Why is James Doolittle important?

Answer 1

James Doolittle led the famous Doolittle Raid against Japan on April 18, 1942. The raid lifted the morale of the United States and dealt a major blow to the morale of the Japanese.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, The Japanese military had a period of victory after victory and seemed to be riding on a unstoppable wave of success. The wide geographic sweep of their military conquests seemed to insure that the Japanese home islands were safe from attack.

American morale was at an all time low following these events and the Japanese people had supreme confidence in their leadership. President Roosevelt decided to strike a symbolic blow to the Japanese heartland by sending a fleet of bombers to conduct an air raid over several key Japanese cities. Not only was the raid fraught with danger, it was considered a logistically near impossibility. Even if everything went exactly according to plan, the raid would be extremely dangerous. Although Doolittle determined that the B-25 bomber could take off from a carrier (a feat previously though impossible) , it could not land on one. After the bombing raid, the planes would have to fly over the rest of Japan after it had been alerted to their presence and over Japanese held coastal China on to the Allied held Chinese interior. This put the B-25 at the extreme edge of its range. The raid was a success but casualties were four times higher than average for a WWII unit.

The raid marked a turning point in the war. Just as hoped, the raid bolstered the morale of the American people and made many Japanese question the ability of their warlords to protect them. Japan had to cancel further actions in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans and switch to a defensive posture in the mid Pacific. The raid convinced the Japanese military that they would have to capture the strategic American base at Midway Island to insure the safety of their home islands. The battle of Midway proved to be a disaster for the Japanese that crippled their ability to conduct further offensive actions. The Japanese military began a slow decline that ended in their defeat in 1945.