Shortly after Midway, the U.S. devised a strategy called island hopping. Island Hopping is how the United States made headway in the Pacific. They would conquer some islands and use them as stepping stones to leapfrog to others. "The strategy employed by the Allies . . . was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan" (island hopping - information from Reference.com).