The Battle of the Philippine Sea occurred on June 19, 1944.
On June 15, 1944, American forces began to land on Saipan, an island in the Mariana Islands defended by Japanese forces. The American and Japanese fleets fought near the Mariana Islands on June 19. In this battle, the Japanese fleet lost a large number of planes and three aircraft carriers, and was ultimately forced to retreat. As a result of the naval battle around the Mariana Islands, Japan lost part of “absolute national defense sphere” (a vital area that needed to be secured at all costs for Japan to win the war), and found itself on the defensive in the ensuing battles in the Pacific theater. |
- Document 1 is issue No. 329 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on July 20, 1944. This issue features articles about the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The article in the second image carries the headline “Hoisting the Z flag on the inner South Sea: Fierce fighting continues on Saipan,” and conveys the announcement from the Naval Press Department of the Imperial General Headquarters about fighting in the mid-Pacific theater, particularly Saipan.
- Document 2 is “Part 4: Documents relating to military affairs” from the Volume 23 of the Investigative Report on American Politics, a collection of confidential documents that was drawn up by the 6th Section of the Political Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 8, 1944. This collection features American radio broadcasts and newspaper reports about the fighting in the Pacific.
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