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Pearl Harbor
A little before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes attacked an American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack lasted two hours, destroying nearly 20 American naval vessels, 8 large battleships, and about 200 airplanes, leaving 2,000 American soldiers dead, and 1,000 wounded. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan, which was approved. Three days later, Japan allies with Germany and Italy, and declare war with the US -
Battle of Java Sea
In the Battle of Java Sea, the Japanese caused much damage to the Allied navies, as well as conquering Brititsh-controlled Burman South Pacific. They gained control of the rich oil reserves, which were vital to their military plans, and established strategic bases for future operations. -
Loss of Philippines and Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
Doolittle Raid
Army Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led a group of 16 American bombers on a daring air raid of Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The event did not do major damage to the Japanese targets, but did, however, have some effects; to finally give the American people something to celebrate, and to worry and anger Japan's leaders. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The battle took place as Japanese forces were preparing to invade the British controlled Port Moresby on the island of New Quinea. To prevent the attack, U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz sent two aircraft carriers on the attack. Following the battle, American and Japanese navies both suffered damage. For Americans, this included the loss of an aircraft carrier and several dozen aircraft, but they still stopped the Japanese attack. For the first time, the Japanese advance had been halted. -
Island Hopping Strategy
“Island Hopping” is the strategy employed by the United States to gain military bases and secure the many small islands in the Pacific. The attack was lead by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. The US troops targeted the islands that were not as strongly defended by the Japanese. They took control of those islands, and quickly constructed landing strips and small military bases. -
The Battle of Midway
Japanese military tried to lure the Americans into a large sea battle. The plan was to attack the Americans at Midway Island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese hoped that the attack would pull the American fleet into the area, and then destroy it. Americans, however, had naval intelligence officers break a Japanese code, and they learned about the plan of attack, June 3, 1942, and knew the direction of which they would approach. -
Guadalcanal
This battle was the first major offensive and decisive victory for the Allies in the Pacific theater. The U.S. Marines made a surprise attack at the Japanese, who were stationed in the Solomon Islands, and took control of an airbase under construction. Both sides endured heavy losses, however, the Japanese more casualties, forcing their withdraw from Guadalcanal. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Japanese sought to convereg three naval forces on the Leyte Gulf, and successfully diverted the U.S. Third Fleet with a decoy. At the Suriago Strait, the U.S. Seventh Fleet destroyed one of the Japanese forces and forced a second one to withdraw. The third successfully traversed the San Bernadino Straight but also withdrew before attacking the Allied forces at Leyte. -
Batlle of Iwo Jima
Three U.S. divisions landed on Iwo Jima on Febuary 1945. The island was defended by 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fougt from a network of caves, dugouts, tunnels, and underground installations. The marines wiped out the defending forces within a month of fighting. -
Battle of Okinawa
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign (April 1—June 22, 1945) involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead. -
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
On this day in 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. -
VJ Day
It was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victory over Japan Day." The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilites to a close.
