For most of the Pacific War, distance protected Japan as much as any fighter squadron. The home islands lay behind hundreds of miles of ocean. Bombers could eventually reach them, but fighters were ...

In addition, Japan’s air force had lost many of its warplanes, and those it had were unable to protect an inner line of defenses set up by the empire’s military leaders. This line of defenses included ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Peter Suciu covers trends in the world of aerospace and defense. The United States Department of Defense announced in January that ...

In late September 1944, three of the U.S. Navy’s top admirals met in San Francisco to discuss the next phase of operations in the Central Pacific theater. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz recommended the ...

Follow a veteran of the 4th Marine Division as he returns to Iwo Jima for the final time. We also chronicle a son who has spent decades trying to get details of his father's time on Iwo, with little ...

Allied aircraft, battleships and cruisers had spent the previous two and a half months pulverizing the volcanic outcropping with thousands of tons of high explosives, leaving it a smoldering heap of ...