What overarching Pacific strategy involved skipping heavily fortified Japanese positions and capturing selected islands to build forward air bases?

• A. Direct invasion strategy
• B. Containment by sea-lane strategy
• C. Island hopping (leapfrogging)
• D. Strategic bombing-dominated approach

Answer: (C)

The idea behind this approach is to gain air and naval reach quickly by choosing stepping-stone islands to capture, while bypassing the most heavily fortified positions. By seizing select islands that can host airfields and logistics hubs, forces create a line of forward bases that allow striking deeper toward Japan without needing to endure costly assaults on every island. This minimizes casualties and uses naval power to support rapid advances, compressing supply lines and enabling air superiority closer to the Japanese home waters. A clear example is taking the Mariana Islands—Saipan, Tinian, and Guam—which provided bases for long-range bombers to reach targets in Japan and set the stage for further advances. Other islands could be isolated or bypassed rather than invaded, conserving resources for the next push. This differs from a direct invasion approach, which aims to seize every island, and from a strategic bombing plan that relies mainly on bombing from distance rather than building a forward network of bases.