Geography & Island Hopping

On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbor Navy Base in Hawaii and other key military bases in the Pacific. There are very long distances between the continental US and  Japan, so the US used a strategy called Island Hopping. This used the many small islands in the Pacific as Naval bases when they were under US control. When a ship or plane needed to reach the enemy's homeland, they would have to refuel and land on these islands as they gradually made their way across. This got the military as far as the Phillipines without risk. Below is a map of this strategy used by America.

Guadalcanal was a Samoan Island America new was key to them winning the war because of its location. from August 1942 to February 1943 the two armies fought, until the Americans eventually overcame the Japanese. With this new key island, the US proceeded its advance through island hopping and started approaching islands very close to Japan. When they captured Guam and other nearby islands, they fired two atomic bombs towards Hiroshima and Nagasaki.