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134.2
The sun sets in Tokyo Bay on the Allied naval might gathered there on the eve of world peace, 27 August
1945.
potential is equally important in weakening its sea
power.
Admiral Ernest J. King, former Chief of Naval
Operations, summarized the part sea power
played in World War II:
In the European war, seapower was
an essential factor because of the
necessity of transmitting our entire
military effort across the Atlantic and
supporting it there. Without command of
the sea, this could not have been done.
Nevertheless, the surrender of land, sea,
and air forces of the German Reich on 8
May 1945 was the direct result of the
application of airpower over land and the
power of the allied ground forces.
In the Pacific war, the power of our
ground and strategic air forces, like
seapower in the Atlantic, was an
essential factor. By contrast with
Germany, however, Japan’s armies were
intact and undefeated and her air forces
only weakened when she surrendered,
but her navy had been destroyed and her
merchant fleet had been fatally crippled.
Dependent upon imported food and raw
materials and relying upon sea transport
to supply her armies at home and
overseas, Japan lost the war because she
lost command of the sea and, in doing so,
lost—to the United States— the island
bases from which her war-making
potential could be destroyed by air.
KOREAN CONFLICT
On 26 June 1950 the United Nations made a
joint decision to give the Republic of Korea air and
naval assistance. Three days later, the cruiser
USS Juneau and the destroyer USS Dehaven fired
the first bombardment of the conflict.
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