After the US strategic victories at the Battles of the Coral Sea (May 7–8, 1942) and Midway (June 4–7, 1942), the Japanese Imperial Navy was no longer capable of major offensive campaigns, which permitted the Allies to start their own offensive in the Pacific.

Richard B. Frank, author of Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle (1990); Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (1999); and MacArthur (2007); lectures on the decisive battles of the Pacific war.  

The idea of using American Indians who were fluent in both their traditional tribal language and in English to send secret messages in battle was first put to the test in World War I with the Choctaw Telephone Squad and other Native communications experts and messengers. However, it wasn’t until World War II that the US military developed a specific policy to recruit and train American Indian speakers to become code talkers.

The 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal

Part Three: The Final Offenses and Legacy of Guadalcanal

Dr. Rob Citino highlights the moments of celebration, as well as realization of the repercussions that followed Allied victory and the end of World War II.

Tenney was a tank commander with the 192nd Tank Battalion, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, and a dear friend of The National WWII Museum.

In 1945, US forces bounded forward in the central Pacific as combat reached ever bloodier crescendos.

The 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal

Part One: Guadalcanal—An Overview

The 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal

Part Two: The Naval Battles of Guadalcanal

“It was too much death to contemplate, too much savagery and suffering; and in August 1945 no one was counting. For those who had seen the face of battle and been in the camps and under the bombs—and had lived—there was a sense of immense relief.”

Dr. Rana Mitter depicts how China held a critical role in the Pacific theater during the war as a key ally for the United States. The war's end, however, brought a devastating blow to American diplomacy as China ultimately fell to communism, forever changing the global balance of power in the emerging Cold War.

Road to Tokyo: Pacific Theater Galleries retraces the grueling trail that led from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay by way of New Guinea and Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, Burma, the islands of the Pacific, China, India, and Alaska.