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Japanese attack on the Philippines
Hours after the bombing of pearl harbor the japanese attacked american airfields in the philippines and two days later landed troops there. The americans and filipinos were badly outnumbered and they retreated to the bataan peninsula, lasting out three more months. -
Attack on pearl harbor
The Japanese attacked the U.S naval fleet in Hawaii, prompting the U.S to declare war. -
Battle of Coral sea
To prevent a japanese attack on New Guinea U.S admiral Nimitz sent the carriers Yorktown and Lexington to intercept the japanese ships in the coral sea. The japanese sunk the Lexington and damaged the Yorktown, but they prevented the japanese from landing on New Guinea and kept supply lines to Australia open. -
Doolittle raid on Tokyo
In order to raise american morale, roosevelt wanted to bomb tokyo which was difficult because of the distance planes would have to fly. A military planner suggested using b-25 bombers, which would be able to take of from the carriers but would have to land in china. The raid was a success and forced the japanese leaders to change their strategy. -
Battle of Midway
The japanese plan to attack midway was transmitted using a broken code that allowed american forces to prepare to ambush them. During the battle 38 japanese planes were shot down and four of their aircraft carriers were sunk. This was the turning point of the war in the pacific. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
the battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle in history. The americans had landed on Leyte Gulf in order to take back the philippines and the japanese sent a fleet of for carriers to attack them from the north. They sent another force that would ambush the americans from the west. The japanese retreated just before the americans were defeated, thinking that there were more american ships on the way. this was also the first time that the japanese used Kamikaze attacks. -
Island hopping beggins
The americans in the pacific would advance to Japan by bypassing heavily defended islands and focusing on the strategically important ones. The islands would be used as forward basses to bring troops closer and closer to japan. General MacArthur would advance through the Solomon islands, and launch an invasion to take back the philippines. -
Hiroshima
The bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb "little boy" and hiroshima. 63% of the city was destroyed and between 80,000 and 120,000 people died. -
Nagasaki
The U.S dropped the atomic bomb "Fat man" on the japanese city of Nagasaki. The bomb killed between 35,000 and 74,000 people. -
japan surrenders
Faced with the soviets declaring war against them and the atomic bombs that had been dropped, Hirohito ordered his government to surrender.