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Pearl Harbor
This was when Japanese planes attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. It was a sunday morning, so the Japanese caught the sleeping sailors off guard. It was a major tactical and strategic victory for the Japanese. It nearly destroyed the U.S. Pacific Fleet. -
Loss of Philipipnes and the Bataan Death March
U.S. and Filipino troops lost the Philippines to the Japanese soon after the war began. After leaving, General Douglas MacArthur swore he would return here. Captured Allied troops had to march 60 miles to their POW camps, many died on this long and hard trip. -
Battle of Java Sea
Allied navies fought the Imperial Japanese Navy near present-day Indonesia. The Allies due to poor planning and coordination lost 2,300 sailors, 2 cruisers, and 3 destroyers. The Japanese suffered few casualties. -
Doolittle Raid
American Aircraft led by James H. Doolittle left aircraft carriers in the Pacific and bombed Japan. Most airmen bailed out of over China, but one crew landed in the USSR. This crew was interned due to the Soviet-Japanese neutrality. This crew was eventually smuggled out by the Soviet secret place. The raid did not damage much Japanese Infrastructure, but was a major moral victory for the Americans. -
Island Hopping Strategy
Allied troops moved from island to island in the Pacific. They avoided Japanese strongold, looking to cut off these strongholds. They built bases on these islands, allowing them to get closer to the Japanese mainland. -
Battle of Coral Sea
This battle was fought between the Allies and Japanese Navies fought off Australia's northwest coast. Tactically, the battle was a stalemate, but the Allies won a major strategic victory -
Battle of Midway
This was a major battle at Midway, an island halfway between Asia and America. It was fought between the U.S. and the Empire of Japan. The U.S. scored a major tactical and strategic victory against the Japanese, at the expense of one aircraft carrier. -
Guadacanal
This was the first major offensive by the allies against the Japanese of the Pacific war. It was fought at Guadacanal, northeast of Australia. It was a major strategic victory for the Allies. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
This was a major battle between the Allies and Japanese in the Philippines. It was the first battle where the Japanese used organized Kamikaze attacks. It proved to be one of the largest naval battles in history. The Allies crippled the Japanese navy. It consisted of four separate battles. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
This was a major battle where U.S. forces fought the Japanese for control of this small island. It consisted of five weeks of bloody fighting. The U.S. wanted the island because it served as an early warning station for raids on the mainland. The island is 650 miles south of Tokyo. -
Battle of Okinawa
U.S. forces fought Japan for control of these southern Japanese islands. It was one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. Over one quarter of the civilian population died either in the battle or commited suicide once the Japanese lost the battle. The island was planned to be a staging point for a mainland invasion of Japan. -
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
This was the first use of an atomic bomb in warfare. The Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb on Hiroshima, an industrial Japanese city. Over 100,000 died instantly in the blast. The bomb was called Little Boy. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
The B-29 Bockscar dropped the Fat Man, a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. Nagasaki was a Japanese port city. The original target was kokura, but in kokura the aiming point was obscured, so they had to move to their secondary target. The bomb killed over 40,000 people. It was not as effective as Little Boy, because it detonated in a valley. -
VJ Day
The Japanese emperor Hirohito announced to the Japanese public on the radio that Japan would surrender. The formal surrender occurred on the U.S.S. Missouri.
