SEATIC and SINTIC operating in Southeast Asia and China received and translated relatively large quantities of captured documents during the war. The Japanese also seized the key oil production zones of Borneo, Central Java, Malang, Cepu, Sumatra, and Dutch New Guinea of the late Dutch East Indies, defeating the Dutch forces. The majority of the Allied force was provided by the United States, with the bulk of two United States Army infantry divisions being committed on the ground. [35], Once the Japanese had decided to give up on Guadalcanal, the capture of Port Moresby loomed even larger in their strategic thinking. Some of the research reports dealt with military and naval matters, such as No. [21] Japanese bombers were often escorted by fighters which came in at 30,000ft (9,100m)too high to be intercepted by the P-39s and P-40sgiving the Japanese an altitude advantage in air combat. [21][22] Of the total force, 22,500 combat troops were assigned to the landing at Aitape; while the rest (nearly 30,000) were allocated to the Hollandia landings. West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly known as Dutch New Guinea. They included plans, charts, air defense details on all Japanese-held Pacific islands, and battle orders. [8] At the start of 1943, ICPOA was basically dealing with intercepted messages because not that many prisoners of war or documents had been captured. The Allies proceeded to turn the island into an air base. All elements, with the exception of the twenty-man garrison had returned to Bantam Bay by 3 April. [28][29] Secondary landings would take place Aitape, 125 miles to the east, at the same time as those around Hollandia. The U.S. built Naval Base Morotai, . A map, also captured on March 21st, and quickly translated, proved to be more accurate than maps possessed by the attacking forces. Also, Yamamoto accepted at face value his fliers' over-optimistic reports of damage: they reported a score of one cruiser, two destroyers and 25 transports, as well as 175 Allied planes, a figure that should certainly have aroused some skepticism. Their scheme of conquest envisaged control of the Aleutians, Midway, Fiji and Samoa, New Britain, eastern New Guinea, points in the [2] The remote but crucial airfield lay 25 miles south/southeast of the port town of Salamaua. Two major moves were planned for the end of June: Eventually, the Joint Chiefs of Staff realized that a landing and siege of "Fortress Rabaul" would be far too costly, and that the Allies' ultimate strategic purposes could be achieved by simply neutralizing and bypassing it. Once the war ended, Southeast Asia Command Field Security Sections were assigned to seize records that, among other things, could be used for the prosecution of war criminals. On March 1, 1944, soldiers found on the body of the commander of Baba Battalion a copy of a field order issued by him in which he ordered an attack on American positions for that same afternoon. Hollandia was a port on the north coast of New Guinea, part of the Dutch East Indies, and was the only anchorage between Wewak to the east, and Geelvink Bay to the west. Red 1 was found to be better, allowing LVTs and LCMs to come ashore with their infantry charges, but the approaches had to be cleared by engineers to allow the passage of the larger LCMs and even after this had been completed. The Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in 1942 represented crucial losses for the Japanese and marked a turning point in the war. They totaled 104 in number. This document provided a complete list of approximately 40,000 Japanese Army officers together with their assignments. The large majority of the defending Japanese troops there had uncharacteristically abandoned their positions and fled inland. The Japanese at Rabaul and other bases on New Britain would have easily overwhelmed any such effort (by mid-September, MacArthur's entire naval force under Vice Admiral Arthur S. Carpender consisted of 5 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 20 submarines, and 7 small craft). No. His contemplated offensive against Wau died a-borning. Two months after JICPOA was formed US forces invaded the Gilbert Islands. 3 (Fall 2005). After the cessation of hostilities, the War Crimes Echelon, a separate part of ATIS, was established. On September 6, 1943, ICPOA was designated a joint Army-Navy-Marine organization by a CINCPAC directive and was given the name Joint Intelligence Center, Pacific Ocean Areas (JICPOA). During the second phase, lasting from late 1942 until the Japanese surrender, the Alliesconsisting primarily of Australian forcescleared the Japanese first from Papua, then the Mandate and finally from the Dutch colony. The town itself was on the shore of Humboldt Bay, with a first-class anchorage. [14], Operation Mo was the designation given by the Japanese to their initial plan to take possession of Port Moresby. Report No. Todays post is by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. In the meantime another landing was made at Aitape in Australian New Guinea, about 125 miles (roughly 200 km) southeast of Hollandia, where Australian engineers soon completed an airstrip. Before the operation against the Japanese at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, 41st CIC Detachment Special Agent in Charge Duval Edwards at Finschhaven during March and April 1944 gave many lectures on the great importance of soldiers turning in any captured documents. The Japanese invaded New Guinea from November 1941 till April 1942 and occupied the Dutch part (except for Merauke) and the northern Australian part (Fakfak fell April 1, Manokwari April 12). Opposing these forces were the Australian 2/5th, 2/6th and 2/7th Battalions along with Lieutenant Colonel Norman Fleay's Kanga Force. Engineers operating amphtracks pushed forward from Jautefa Bay to the lake to carry the infantry around the Japanese positions at the lake, completing their flanking maneuver on 25 April. Nowhere in the modern world has an armed liberation struggle persisted for so long - nearly 30 years - and with such secrecy, as the West Papuan war of resistance against the military government of Indonesia. The U.S. 24th Division's 19th and 21st Regimental Combat Teams (RCTs) were to land at Tanahmerah Bay. Also produced were ATIS Publications. This information was immediately translated, relayed to naval and air units, and, coordinated with the translation of a captured map showing enemy positions, resulted in the repulse of the enemy attack by naval and aerial bombardment. The timing of the landings at Hollandia were moved back to 22 April at around this time due to logistical problems and the Pacific Fleet's other commitments, and it was decided to conduct the landing at Aitape simultaneously with the main assault. Rabaul overlooks Simpson Harbor, a considerable natural anchorage, and was ideal for the construction of airfields. It contained details of the proposed landing of Tama Group (full strength of one division) at Ormoc, Leyte, on November 1st. [18] A large number of Japanese aircraft were stationed at airfields near Hollandia in March 1944. Allied planners believed that the two beaches were connected by a road, and that another road suitable for vehicle traffic ran inland towards Lake Sentani. By 22 August, about 8,500 Australians and 1,300 Americans were on site. It was occupied by the Japanese during their invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, who planned to use it as a base for their expansion towards the Australian mandated territories of Papua and New Guinea. In late 1943, the Information Section was given the task of writing Briefs consisting of a summary and highlights of Enemy Publications and Current Translations. All of these factors had to be taken into account in determining the lines of advance in 1944. Captured and sunken Japanese ships and boats also provided large quantities of documents, many of immediate value. Pre-War New Guinea The Japanese Invasion The Turning Point The Long Allied Advance 1943 1944 The New Guinea campaign (January 1942-September 1945) was one of the longest campaigns of the Second World War. According to Morison, the Japanese "never again risked a transport larger than a small coaster or barge in waters shadowed by American planes. In November 1943, during Operation Galvanic, marines of the 2nd Marine Division captured important documents at Tarawa Atoll (Betio). [34][35] During the same period, American air and naval forces sank many of the Japanese ships which were attempting to transport reinforcements to the Hollandia and Wewak areas; these attacks were guided by intelligence gained from breaking the Japanese codes. Horikoshi, upon arrival at ATIS, at first denied all knowledge of any atrocities but on being confronted with his diary, admitted that such things had occurred. 16 dealt with interrogation of captured American B-24 air crews; No. In the spring of 1944, ATIS received a document which, after being translated, proved to be of exceptional value and probably considerably shortened the war. [64][66] Both Humboldt and Tanahmerah were developed with naval base, ammunition, repair and fuel facilities. To assist researchers interested in World War II-era research regarding the Pacific and Far East, I prepared a 1,700-page finding aid entitled Japanese War Crimes and Related Records: A Guide to Records in the National Archives,which is searchable and available online. 92). [11] For the same reasons, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Forces South West Pacific Area was determined to hold it. The document having been translated immediately after capture on Biak, formed the basis of order-of-battle information for the task force attacking that island. The landings took place at dawn on 22 April after a supporting naval bombardment at each site. These documents, contrary to American intelligence, indicated that the Japanese were strongly entrenched on Parry and Eniwetok islands. This attack also destroyed 60 percent of all rations and ammunition that had been landed, and resulted in shortages amongst the infantry advancing towards the airfields. Exact tracings and translations were supplied to XXIV Corps prior to attack on these positions. MacArthur, with a firm foothold in New Guinea, was determined to move next to the Philippines, from which he had been driven after Pearl Harbor, and from there launch the final attack on the Japanese home islands. During the period of October 1942-July 1943, the work of indexing, abstracting and collating information from captured documents and prisoners of war, answering internal queries, and providing information to assist translators and examiners, was carried on by a staff consisting of six officers and ten enlisted personnel. Their noses had been refitted with eight 50-caliber machine guns for strafing slow-moving ships on the high seas. Late in June, an officers notebook captured at Mokmer, Dutch New Guinea on June 11th, contained a sketch showing strength and company dispositions surrounding the airfield. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Australian-administered Mandated Territory of New Guinea (23 January) and the Australian Territory of Papua (21 July) and overran western New Guinea (beginning 29/30 March), which was a part of the Netherlands East Indies. The quantity and type of documents captured from the Japanese varied widely. Publication No. Combat boundaries were listed. [12] Initially, the intelligence product of JICPOA received no CINCPAC-CINCPOA authentication. On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, severely damaging the US Pacific Fleet. It was not just ATIS that was engaged in captured Japanese records operations. On 5 March, Imperial General Headquarters by Navy . [33], Initial operations commenced in the second week of March 1944 with air raids by aircraft of the U.S. 5th Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force attacked Japanese airfields along the New Guinea coast from Wewak to the Vogelkop and on Biak Island. ATIS was directed to make available to the board any and all information having to do with the identification of Japanese war criminals. 