007),War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897–1945, US Naval Institute Press,ISBN 978-1-59114-500-4.
• Ofstie, Ralph A. (1946).The Campaigns of the Pacific War. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office..
• Potter, E. B.;Nimitz, Chester W. (1960),Sea Power, Prentice-Hal.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (1968),U.S. Warships of World War II, Doubleday & Co.
• Toll, Ian W. (2011).Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942. New York: W. W. Norton.
• ——— (2015).The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944. New York: W. W. Norton.
• ——— (2020).Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944–1945. New York: W. W. Norton.

• Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
• Theaters of World War II
• Military history of Japan during World War II
• Military history of the Pacific Ocean

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text