Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was an American general who was born in 1880 and died in 1964. During World War II he was the commander of the Allied land forces in the Pacific Ocean. MacArthur was also “one of the most brilliant military strategists of World War II.” When the Americans began to strike back at the Japanese early in 1942, MacArthur formed the plan to storm Japanese controlled islands in the Pacific. He decided to “island-hop” past the strongest guarded islands and seize the weaker islands close to Japan. From those islands, he could cut supply lines to starve the enemy. His first island battle was at Guadalcanal and resulted in the Japanese abandonment of the island.