World War II Pacific Theatre Trivia Quiz

Answer: USS Arizona

At 8:06 on the morning of December 7, 1941, a Japanese Kate bomber dropped a bomb that hit the powder magazine on the ship. The bomb blew up along with the gunpowder that were in the powder magazine. The death toll on the Arizona was 1,100 dead; there were only 300 survivors.

Answer: Yorktown

The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the war in favor of the Allies. Midway was an American territory about 2,500 miles from Hawaii. The Americans had an airfield on the island that the Japanese wanted to use to bomb and eventually invade Hawaii.

The USS Yorktown, USS Enterprise, and USS Hornet were assigned to fight the Japanese for control of the island. The Japanese lost four aircraft carriers, a cruiser, 292 aircraft, and roughly 2,500 causalities. The Americans lost the USS Yorktown, the USS Hammann (a destroyer), 145 aircraft, and about 307 lives.

Answer: Guadalcanal

The Battle of Guadacanal was the first major American offensive victory. The Americans struck in August of 1942, taking control of the airway still under construction. The Japanese had built a tunnel/underground defensive barricade on the island. It took six months and two days for the Americans to take the island.

The Japanese suffered 31,000 deaths and lost 38 ships and 700 aircraft. The Americans suffered 7,100 deaths and lost 28 ships and 615 aircraft.

Answer: Alaska

On June 7, 1942 , 301st Independent Infantry Battalion of the Japanese Northern Army landed on the island, without opposition, one day after landing on nearby Kiska. Earlier, in response to Japanese aggression in the Pacific, American territorial authorities conducted a mandatory evacuation of about 880 Aleuts from villages elsewhere in the Aleutian Islands. On May 11, 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began.

A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather caused great difficulties in projecting any force against the Japanese.

Many soldiers suffered from frostbite. Army vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but rather they dug in on high ground away from the shore.

This resulted in bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 580 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to infectious diseases, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes - largely from Japanese booby traps and from friendly fire.

The Japanese were defeated in Massacre Valley. The death count for the Japanese was 2,035. On May 29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them officers. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by naval, air, and artillery bombardments over the course of the battle. The other Japanese forces in the Aleutians, after realizing that their position was now vulnerable, evacuated Kiska three months later. The USAAF built a larger airfield, the Alexai Point Army Airfield, and then used it on July 10, 1943 as the base for an air attack on the Japanese-held Kurile Islands, now a part of Russia. This was the first air attack on the Japanese "homelands" since the famous Doolittle Raid in 1942.

Answer: Guam

On December 7, 1941, the same day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked Guam, the Philipines, Wake Island, and many more islands. On December 10 the Japanese took Guam after strong resistance by Americans on island. On July 19, 1944 the Americans invaded Guam, part of the Marianas island chain. On July 24 the Americans invaded Tinian Island, also part of the Marianas. On July 27, 1944 the Americans completed the liberation of Guam. On August 8 the American officially liberated the whole of the Marianas.

Answer: Philippines

In December 1941 and January 1941 the Japanese took over most of the Philippines, but the Philippines were not under total Japanese control until June, 1942. General Douglas MacArthur promised to return to the Philippines.

A few days after the Battle of Bataan the American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to walk 60 miles in the tropical heat, in what came to be known as the Bataan Death March.

On October 20, 1944 the United States Sixth Army invaded Leyte. On October 23, 1944 the Americans defeated the Japanese in a decisive naval battle and took over Leyte. During the battle for Leyte the Japanese used their first kamikaze attacks. By the end of the war the Japanese used an estimated 2,257 kamikaze attacks. On June 28, 1945 General MacArthur announced that the Japanese had surrendered the Philippines into American hands.

Answer: Iwo Jima

On November 19, 1944 the American navy started the bombardment of Iwo Jima. On February 19, 1945, American Marines hit the beaches of Iwo Jima. The scene was bloody, the water was red with blood and bodies lined the beaches. Three days after the Americans invaded five marines and a naval corpsman (equivalent to an army medic) climbed to the top of Mount Suribachi where they planted the flag that became an iconic photograph (it was re-staged/re-created for the photographer as the actual raising had occurred a few hours earlier).

The photographer for that shot was Joe Rosenthal of Associated Press (accompanied by two marines; one was a photographer and one was a motion picture photographer).

Answer: The Battle for Okinawa

On April 1, 1945 U.S. Marines invaded Okinawa, a smaller island of Japan. The Japanese were given orders to never surrender. This battle is iconic for kamikaze attacks. By the end of the battle only 28 Japanese disobeyed orders and surrendered.

Answer: Fat Man

On July 16, 1945 the Americans tested the first nuclear bomb in New Mexico. On July 26, 1945, the nuclear bombs Little Boy and Fat Man were unloaded on the island of Tinian. They were transported on the USS Indianapolis which was sunk three days later by a Japanese submarine. On August 6 1945 Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima and three days later on August 9 Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. Earlier in 1945 the American Army Air Force fire bombed Tokyo for three days straight. Those nights of fire bombing killed more people than both nukes combined.

Answer: USS Missouri

On September 2 the Japanese officially surrendered to American forces on the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor. General Douglas MacArthur was there on behalf of the American forces. British, Australian, Soviet, Canadian, and New Zealand representatives were also present.