37, No. It was captured and was found to be carrying a Japanese message. 9, Japanese-English Medical Dictionary; No. [30], The D'Entrecasteaux Islands lie directly off the northeast coast of the lower portion of the Papuan peninsula. After July 1944, however, documents, including published translations, were prepared under the imprint of CINCPAC-CINCPOA, and the title JICPOA was used only for administrative purposes. [21], Although RAAF PBY Catalinas and Lockheed Hudsons were based at Port Moresby, because of the Japanese air attacks, long-range bombers like B-17s, B-25s, and B-26s could not be safely based there and were instead staged through from bases in Australia. The Netherlands, Britain and the United States tried to defend the colony from the Japanese forces as they moved south in late 1941 in search of Dutch oil. This material was translated by ATIS in May 1945 and provided Allied naval commanders with immediate intelligence regarding a variety of topics. [52], Seven LSTs and the Australian transport Westralia were unloaded over the shore at White 1, landing 4,200 tonnes of combat supplies and over 300 vehicles on the first day. From there the documents were immediately sent to Brisbane for translation by ATIS personnel. He did successfully conduct the Western New Guinea campaign in 1944 which liberated much of Dutch New Guinea. [40], About 6,900 troops aboard eight transports, escorted by eight destroyers, departed Rabaul at midnight 28 February under the command of Rear Admiral Masatomi Kimura. Consequently, Japanese efforts to develop the area were delayed throughout 1943 and 1944. Gen. Millard F. Harmon, who was also subordinate to Nimitz. 'We are repeating the failure of Guadalcanal. 17 with Allied and Japanese Operations Among Natives of Dutch New Guinea; No. The documents were then sent on to ATIS, SWPA, for final examination. 14) was published and entitled Japanese Violations of the Laws of War. The report contained 28 pages of translations, each translation accompanied by a photostatic copy of the original document and authenticated under oath by the translator. Found on the vessel were Japanese documents, including field orders and prisoner interrogation reports that indicated the Japanese knew when and where the American operation was to take place. [24][25] The operation was the 24th Infantry Division's first combat assignment after home defense duties in Hawaii and training in Australia,[26] but the 41st Infantry Division had previously taken part in the fighting in New Guinea in 19421943. The beach was narrow, though, and only allowed two LCMs to land at a time, while the even bigger LSTs had to remain offshore where they were cross loaded on to LVTs. Bypassing the Japanese base at Halmahera, south of Morotai, the XI Corps quickly established a defensive perimeter behind which airfields were constructed to provide air support for further advances. The plan called for the establishment of a two-battalion front, with troops landed in seven waves at two beaches: Red 1 around the Depapre Inlet and Red 2 on the eastern side of the bay. The other landing would be made at Humboldt Bay by two RCTs (the 162nd and 186th) of the 41st Division. To the invaders from Japan, and the occupiers from Australia and the United States, however, New Guineans appeared as colonial subjects at best, and as slaves at worst. At the same time, two sketches were captured at Tacloban, Leyte, which showed the disposition of the Japanese 16th Division. [7] The attack was designated Operation Reckless in recognition of the risks involved in carrying it out. graduate Hollandia. Capturing it would both neutralize the Allies' principal forward base and serve as a springboard for a possible invasion of Australia. Other organizations were established throughout the Pacific Theater to translate and exploit the records. [18] For more information regarding the Z Plan see my article The Z Plan Story: Japans 1944 Naval Battle Strategy Drifts into U.S. Hands, Part I and Part II in Prologue, Vol. They included: No. The loss of Hollandia made the Japanese strategic defense line at Wakde, to the west, and all Japanese positions to the east untenable. This information was given to the 163rd Infantry Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division who used it in subsequent offensive operations. This airfield was of great value to the Australians during the fighting for northeast Papua. This involved air attacks and naval bombardments on the Wewak area, and faked landings of reconnaissance patrols. The landing was unopposed as the enemy garrison indicated its intention of surrendering by hoisting a white flag at the first sight of the invasion force. This procedure called for all documents to be briefly examined, and those of operational value segregated from those having probable or general value and those having no apparent military value, and provisions were made for the translation on a priority bases of those sections of documents containing information of operational value. It held what turned out to be a gold mine of valuable documents, including battle plans, codes and letters. Before the operation against the Japanese at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, 41 st CIC Detachment Special Agent in Charge Duval Edwards at Finschhaven during March and April 1944 gave many lectures on the great importance of soldiers turning in any captured documents. 8, Kanji Abbreviations, Variants, and Equivalents; No. When the Japanese invaded New Guinea in early 1942, they began a struggle for control of the island which would last until the end of the Second World War. In the second half of 1943 the main Allied concern in the south Pacific was the major Japanese base at . During mid-May American forces intercepted a Japanese landing craft near Arare that carried material for reinforcing the Japanese-held islands offshore of New Guinea that were to be attacked as part of the Wakde-Sarmi Bay Operation. 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