Admiral Chester W. Nimitz pins the
Navy Cross on Doris "Dorie" Miller at ceremony on board USS Enterprise , Pearl Harbor, May 27, 1942.
The surrender of Japan aboard
USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, September 2, 1945: Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, representing the United States, signs the instrument of surrender.
Ten days after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Nimitz was selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be commander-in-chief,
United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT). He was promoted to the rank of admiral, effective December 31, 1941. Nimitz immediately departed Washington for Hawaii and took command in a ceremony on the top deck of the submarine Grayling. The change of command ceremony would normally have taken place aboard a battleship, but every battleship in Pearl Harbor had been either sunk or damaged during the attack. Assuming command at the most critical period of the war in the Pacific, Admiral Nimitz successfully organized his forces to halt the Japanese advance despite the losses from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the shortage of ships, planes, and supplies.
On March 24, 1942, the newly formed US-British Combined Chiefs of Staff issued a directive designating the Pacific theater an area of American strategic responsibility. Six days later, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) divided the theater into three areas: the Pacific Ocean Areas, the Southwest Pacific Area (commanded by General Douglas MacArthur), and the
Southeast Pacific Area . The JCS designated Nimitz as "Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas", with operational control over all Allied units (air, land, and sea) in that area.
Nimitz faced superior Japanese forces at the crucial defensive actions of the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. The Battle of the Coral Sea, while a loss in terms of total damage suffered, resulted in the strategic success of turning back a Japanese invasion of Port Moresby on the island of Papua–New Guinea. Two Japanese carriers were temporarily taken out of action in the battle, which would deprive the Japanese of their use in the Midway operation that shortly followed. The severe losses in Japanese carriers at Midway affected the balance of naval air power during the remainder of 1942, and was crucial in neutralizing Japanese offensive threats in the South Pacific. Naval engagements during the Battle of Guadalcanal left both forces severely depleted. However, with the allied advantage in land-based air power, the results were sufficient to secure Guadalcanal. The US and allied forces then undertook to neutralize remaining Japanese offensive threats with the Solomon Islands campaign and the New Guinea Campaign , while building capabilities for major fleet actions. In 1943, Midway became a forward submarine base, greatly enhancing US capabilities against Japanese shipping.
Through 1943, Nimitz gained the materiel and manpower needed to launch major fleet offensives to destroy Japanese power in the central Pacific region. This drive opened with the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign from November 1943 to February 1944, followed by the destruction of the strategic Japanese base at Truk Lagoon, and the Marianas campaign that brought the Japanese homeland within range of new strategic bombers. Nimitz's forces inflicted a decisive defeat on the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944), which allowed the capture of Saipan, Guam , and
Tinian . His Fleet Forces isolated enemy-held bastions on the central and eastern
Caroline Islands and secured in quick succession Peleliu, Angaur , and Ulithi . In the Philippines, his ships destroyed much of the remaining Japanese naval power at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 24 to 26, 1944. With the loss of the Philippines, Japan's energy supply routes from Indonesia came under direct threat, crippling their war effort.
By Act of Congress, passed on December 14, 1944, the rank of fleet admiral — the highest rank in the Navy — was established. The next day President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Nimitz to that rank. Nimitz took the oath of that office on December 19, 1944.
In January 1945, Nimitz moved the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet forward from Pearl Harbor to Guam for the remainder of the war. Nimitz's wife remained in the continental United States for the duration of the war, and did not join her husband in Hawaii or Guam.
In 1945, Nimitz's forces supported successful amphibious assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa , and launched raids against the home waters of Japan. In addition, Nimitz also ordered the United States Army Air Forces to mine the Japanese ports and waterways by air with
B-29 Superfortresses in a successful mission called Operation Starvation , which severely interrupted the Japanese logistics.
On September 2, 1945, Nimitz signed as representative of the United States when Japan formally surrendered on board
USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay . On October 5, 1945, which had been officially designated as "Nimitz Day" in Washington, D.C. , Nimitz was personally presented a second Gold Star for the third award of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal by President Harry S. Truman "for exceptionally meritorious service as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, from June 1944 to August 1945."
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