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Japan Occupation of Manchuria
As early as September 19, 1931 Japan had already occupied Manchuria following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria lasted until the end of World War two. Manchuria was a major target for the Japanese because of their vast amounts of natural resources that would certainly aid them for their future occupation in China. This marked the beginning of early conflicts between the Japanese and the Chinese. -
Japan Leaves League of Nations
On March 25, 1933, Japan leaves League of Nations as a result of the accusations from the Lytton Report which described Japan as the aggressor during the Mukden incident. Japans resignation from the League of Nations allows them to no longer feel constricted by the policies and rules by which the League imposes on their members. -
Period: to
Japan 1933-1942
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Anti-Comintern Pact
An agreement concluded first between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and then between Italy, Germany, and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937), ostensibly directed against the Communist International (Comintern) but, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union. This marked the beginning of the axis pact. -
Rape of Nanking
the Rape of Nanking was a six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanking, the former capital of the Republic of China. During this period, hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered and 20,000–80,000 women were raped. The act was a means by the Japanese to demoralize the Chinese and to reduce the number of rataliatory attacks from them as well. -
Battle of Lake Khasan
Also known as the Changkufeng Incident. It was an attempted military incursion of Manchukuo (Japanese) into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union. This ignited old tensions between the Japanese and the Soviet Union over border disputes, this event would grudgingly make both sides more tense and more alert of each other's motives. -
Japan-Soviet Dispute
Japanese attack on disputed border areas is renewed between Japanese and Soviets. Japanese are eventually heavily defeated. The Japanese tried to over-stretch their expanionist policy but failed miserably and fell to the Soviet Union. -
Battle of Changsha
The Battle of Changsha was the first attempt by Japan to take the city of Changsha, China, during the second Sino-Japanese War. Even though the use of poison gas was prohibited by the Geneva Protocol, the Japanese army employed it on Chinese positions. Battle of Changsha (Phase One) -
Invasion of French Indochina
In 1940, the Empire then invaded French Indochina, after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan. -
Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact
The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was a pact between the Empire of Japan and the Soviet Union signed in 1941, two years after the brief Soviet-Japanese Border War (1939). The treaty was signed in Moscow on April 13, 1941, by Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and Ambassador Yoshitsugu Tatekawa for Japan and Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov for the Soviet Union. -
Roosevelt Freezes Japanese Assets
Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations. Essentially, Japan lost access to three-fourths of its overseas trade and 88 percent of its imported oil. Japan's oil reserves were only sufficient to last three years, and only half that time if it went to war and consumed fuel at a more frenzied pace. Roosevelt Freezes Japanese Assets -
Japan Signs the Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Italy, and Japan, promising mutual aid. An informal name,"Axis", emerges. -
Three Alls Policy
The "Three Alls Policy" was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II, the three alls being: "Kill All", "Burn All" and "Loot All". The approval of the policy was given by Imperial General Headquarters Order Number 575 on 3 December 1941. -
Japan on Pearl Harbour
Japanese carrier planes attack the US fleet in Pearl Harbor. -
Declaration of War Against Japan
the attacks by the Japanese prompted the United States, United Kingdom, Australia. other Western Allies, and China (already fighting the Second Sino-Japanese War), to formally declare war on Japan. -
Battle of Hong Kong
The Battle of Hong Kong took place during the Pacific campaign of World War II. It began on 8 December 1941 and ended on Christmas Day with Hong Kong, then a Crown colony, surrendering to the Empire of Japan. -
Battle of Malaya
The Battle of Malaya was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 to 31 January 1942 during the Second World War. The campaign was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army. For the British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces defending the colony, the campaign was a disaster. -
Dutch East Indies campaign
The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–42 was the defense of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) by Allied forces against invasion by the Empire of Japan in World War II. The rich oil resources of Indonesia were a major Japanese objective during the war. The East Indies was determined to be one of Japan's primary targets if and when it went to war because the colony possessed abundant valuable resources, the most important of which were its rubber plantations and oil fields. -
Japanese conquest of Burma
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign, the Japanese Army (with aid from Thai forces and Burmese insurgents) drove British Commonwealth and Chinese forces out of Burma, and occupied the country, forming a Burmese administration with little real authority. -
Defeat at Battle of Changsha
The offensive resulted in failure for the Japanese, as Chinese forces were able to lure them into a trap and encircle them. After suffering heavy casualties, Japanese forces called for a general retreat. This was the only real Allied success against Japan. -
Battle of Rabaul
The Battle of Rabaul, also known by the Japanese as Operation R, was fought on the island of New Britain in the Australian Territory of New Guinea, in January and February 1942. It was a strategically significant defeat of Allied forces by Japan in the Pacific campaign of World War II. . Rabaul was important because of its proximity to the Japanese territory of the Caroline Islands, site of a major Imperial Japanese Navy base on Truk. -
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in South East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East". The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8 February 1942 to 15 February 1942. The February 1942 Fall of Singapore saw 80,000 Allied soldiers captured and enslaved by the Japanese. -
Operation Mo
Operation Mo was the name of the Japanese plan to take control of the Australian Territory of New Guinea during World War II as well as other locations in the South Pacific with the goal of isolating Australia and New Zealand from their ally the United States. It was to sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, intercepted and turned back Japanese naval forces, successfully preventing the invasion. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese. The Japanese operation aimed to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. -
Guadalcanal Campaign
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by Allied forces, was fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Fiercely contested on the ground, at sea, and in the air, the campaign was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. -
Operation Hailstone
Operation Hailstone "the airstrike on Truk Island") was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 17–18, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory. Truk was a major Japanese logistical base as well as the operating "home" base for the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet. Some have described it as the Japanese equivalent of the US Navy's Pearl Harbor. -
Battle of the Philippine Sea
he Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot") was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history. It was fought between the navies of the United States and the Empire of Japan. The engagement proved disastrous for the Imperial Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and some 600 aircraft, termed by Americans the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battles for Leyte Gulf", and formerly known as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Sea", is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and also one of the largest naval battles in history. The Battle of Leyte Gulf is also notable as the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
he Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima from Japan. The U.S. invasion was charged with the mission of capturing the two airfields on Iwo Jima. The battle produced some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Campaign of World War II. The battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands, and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. -
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June, 1945. The battle resulted in one of the highest number of casualties of any World War II engagement. Japan lost over 100,000 troops, and the Allies suffered more than 50,000 casualties. -
Hiroshima
At 8:15 AM, the nuclear bomb 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. The target was chosen as Hiroshima was a city of considerable military importance, containing Japan's Second Army Headquarters, as well as being a communications center and storage depot. -
S.U Declares War on Japan
Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria. A battle-hardened, one million-strong Soviet force, transferred from Europe, attacked Japanese forces in Manchuria and quickly defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army group. -
Japan Surrenders
Japanese agree to unconditional surrender. The surrender of Japan brought hostilities in World War II to an end. By August 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy had effectively no capacity to conduct operations, and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent.
