Burning Pacific

The year is 1943.

The war in the Pacific enters its 11th month, and there is no sign of it slowing down. The Japanese Empire has conquered most of the theater, except for Australia and a few outlying islands in the Solomons that the Allies have been able to liberate.

General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz are slowly regaining the initiative in the conflict, having met with success in the Battle of Guadalcanal and New Georgia. The U.S. Pacific Fleet has moved south and surprised Isoroku Yamamoto, while the Nipponese Navy commander has most of its fleet in Hawaii.

The Imperial Navy will not stay idle, and a new admiral is named to take over for the south seas theater replacing defeated Admiral Inoue. Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa has just arrived in New Britain with a powerful fleet that includes several battleships and the mighty main fleet carrier Kaga. Another great naval battle looms for the control of the Solomon Islands, for Japan cannot permit the Allies to gain more ground and threaten its main base at Rabaul.

In Northwestern Australia, a Japanese Army surge has just reconquered Derby and the Imperial Guards commander, General Nishimura, looks to consolidate its conquest with an advance on Broome and further down the Aussie coast.

In China, the Nationalists have finally been able to repulse the Japs with a great victory near their capital of Chongqing. The Imperial forces are in full retreat toward French Indochina and its foothold on the Burma Road.

The Tacoma shipyard is still a smoking ruin after the Japanese raid, and the Americans are preparing their revenge and their next move. A great bombing raid is being planned on Pearl Harbor to interdict the critical harbor for Yamamoto.

And then some more. Battles in the Indian Ocean, as Admiral Kondo seeks to destroy the British holed up in Addu Atoll, the French looking to liberate their Polynesian islands, and MacArthur about to launch his offensive in Northern New Guinea.

The Pacific is burning.

This is the story of the Second World War.