“Japan wanted the island chain as a place to launch air attacks on the US mainland. They also wanted to cut off the supply routes from Australia and the US. The US mostly wanted to stop Japan form achieving their goal, but establishing a foothold in the Solomons gave them a nice place to launch their Pacific operations closer to Asia.”
The first point is totally bogus. Nate’s been too busy with Dreamblade again.The real idea was to cut supply and isolate Australia from points that link back to our mainland and from British support. That was in fact the plan for Coral Sea namely to get in position to capture Port Moresby and further isolate Allied positions in south pacific. Also, it was to anchor the Japanese control of another further island chain for the defense of the perimeter of her conquests. A firm control of these islands would give Japan more time replace her lost carriers at Midway. AS you know she undertook conversion of 2 battleships to hybrid carriers and stepped up the completion of carriers not completed in order to gain back parity with American carrier force. Japan was engaged in a war of attrition after Midway and the Solomons would be for japan her first resolve of a bloody nose and send the message that “each island will be paid for in blood… do you have what it takes to continue?”
