My dad served in the Pacific in WW2. He actually arrived too late for combat; they heard news of the first atom bomb when he was shipping out of San Francisco. Still, this particular instance of history (and many others) interest me...
I can recall across reading many books on the WW2 Pacific Theater that there was one particular place - surely some island, I would guess southeast of Japan (although that means most of the theater), not too large in overall area; not any huge island or land mass - that was based around an ancient volcanic caldera, but which was not directly attacked by land forces (Marines). Instead, it was bypassed, and bombed a lot. I seem to recall it had lots of tunnels (nothing unusual there, given Japanese resourcefulness).
I can't believe I am now googling maps and history, and can't find it. But it's been a couple of years since I last read a WW2 Pacific Theater book. I thought I'd know it but I guess I'm getting senile.
Any ideas?
Are you talking about Rabaul? It was a major Japanese naval base in WWII but was not directly invaded, and if I recall correctly it was a volcanic area.
Could be Chuuk Lagoon — one of the "strongholds" that was bombed and cut off, but not invaded.