War in the Pacific

We recently watched a documentary about how the US fought Japan in the Pacific during World War II. I knew basically nothing about it before watching the documentary, so it was pretty interesting to learn about a smaller section of WWII. At first, the Japanese were better equipped and trained. They were "battled hardened" from their battles with the Chinese. However, the US started "leapfrogging," a strategy in which they overtook island after island. The US military learned several lessons from their attack on Tarawa. The attack planners hadn't properly done their job, so when the attack took place, the tides were so low that the boats couldn't get past the coral reefs. The soldiers had to get through a quarter mile of chest-high water to get to shore, and all along the shore, Japanese machine guns were shooting at them. It was obvious that they needed to have significantly detailed plans and reconnaissance for these types of battles. Iwo Jim was an important island because it used radar to give Tokyo a warning that the B29's were on their way. When the American planes fly up to Tokyo, Iwo Jima alerts Tokyo, and when the American planes are flying back, Iwo Jima sends up Japanese planes to shoot the enemy.