4.+The+Battle+of+Coral+Sea

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** Name: ** Hiroo Onoda ** Date of Birth: ** July 15th, 1889 ** Main event taking place at this time: ** World War II, Battle of the Coral Sea ** Occupation: ** Japanese soldier ** Background: ** I was born in Tokyo where I spent the majority of my life before entering the Japanese Imperial Navy. After spending a good amount of time in the Navy I was recruited to the lieutenant status.

I am currently a lieutenant in the Japanese Imperial Navy, which as of May 4th, 1942 we have never been defeated. As the rest of the world is currently doing, the Japanese are also trying to expand. We have decided to take over Port Moresby, New Guinea, which is along southeastern coast of New Guinea. I am currently stationed at an air base at Port Moresby in order to threaten Australia from interfering with the capture of Port Moresby. We have planned to use two seaborne invasion forces as well as air forces to take over Port Moresby; however we believe that this should be a rather easy invasion (“Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942”). We have been prepared for two months; the invasion was planned for March however the United States carriers appeared in the South-Pacific. We, the Japanese have decided to name this invasion Operation “MO” because if they took over New Guinea then they would have full control over the Coral Sea which would take Australia out of the war (Springer). The United States was well prepared to help defend New Guinea, which brought fear to me. They arrived with multiple carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, land-based bombers and patrol seaplanes. We were not prepared for what the United States had with them; we expected after destroying Pearl Harbor the majority of their warfare would be destroyed, however obviously they proved us wrong (“Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942”). During the battle the surface ships did not exchange a shot, the majority of the battle took place between the warplanes. We were able to severely damage the US carrier, the Lexington, however our carrier, Shoho was also severely damaged. We were equal with casualties within the air forces (“Battle of the Coral Sea”). After two days of fighting we had to withdraw our troops and move northward. We knew that if we stayed fighting we would have endured many casualties (“Battle of the Coral Sea”).


 * __Works Cited__**

"Battle of the Coral Sea." __World War II History Info__. 21 Oct 2008 .

"Battle of the Coral Sea, 7-8 May 1942 ." __World War II and the Pacific__. 06 May 2001. Naval Historical Center. 21 Oct 2008 . Springer, Emiliano. "The Battle of the Coral Sea." San Diego History. 21 Oct 2008 .

__//**By Katelyn Arbach**//__