TheSouth West Pacific theatre, duringWorld War II, was a majortheatre of thewar between the Allies and the Axis. It included thePhilippines, theDutch East Indies (except forSumatra),Borneo,Australia, its mandateTerritory of New Guinea (including theBismarck Archipelago) and theSolomon Islands' western part. This area was defined by theAllied powers'South West Pacific Area (SWPA) command.
Japanese forces fought primarily against theUnited States and Australian forces in the South West Pacific theatre. The Philippines,New Zealand, theNetherlands (in the Dutch East Indies), theUnited Kingdom, and other Allied nations also contributed forces.
The South Pacific became a major theatre of the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Initially, US war plans called for a counteroffensive across the Central Pacific, but this was disrupted by the loss of battleships at Pearl Harbor. During the First South Pacific Campaign, US forces sought to establish a defensive perimeter against additional Japanese attacks. This was followed by the Second South Pacific Campaign, which began with theBattle of Guadalcanal.
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The U.S.GeneralDouglas MacArthur had been in command of the American forces in the Philippines in what was to become the South West Pacific theatre, but was then part of a larger theatre that encompassed the South West Pacific, the Southeast Asian mainland (including Indochina and Malaya) and the North of Australia, under the short livedAmerican-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM). Shortly after the collapse of ABDACOM, the supreme command of the South West Pacific theatre passed to MacArthur, appointed Supreme Commander,South West Pacific Area, on 30 March 1942.[1][2] However, MacArthur preferred to use the title "Commander-in-Chief." The forces remaining in South-East Asia under Japanese attack reverted to their local commanders, and were soon mostly destroyed or evacuated.
The other major theatre in the Pacific,Pacific Ocean Areas, was commanded by U.S.AdmiralChester Nimitz, who was also Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet. The USJoint Chiefs and the British-U.S.Combined Chiefs of Staff oversaw MacArthur and Nimitz.CaptainAllan Rockwell McCann was appointed to represent the Navy as General MacArthur's Senior Representative of Commander, Submarines, Southwest Pacific.
MostJapanese forces in the theatre were part of theSouthern Expeditionary Army (南方軍,Nanpo gun), which was formed on November 6, 1941, under GeneralHisaichi Terauchi (also known as Count Terauchi). TheNanpo gun was responsible forImperial Japanese Army (IJA) ground and air units inSoutheast Asia and the South Pacific. TheCombined Fleet (聯合艦隊,Rengō Kantai) of theImperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was responsible for all Japanese warships,naval aviation units andmarine infantry units. As the Japanese military did not formally utilize joint/combined staff at the operational level, the command structures/geographical areas of operations of theNanpo gun andRengō Kantai overlapped each other and those of the Allies.
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