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The Second Pacific War was an armed conflict lasting from 1916 to 1922. The war was between two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Greater Asian Alliance (GAA). The war is sometimes combined with the Third Great European War to form the First Great War, and when it is combined it is refered to as the Pacific Theater.
Chronology of the War[]
Beginning of the War[]
The war began with a Japanese attack on Korean, Chinese, and Russian camps around the city of Pyongyang. The Japanese shattered the defenses around the city and soon the GAA was forced to retreat. The Japanese also began to bombard the Russian ports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur. While Port Arthur had nearly no ships docked in its harbors, Vladivostok had about ten ships that were there to refuel. The Japanese destroyed them all, which destroyed about a fourth of the Russian fleet in the Pacific. Because Russia had the strongest fleet out of all the GAA members, the door was opened for Japan to land in Manchuria and northern Korea. Because the Japanese were fighting alone, their plan was to make a quick, devastating strike that would bring the GAA to the negotiating table. The plan was working so far, with the Japanese armies advancing across Manchuria and northern Korea.
However, the plan began to hit snags within the second month of the war. Russia's navy had attacked the Japanese fleets in the Korea Bay, and managed to score an unexpected victory over Japan. Russia also moved a greater forced into the Liaodong Peninsula than what was thought by the Japanese. The war slowed down, and the newly completed Great Northern Railroad in Russia brought a greater and greater number of supplies and soldiers each day. The Japanese army at first overwhelmed the Chinese force at Harbin in Manchuria, but new Russian and Chinese reinforcements forced to leave from the interior to the outskirts of the city. Japanese advances across all the fronts were slowing down.
Battlefields in Asia during the war.
Japan could still rely on its good allies of the US and Canada. While not in the war, the two nations sent hundreds of ships in convoys over to Asia. The Japanese, using these supplies, managed to slow the GAA advance on the fronts. With the new supplies and ships, the Japanese managed to use a diversionary naval attack on Port Arthur for cover on an amphibious landing at the Korean city at Incheon. Led by Admiral Togo Heihachiro, ships pounded shore batteries near the city, and once these were destroyed, Japanese forced began landing. After several days of brutal the Russians, Chinese, and Koreans and were forced to flee the city in defeat. The capture of Incheon made the Japanese in control of the entire southern Korean peninsula, forcing the GAA to divert more soldiers from Manchuria and into Korea.
After the Japanese victory at Incheon it became apparent to the GAA that the Japanese could not win the war, or rather keep their taken territory, without aid from their North American allies. A conference between GAA and American and Canadian diplomats was held from June 4-17, 1917. The GAA officials demanded that the North Americans stop sending aid to the Japanese or else their convoys would be attacked. The American diplomats then threatened that if the convoy would be attacked, it would be war. Heated talks would continued to be until the 17th, when both sides left, and a feeling of war had settled into the minds of the North Americans.
War Becomes Global[]
On the 25th of June, three American vessels, the California, Ohio, and Mississippi were attacked and destroyed by Russian ships. The Americans demanded for war, and President Theodore Roosevelt declared war on July 4. Following the destruction the Canadian ships St. Lawrence and Toronto, Canada entered the war as well. American troops, commonly referred to as "doughboys", landed in Kyoto, Japan in late July. The Canadian troops soon landed after them. The North American First Army, under the command of US Commander John "Black Jack" Pershing, were sent to the combat zone in Manchuria in August. The first combat they saw was in the ever-continuing Battle of Harbin, and about 500,000 soldiers died in the first week. In an attempt to stop the opposite side from advancing, the GAA and Allies built trenches going from Vladivostok to Harbin to the Liaodong Peninsula. Movement had slowed, and the war quickly became a stalemate.
No movement really occurred, with both sides staying their trenches, except for when they were ordered out of their trenches and to cross "no-man's land" and attempt to capture the other side's trench. This would never work, which made the war a deadlock. Aviation worked its way into the war, with pilots looking at trench posistions for the other side or fighting enemies who were attempting to do the same thing. The planes also dropped bombs, but none ever really hit their target. Well into 1918 the war was still at a standstill. Negotiations were held between the two sides but nothing could be accomplished, with the GAA demanding that the Allies return captured territory but their demands were refused. The Russians then devised the Aleutian Islands campaign, an attack on Canadian bases in Alaska.
The campaign began with the Russian Second Army under General Alexander Samsonov attacking the island of Attu, and captured the small Canadian base there. Using these supplies and backed up by the First Army under Paul von Rennenkampf, the Russians stepped from island to island until reaching the mainland, and then they began to attack Anchorage. The Canadians stepped up their defense, and a bloody battle occured which ended in September 1918. The Russians were repelled from Alaska, and Canadian and American landings forced them off the Aleutian Islands. The Americans geared up for a counter-attack, this time in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Counterattack into Kamchatka[]
The Allies pressed for an invasion into Kamchatka for strategical regions. Advancing in the peninsula meant that the Allies could get behind GAA lines, which could help them win battles in the war. Kamchatka was also near several Pacific Great Circle routes, which the Allies could use launch attacks on the eastern coast on Asia. Finally, President Roosevelt felt that a victory was needed to keep the moral of the American people and support for the war high. With millions of casualties, public opinion of the war in the United States and Canada was dropping.
