Image Source: U.S. Bureau of Yards and Docks
Following Midway, Nimitz directed a methodical, multi-year offensive across the Central Pacific, executing what became known as the “island-hopping” strategy — seizing key strategic islands while bypassing heavily fortified Japanese strongholds to accelerate the advance toward the Japanese home islands. Major operations under his command included the Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands, the assault on the Gilbert Islands (including Tarawa), the Marshall Islands campaign, and the invasion of the Mariana Islands, whose capture placed the home islands of Japan within range of American long-range bombers.
Nimitz worked in close, and at times carefully managed, coordination with General Douglas MacArthur, whose forces advanced along a separate axis through the Southwest Pacific and New Guinea toward the Philippines. The two commanders’ complementary campaigns steadily tightened the ring around Japan, culminating in the costly battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945, which served as staging grounds for the planned invasion of Japan before the war’s abrupt end.