A map of the Asiatic-Pacific Theater showing its component areas. (The China-Burma-India Theater fell under the British-ledSouth East Asia Command)1944 Strategy Conference in Honolulu. Left to right: MacArthur, Roosevelt,Leahy, Nimitz. The discussion weighs the options ofFormosa or the Philippine Islands as the next operational target in the Pacific theater.
TheAsiatic-Pacific theater was thetheater of operations of U.S. forces duringWorld War II in thePacific War during 1941–1945. From mid-1942 until the end of the war in 1945, two U.S. operational commands were in the Pacific. ThePacific Ocean Areas (POA), divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area and the South Pacific Area,[1] were commanded by Fleet AdmiralChester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas. TheSouth West Pacific Area (SWPA) was commanded by General of the ArmyDouglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area.[2] During 1945, the United States added theUnited States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, commanded by GeneralCarl A. Spaatz.
^The Battle of Leyte Gulf is listed in both the Central Pacific Area (under Nimitz) and in the South West Pacific Area (under MacArthur). Leyte Gulf is where Nimitz's western thrust across the central Pacific Ocean intersected MacArthur's northern thrust across the western Pacific Ocean. While the Pacific Ocean command structure was convoluted, operations were "designed to sequence the SWPA's operations with POA's forces across the central Pacific.[11] The main purpose of sequencing is to arrange objectives/tasks in such a progression that collectively they lead to the accomplishment of the assigned ultimate objective in the shortest time possible and with the least loss of personnel and materiel."[12] Nimitz provided, but maintained control over, AdmiralHalsey's Third Fleet to cover and support AdmiralKinkaid's Seventh Fleet operating under General MacArthur. The result of this imprecise arrangement was thecrisis precipitating theBattle off Samar. Halsey was operating under Commander in Chief, Pacific Operating Area's (Nimitz') Operations Plan 8–44.[13]
^By US Navy's Third Fleet under Admirals Halsey and Nimitz.
^By US Navy's Task Force 38 under AdmiralsMitscher and Nimitz.
Drea, Edward J. (1998).In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.ISBN0-8032-1708-0.
Miller, Edward S. (2007).War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN978-1-59114-500-4.
