Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The island of New Guinea was divided by two countries, the Netherlands (Dutch East Indies) and Australia (Territory of New Guinea).The island was brought into control by the Japanese during the New Guinea campaign of World War II when Japanese forces started an invasion of New Guinea, primarily the northern part of the island, [2] and took over the city of Rabaul.
The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Territory of New Guinea on 23 January and Territory of Papua on 21 July and overran western New Guinea (part of the Netherlands East Indies) beginning on 29 March.
The Japanese invaded in order to construct naval and air bases to provide security for their major base at Rabaul, New Britain and to support strategic operations in the Solomon Islands. After the occupation of Buka and Bougainville, the Japanese began constructing airfields across the island. [ 1 ]
The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the ...
Operations of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in the Papua New Guinea Theater During World War II. Tokyo: Japan Papua New Guinea Goodwill Society. OCLC 9206229. Wigmore, Lionel (1957). The Japanese Thrust. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Vol. IV (1st ed.). Canberra: Australian War Memorial. OCLC 3134219. Wilson, David (2005).
These bases helped protect Rabaul, the major Japanese garrison and naval base in Papua New Guinea, while allowing continued expansion to the southeast, down the Solomon Islands chain, to Guadalcanal and beyond. To the Allies, Bougainville would later also be considered vital for neutralizing the Japanese base around Rabaul. [7]
Japanese map of the mandate area in the 1930s. The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, [2] was a League of Nations mandate in the "South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following World War I.
The occupation of Tulagi by the Japanese was intended to cover the flank of and provide reconnaissance support for Japanese forces that were advancing on Port Moresby in New Guinea, provide greater defensive depth for the major Japanese base at Rabaul, and serve as a base for Japanese forces to threaten and interdict the supply and ...