American soldiers in Kamchatka
The North American Second Army, under the command of US General Billy Mitchell, landed in Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky, a port city in Kamchatka, in late 1919. A bloody battle ensued, and much of the city was destroyed. The infamous "Battery Hills" were located here. They were a group of hills that had shore line batteries on them that the US Marines needed to destroy in order to allow reinforcements to land. Around 7,000 were killed in the battle, with many more wounded. The battle was a stalemate until the capture of the Battery Hills, allowing US and Canadian reinforcements to pour in, forcing the Russians to retreat.
As the Allied advance moved deeper, the Russian Navy sent a fleet under the command of Stepan Osipovich Makarov to the Sea of Okhotsk, which the Allies needed to control in order to send reinforcements to the advance. A force was also sent to the Kuril Islands, which separated the Okhotsk from the rest of the Pacific Ocean. Bases and batteries were sent there, ready to stop the Allied advance. The Allies moved their fleet their, and one of the most decisive campaigns in the war began. The defenses at the Kurils served their purposed, and the Allied fleet was forced to return. Knowing that control of the Okhostk was vital, General Mitchill ordered the Second Army to land on the islands and moved from island to island and take them over. The Japanese also lent a hand, invading the islands from the south. This was the beginning of a bloody, five- month campaign, and thousands were killed on both sides. Finally, with the capture of Urup in June 1920, the Kuril Islands were in the hands of the Allies.
Allied warships soon got by the Kuril Islands and decisively defeated the Russian Navy at the Battle of th Sea of Okhotsk, opening the door for more supplies to be given to the ground troops. The advance then moved south, heading toward the Amur River. The river would be used to sail down toward the fighting in Manchuria and Korea. Moving through the mountains, the Allies reached the city of Madagan January 1921, and fighting broke out there. Using bombardments from the coast, the city was taken and and the Russians were forced to retreat. Fortunately for the Russians, supplies were easier to send, and soon fortifications were set up near the city. The Allies were unable to break these for the rest of the war.
War in the Pacific[]
The fighting in the Pacific Ocean began with the formation of the Philippine Red Army in 1918. The Filipinos, who had a hatred of the American occupation which began in 1882, rallied under the command of Crisanto Evangelista, a Communist revolutionary. Violence broke out with raids by the revolutionaries attacking American bases. The Americans then began a crackdown of the rebels, forcing them to flee into the rain forests and jungles of Luzon, where they established their headquarters. The Americans continued to search for the Communists.
Members of the Philippine Red Army attacking a village.
In 1919, the Chinese invaded the Philippines, and the fighting forced the Americans to abondon their search. The Chinese supplied to rebels with weapons, vehicles and supplies, and the Communists soon grew in strength and numbers. In September the rebels joined the Chinese in an attack on Manila, the main city and adminstrative center for the Americans. The fighting tore the city apart, and hundreds died and many more were wounded. The fighting in the Philippines was a sideshow to the campaigns in Kamchatka, so the Americans did not spare any more soldiers. Manila fell, and the Americans fled to the city of San Pablo. On October 4, the People's Republic of the Philippines was established, and Evangelista became the "Honorable Chairman". The Chinese and Communists continued their advance.
In early 1920, the Americans were attacked at San Pablo. The fighting there was bloody, and new weapons were introduced to the theater, which were the flamethrower and airplanes. The fighting at the city lasted for a month, and the city was ravaged. The Americans were surrounded in the city, and were brutally slaughtered by the Chinese and Communists. San Pablo fell, and the Americans were forced to flee. American POWs were allegedly killed by the Communists, but in 1944, Honorable Chairman Pedro P. Baguisa denied this. The Philippines were now under the full control of the Communists. The Communists and Chinese worked together to establish peace, and became important partners in the process. In 1922, when the war ended, Chinese soldiers returned home with Communist ideas in the mind.
End of the War[]
In the summer of 1922, the war was slowing down, with both sides advances pausing. Negotiations were held between the GAA and the Allies, and an armistice was made, and took effect at midnight on December 12, 1922. The war's result was a draw, with neither accomplishing really anything, besides Japanese advances into northern Korea.
In January 1923, the Winnipeg Convention was held in the city of Beaver, Winnipeg, between the GAA and Allies. Two months later in March, the Treaty of Beaver was signed, officially ending the war. Japan would be given northern Korea, and in return for the GAA was territory in Eastern Europe.
Aftermath[]
The casualties of the war was estimated to be 50,000 KIA, WIA, or MIA. The outbreak of the "Veteran Sickness" added to that, and the returning of soldiers back home spread the disease. The war completely demolished a generation of people, and made the public of Canada and the United States elect leaders from parties who did not support the war, such as Socialist Party Eugene V. Debs for president in the United States. The only nation that was truly defeated was Korea, as all of its territory was taken by Japan. Revolutionaries and guerrillas would continue to give Japan problems. Finally, the Philippines became the first Communist nation in the world, and its comeback during the next decades inspired other nations to change to Communism.