Truk TRUK A major Japanese naval and air base was set up on this atoll in the Carolines Its huge, calm lagoon served as a sheltered harbor for dozens of Japanese warships and transports during 1942 and 1943 Truk was therefore a frequent target of U.S naval bombing, but it had strong anti-aircraft defenses sited on small islets around the lagoon As the American island-hopping campaign brought U.S landbased aircraft into range and an amphibious assault was planned and expected, the Imperial Japanese Navy pulled its warships out of the atoll in early February 1944 Just after that, on February 17, the fast carrier and battleship group Task Force-58 attacked Truk in the first of two major naval air assaults Of nearly 400 Japanese aircraft at Truk, 270 were destroyed That left dozens of transports and merchant ships exposed to air attack to Admiral Marc Mitscher’s carriers: nearly 50 were sunk in the lagoon or on the chase, along with cruisers, destroyers, and submarines for the loss of a handful of U.S planes With the IJN gone from Truk and its land-based aircraft mostly out of action, the Americans decided to bypass the base They moved on to instead invade the Marianas Over 50 Japanese ships lie still at the bottom of Truk Lagoon TRUMAN, HARRY S (1884–1972) U.S president, 1945–1953 Truman served as an artillery captain on the Western Front during 1918 He was elected to the Senate from Missouri in 1934 He came to national attention as wartime chairman of a committee investigating fraud and abuse in procurement contracts He was asked to be Franklin Roosevelt’s vice presidential running mate in 1944, but once elected was kept at arms length from all decision making Truman inherited the presidency when Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 He was immediately challenged to make key decisions on conduct of the final stages of the war and on shaping the postwar peace He took great interest in the San Francisco Conference, and throughout his presidency was a supporter of international organization and promotion of human rights and a new American commitment to international economic leadership Truman took a lesser hand in framing military policy toward Europe in the last days of the war, where fighting was drawing to a close He was more closely engaged in plans to invade Japan Truman attended the Potsdam Conference, consulting on the fate of nations with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, until the latter was replaced in midconference by Clement Atlee Truman personally told Stalin about the first successful test of the atomic bomb Truman already faced enormous problems of reconstruction of a near starving and bombed out Europe and a widely devastated Asia, with related problems of moral and political engagement and international financial and security responsibility never before faced by an American president The task of recovery faced a nation and victorious alliance that had just come through the privations of the greatest war in history, on the heels of the Great Depression It required close cooperation with Great Britain, which was financially exhausted by war; working with a deeply wounded, vengeful, uncooperative, and shaky government in France; and working through tensions with the enormously powerful, strangely enigmatic, and opportunistically aggressive Joseph Stalin In the Pacific, Truman had to make momentous decisions, including 1096