World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseGerman purchased the Marshall Islands from Spain in 1899, and subsequently administered the islands as parts of German New Guinea, with a provincial capital at Jaluit. In 1914, during WW1, Japanese forces captured Eniwetok and Jaluit atolls. At the end of WW1, Japan was given mandate of all German possessions in the Pacific Ocean north of the Equator; Japan administered its South Pacific Mandates from Saipan, Mariana Islands. During the years under Japanese control, about 1,000 Japanese civilians migrated to the Marshall Islands. In the late 1930s, Japan began building air and naval bases in the Marshall Islands. During the Pacific War, Kwajalein Atoll was a major base support the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Wake, while the operation to capture Nauru and Ocean Island was launched from Jaluit Atoll. Significant American attacks on the Marshall Islands began in 1943. When the landings began in 1944, some atolls such as Kwajalein and Eniwetok were challenged and captured, while some others such as Mili and Jaluit were simply cut off; about 5,100 Japanese servicemen died from starvation on Mili alone. After the war, the United States tested nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands; while Bikini Atoll had gained infamy from these tests, Elugelab of Enewetak Atoll was nearly forgotten as it was completely wiped out by the world's first hydrogen bomb in 1952. The Republic of the Marshall Islands was declared in 1979, and in 1986 the United States granted the republic full soveignty. The United Nations ended the islands' trusteeship status in 1990.

Weather

WW2-Era Weather Data for Marshall Islands

Photographs

Maps

Marshall Islands in World War II Interactive Map