In the war against Japan, the U.S. relied on a strategy of island hopping across the South Pacific.
The island hopping strategy was a military tactic used by the Allies against the Japanese Empire during the Second World War. The idea was to bypass some islands of the Pacific powerfully fortified by the Japanese and thus focus efforts on other strategic islands less well defended that could serve as a basis for Americans to get closer to the Japanese territory in successive flips. This strategy was made possible by the use of air strikes and submarine warfare to block the encroached Japanese bases, isolating them and preventing their supply and reinforcement. Thus, the troops on the bypassed islands could not participate in the Japanese war effort and were considerably weakened by the general shortage they suffered.