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Pacific Theater of Operations

The Pacific Theater of Operations, or PTO, was the term used by the United States in World War II to refer to all military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it.

Because of the nearly equal roles of the Army and the Navy in conducting war in the Pacific, there was never a single commander comparable to Eisenhower in the ETO. Indeed, the organization chart was rather tangled, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff frequently required to be involved, and the Army and Navy commanders reporting to both the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. (No doubt the attendant difficulties helped motivate the formation of the Department of Defense in 1947.)

The main commands in the PTO were the Pacific Fleet, commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz and the Southwest Pacific Area command, run by General Douglas MacArthur.

Japanese Nomenclature covering at least PTO:

See also

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