Two interesting cases are both Hahajima and Chichijima in the Bonin island groups. Both islands bolstered a strong garrison and anti-aircraft and anti-ship defenses. Chichijima also gained some notoriety for a massacre of shot down American airman and that George H. W. Bush avoided the fate of his comrades. But what makes Chichijima and Hahajima relatively unique is that they were actually were not as well-defended than the neighboring island the US did invade, Iwo Jima. Chichijima had around 6,000 less defenders than Iwo. Furthermore, the Japanese garrison at Chichijima did not seriously fortify their defenses until after the American invasion of Iwo as the Japanese commanders trusted that geography would preclude an invasion. Robert Burrell has argued both in a revisionist essay and book that both islands were better alternative targets for America's strategic purposes. According to Burrell, American planners selected Iwo because its airstrip could be enlarged to fit B-29s and Allied intelligence mistakenly thought Chichijima and Hahajima were much better defended than they were in reality.

There was also Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands, which was for the first half of the war the main IJN naval anchorage. After Operation Hailstone in February 1944, the island fortress became isolated and the increasing target of operational training/nuisance raids by Allied fliers. Yap Island, also in the Carolines, also became bypassed as well and also the target of green Allied fliers; Samuel Hynes recalls in his memoir Flights of Passage the disdain some of the veterans had towards the new pilots that had "blooded" on a comparatively defenseless target. Rota Island in the Mariana Islands had a brigade of troops and was similarly bypassed. Zenji Abe, one of the pilots of Pearl Harbor, was stranded at Rota because during the Battle of the Philippine Sea the IJN earmarked Rota as an emergency landing base. His memoir details the life of Japanese garrisons cut off from the war as one of monotony, incessant gardening for sustenance, and impotence at the periodic Allied airstrikes.

Finally, the island of Formosa/Taiwan was a major site for both the IJA and IJN. There was a significant debate about whether the Allies should invade Luzon or Formosa. The USN favored Formosa, but political and logistical hurdles precluded an operation against the island. Like Rabaul, the island was cut off and subject to air raids and naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

The major Japanese naval/air base at Rabaul on new Britain is an example of this, the Japanese garrison of almost 100,000 men were bypassed and subjected to blockade and air attacks. They surrendered only after the war ended.