BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: New Sea, New Management

In the Pearl Harbor office of Admiral Nimitz hangs a great wall map of the Pacific Ocean. Last week a new name was pasted on the map: the Philippine Sea. That new name meant that a new management had moved into the area—1,500,000 square miles, bounded by the southern islands of Japan, the Ryukyus, the Philippines, Carolines, Marianas and Bonins.

The keys to the eastern reaches of the Philippine Sea were being seized by U.S. hands: Saipan, now taken; Guam, in process of liberation; Tinian under invasion. From these points, U.S. land-based bombers...

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