Mariana Islands

General Groves further stated that all available specialist personnel and instruments would be sent from the United States and that the Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific would be informed about the organization of the mission.

On the same day, the eleventh of august the special personnel who formed the part of the investigating group to be sent from the united states were selected and ordered to california with instructions to proceed overseas at once to accomplish the purpose set forth in the message to general farrell the main party departed from hamilton field california on the morning of thirteen august and arrived in the Marianas on 15 August.

On 12 August, the chief of staff sent the theater commander the following message.

Quote, For MacArthur, signed Marshall.

despite its extreme importance the first bombing mission on hiroshima had been almost routine the second mission was not so uneventful again the crew was specially trained and selected but bad weather introduced some momentous complications These complications are best described in the brief account of the mission's weaponier, Commander, now Captain, F. L. Ashworth, U.S.N., who was in technical command of the bomb and was charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the bomb was successfully dropped at the proper time and on the designated target.

His narrative runs as follows, quote, The night of our take-off was one of tropical rain squalls and flashes of lightning stabbed into the darkness with disconcerting regularity.

The weather forecast told us of storms all the way from the Marianas to the Empire.

Our rendezvous was to be off the southeast coast of Kyushu, some 1,500 miles away.

The deepest of all is the Mariana Trench.

It lies in the western Pacific Ocean, approximately 200 kilometres east of the Mariana Islands, a chain of volcanic islands that mark the boundary where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the younger, smaller Mariana Plate.

The trench is crescent-shaped, roughly 2,550 kilometres long, about 69 kilometres wide, and its deepest point, a slot-shaped depression called Challenger Deep, reaches 10,935 metres below the surface, plus or minus six metres.

The name comes from HMS Challenger, a British Royal Navy corvette that conducted a pioneering global oceanographic expedition between 1872 and 1876.

It's missing.

They say it went down when it was on its way to the Mariana Islands for that governor's meeting.

I put it in the notes, everybody, because I was like, remember, we're trying to figure out where was it.

And it was really quick that Margaret said, oh, the Mariana Islands.

And then that was it.

It was never brought up again.

The First World War would offer Japan a new opportunity to demonstrate its value to the Western Alliance.

Invoking its obligations under the Anglo-Japanese allegiance, Japan entered the war in 1914, would seize German-held Tsingtao, and then would occupy the Marianas, Carolinas, and Marshall Islands.

More consequentially, Japan sent its navy into the Mediterranean, where the 2nd Special Squadron conducted 348 escort sorties.

protected 788 ships carrying over 700,000 Allied troops, and saved over 7,000 Entente personnel from U-boat attacks at the cost of 72 Japanese sailors' lives.

In October, a new militaristic government headed by General Hideki Tojo seized power in Tokyo, and a new special ambassador, Saburo Kurosu, was sent to Washington, ostensibly to revitalize negotiations for a peaceful settlement of differences.

short of a miracle however the japanese army and navy leaders did not consider peace a likely outcome of the talks with the americans they were in fact preparing to go to war if war came u s marines would be among the first to experience its violence in china marines had a garrison role in foreign concessions at shanghai pei ping and tientsin and in the philippines they had sizable guard units at the naval bases at cavita and olangapo on luzon island they provided as well ship's detachments for the woefully few cruisers of the asiatic fleet headquartered at manila in the western pacific's mariana islands there was a small naval station on the navy governed island of guam a certain japanese war-time target american samoa and the southeast pacific whose islands were also a navy responsibility was strategically vital as guardian of the sea routes to new zealand and australia from the states At Pago Pago on Tutuila, American Samoa's largest island, there was a deep harbor and a lightly manned naval base.

Recognizing its isolation and vulnerability to Japanese attack, the Navy began deploying Marines to augment its meager garrison late in 1940.

The advance party of Marines who arrived at Pago Pago on 21 December were members of the 7th Defense Battalion, which had been formally activated at San Diego on the 16th.