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The Pacific Theater was a major theater of the war between the Allies and the Empire of Japan during WWII. It was defined by the Allied powers’ Pacific Ocean Area command, which included most of the Pacific Ocean and its islands, while mainland Asia was excluded. In the Pacific Ocean theater, Japanese forces fought primarily against the United States Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army. The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and other Allied nations also contributed forces.

The Pacific Theater officially came into existence on March 30, 1942, when US Admiral Chester Nimitz was appointed Supreme Allied Commander Pacific Ocean Areas. In the other major theater in the Pacific region, known as the South West Pacific theater, Allied forces were commanded by US General Douglas MacArthur. Most Japanese forces in the theater were part of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto until he was killed in an attack by U.S. fighter planes in April 1943.

Though the United States won the last major battle of Okinawa, the American government decided that to keep fighting Japan would cause too many additional deaths. To try and end the war, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The blasts killed over 129,000 people and left behind radiation that affected the cities for years afterward. On August 15th, 1945, Japan surrendered and, on September 2nd, signed the formal documents to put an end to the war.