World War II: The Pacific Theater

Overview

Course No. 8756

World War II was a profound turning point in world history. It re-shaped the nature of military strategy, ushered in the nuclear age, and established the United States as a global superpower. For America, the war started and ended in the Pacific Theater, with the war against Japan. From 1941 to 1945, Japan and the United States waged the largest naval war in history—and in the end, the war changed the course of the modern world.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, struck most Americans like a bolt from the blue. While the attack was a tactical success for Japan, it was also one of the most reckless strategic decisions in the history of warfare, awakening the US military and leading to some of the most harrowing battles ever fought.

Taught by Professor Craig L. Symonds, a distinguished military historian at the US Naval War College, these 24 vivid lectures chronicle the global trajectory of the war in the Pacific: the epic battles, military strategy, leadership, amphibious landings, air attacks, and submarine campaigns.

Video Lectures

• The Road to War in the Pacific, 1931–1941 (33 min)

• Infamy! The Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor (32 min)

• Japan Moves South, December 1941–May 1942 (31 min)

• The Doolittle Raid on Japan, April 1942 (29 min)

5. Station HYPO: Breaking the Japanese Code (28 min)

• Battle of the Coral Sea, May 1942 (30 min)

• Midway: 10 Minutes That Changed the War (32 min)

8. Guadalcanal: Jungle Warfare (32 min)

9. Ironbottom Sound, 1942–1943 (31 min)

10. MacArthur, Halsey, and Operation Cartwheel (33 min)

11. The Big Blue Fleet and American Industry (31 min)

12. Battle for Tarawa: A Square Mile of Hell (32 min)

13. A Three-Front Pacific War, January–May 1944 (33 min)

14. The US Leaps to the Marianas, June 1944 (32 min)

• Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 1944 (30 min)

16. Bombing Japan: Fire from the Sky (30 min)

• American Submarines in the Pacific, 1944–1945 (32 min)

18. MacArthur Returns to the Philippines (30 min)

• Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944 (32 min)

20. Admiral Halsey’s Typhoons, 1944–1945 (30 min)

21. Battle for Iwo Jima, February–March 1945 (30 min)

22. Battle for Okinawa, April–June 1945 (31 min)

23. Kamikazes: Japan’s Special Attack Units (31 min)

24. Dropping the Atomic Bomb (34 min)