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By the summer of 1944, American forces were only 300 miles southeast of Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines. Allied forces had advanced across the Central Pacific taking the Gilbert, Marshall and Caroline Islands. Carrier based planes were already conducting strikes against the Philippine Islands. American and Australian ground forces under General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, had blocked the Japanese in New Guinea, and then isolated the huge Japanese base at Rabaul by capturing air and naval facilities across the Southwest Pacific theater.