World War II Day by Day

Washington, D.C. • April 3, 1945

On this date in 1945 the Roosevelt adminis­tra­tion appointed Gen. Douglas Mac­Arthur Com­mander-in-Chief U.S. Army Forces Pacific (AFPAC), respon­si­ble for all Army and Army Air Forces units in the Pacific Thea­ter excepting Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay’s Twen­tieth Air Force based in the Mari­anas. At the same time Adm. Chester W. Nimitz became Com­mander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC). These moves were part of the pre­pa­ra­tions for Opera­tion Downfall, the invasion of Japan set to begin in October 1945.

MacArthur, who was recalled to active duty in June 1941 to mobi­lize the Philip­pine Army, was appointed Supreme Com­man­der of the South­west Pacific Area (SWPA) upon its crea­tion in April 1942. (SWPA was 1 of 3 areas in the Pacific Theater; the other 2 were Pacific Ocean Areas (POA) and the South­east Paci­fic Area.) From that post Mac­Arthur moved on to head the Allied occu­pa­tion of Japan (1945–1951). Ten days after the Japa­nese sur­prise attack on U.S. mili­tary instal­la­tions at Pearl Har­bor, Hawaii, Nimitz was appointed Com­mander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT). In March 1942 Nimitz was ele­vated to Com­man­der-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Area (CINCPOA), which placed all U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces under him. On Decem­ber 15, 1944, Presi­dent Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Nimitz to the rank of Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy, a 5‑star rank only established the previous day by an Act of the U.S. Congress.

In the last 14 months of the war, Nimitz’s Fleet Forces inflicted a deci­sive defeat on the Japa­nese in the Battle of the Philip­pine Sea (June 19–20, 1944); captured Sai­pan (June 15–July 9, 1944), Guam (July 21–August 10, 1944), and Tinian (July 24–August 1, 1944); and secured in rapid suc­ces­sion Peleliu (Sep­tem­ber 15–Novem­ber 27, 1944), Angaur (Sep­tem­ber 17–Octo­ber 22, 1944), and Ulithi (Sep­tem­ber 1944), which became the undis­closed Pacific base for major naval oper­a­tions late in the war. In the Philip­pines his ships scored an his­toric vic­tory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf (Octo­ber 24–26, 1944).

Nimitz cul­mi­nated his Pacific stra­tegy by suc­cess­ful am­phib­i­ous assaults on Iwo Jima (Febru­ary 19–March 26, 1945) and Okinawa (April 1–June 22, 1945) and an aerial assault in late March and April 1945 on the Japa­nese Home Islands with the mining of vital sea­ports, straits, and inland water­ways using B‑29 Super­for­tresses dis­patched by LeMay’s Twentieth Air Force (Oper­a­tion Star­va­tion). The late-in-the-war mining campaign crippled Japa­nese mer­chant shipping and troop move­ments, destroying or damaging 670 ves­sels. Had the mining operation begun earlier, in a July 1946 esti­mate from the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, the Pacific War might have ended sooner.

When Japan’s armed forces and the forces under its control for­mally sur­ren­dered on Septem­ber 2, 1945, on board the USS Mis­souri in Tokyo Bay, Nimitz was there, signing for the United States of America. The 23‑minute surrender ceremony was broadcast around the world.

Five-Star Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966), Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater

Left: Japanese surrender aboard the USS Mis­souri, Tokyo Bay, Sep­tem­ber 2, 1945. Adm. Chester Nimitz signed the Instr­ument of Sur­render for the United States. At the micro­phone is Gen. Douglas Mac­Arthur, Supreme Com­mander for the Allied Powers, who accepted the Japa­nese sur­render “for the United States, Republic of China, United King­dom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the inter­ests of the other United Nations at war with Japan.” On Septem­ber 7 the sur­render docu­ment was presented to Presi­dent Harry S. Tru­man in a formal White House ceremony and then placed on exhibit at the National Archives.

Right: Adm. Chester Nimitz as he appears at the National Por­trait Gal­lery in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Nimitz was 1 of only 4 Fleet Admirals in the U.S. Navy. A Fleet Admiral takes orders only from the President of the United States, and it is a life­time appointment.

The Adm. Chester Nimitz Story, a U.S. Army “Big Picture” Film