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''This article concerns the ''Pacific Theater of Operations'' as defined by the U.S. military. For information on campaigns and battles in Asia and the Pacific during World War II, see Pacific War.
The 'Pacific Theater of Operations' (PTO) is the term used in the United States for all military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, during World War II. 'Pacific War' is a more common, international name for the operational aspects of this theater and the conflict between the Allies and Empire of Japan, between 1937 and 1945.
"Theater of operations" was the term used at the time by the US military for a theater which had both operational and administrative commands.
From mid-1942 until the end of the war, there were two operational commands in the PTO:

★ Pacific Ocean Areas (POA; divided into Central Pacific Area, North Pacific Area and South Pacific Area)

★ South West Pacific Area (SWPA)
It should be noted that the PTO did not include US or other Allied operations or forces in China, India or Burma (see China Burma India Theater and South East Asia Command).
There were two Allied commanders in the PTO: Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas, and General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area.^[1]
In addition, during 1945, General Carl Spaatz commanded the separate U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific.
Because of the parallel roles of the US Army and the US Navy in conducting war in the Pacific theater, there was no single Allied or U.S. commander for the theater (comparable to Eisenhower in the ETO). Indeed, the organizational structure was rather complex, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff frequently required to be involved, and the Army and Navy commanders reporting to both the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. (No doubt the attendant difficulties helped motivate the formation of the Department of Defense in 1947.)

Contents

See also

References

See also

★ American-British-Dutch-Australian Command

★ Greater East Asia War, the Japanese name for the Pacific War

★ Pacific Ocean theater of World War II

★ South West Pacific theater of World War II

★ South-East Asian Theater of World War II

★ Operation August Storm, the Soviet Campaign against Japan in 1945

★ Japanese Combined Fleet, the Japanese command which oversaw naval operations

★ Southern Expeditionary Army Group, the Japanese army command in the South West Pacific and South East Asia

References

1. Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander SWPA