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Japanese Invasion of China
In 1931, Japan began expanding into eastern China. By 1937, Japanese forces occupied vast amounts of land in China in an attempt to overthrow the Chinese government. At this point, the Chinese government responded with full force, spawning the Sino-Japanese War. This deadlock didn't end until Japan was shut down by Western forces in 1945, which simultaneously ended WWII. -
Rape of Nanking
After winning over Chinese forces, Japan now occupied an area that consisted of Nationalist China's capital Nanking. They removed all the Chinese soldiers and essentially held the citizens hostage. During six weeks in late 1937, the Imperialist Japanese Army viciously tortured, murdered, and raped 200-300,000 people, leaving ruins and bodies. At the end of WWII, Matsui and Hisao were executed and the Japanese government destroyed evidence. The events and the death are still discussed today. -
German Blitzkrieg
The Blitzkrieg tactics were a new and creative war strategy that the Nazis employed during their invasion of Poland and continued to use in WWII. It was the use of localized fire and mobile military forces. Using this method, Nazis could reduce casualties and time spent in battle. However, Wehrmacht forces were unable to cooperate well together, therefore rendering blitzkrieg tactics much less useful. -
German Invasion of Poland
Hitler believed that Germans were racially superior, and so therefore owning Poland could offer a living space for Germans and the natives could just be used as slaves. On September 1, Nazi forces invaded Poland. When they didn't withdraw before September 3 (the ultimatum offered by Britain and France), the Allied forces declared war on Germany. After Polish authorities fled and no real war was waged, 3 million Polish Jews were killed in death camps and Nazi Germany was allowed to grow in power. -
Operation Barbarossa
Germany and the USSR had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. However, this was only a guise for both countries to prepare for war, since they were both suspicious of each other. Germany decided to finally break the tension in 1941 by going in guns blazing. Using blitzkrieg tactics, Germany managed to advance about 200 miles into Soviet land in just one week. But by the time winter set in after months of brutal fighting, Hitler's forces lost the battle, which became a turning point for the war. -
Pearl Harbor
In response to the US blocking trade to Japan, the Japanese sent its Horizontal Bomber planes to Pearl Harbor. The ship Oklahoma sunk and the US destroyer Helm made a few futile attempts to fire at the submarines, but only missed. Then the second wave of Japanese aircrafts hit. Land planes invaded and the US retaliated with more land planes. Finally Japan stopped attacking at 1:30. This surprise attack severely damaged the US Navy so America decided to declare war on Japan. -
Wannsee Conference
German authorities held a high-level meeting to discuss the Final Solution plan (the plan to kill millions of Jews). Jews were already being slaughtered by the masses and the German officials knew that this was happening. Therefore, no one present objected to the plan. 11,000,000 Jews were supposed to be killed according to the plan, but by the end of the war only 6,000,000 had been. -
Bataan Death March
After a long battle, suffering from starvation and disease and receiving little air and naval support the 75,000 American-Filipino troops were forced to surrender a peninsula called Bataan on Luzon island in the Philippines. After Japan claimed Bataan and the now prisoners of war, the soldiers were forced to walk 65 miles to the Japanese work camps. Later, Filipino-US forces reclaimed the island and Lieutenant General Homma Masaru was executed for issuing the march. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Beginning in August 25 1942, Germans began to advance into Stalingrad. They were stopped on September 23 and by November 19, Russian forces held Stalingrad. On December 19, the Germans couldn’t get past the Russian army’s encirclement around the city and on February 2, 1943, the Germans surrendered. -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
In 1939, about 400,000 Jews in Warsaw were forced into a claustrophobic ghetto about 1 square mile in size. After thousands either died from disease and starvation or were shipped off to concentration camps, about 55,000 remained. For about a month, an armed rebellion against Nazi forces was staged, which inspired many other uprisings within camps and ghettos later. The attempt was obviously not successful, and Nazis cracked down by destroying hiding places and forcing surviving Jews into camps. -
Operation Gomorrah
German forces had caused the death of 167 British civilians during bombing raids throughout July 1943. In retaliation, Britain launched Operation Gomorrah to bomb Hamburg, Germany. They used a technique called Window where they dropped pieces of aluminum to confuse German RADAR and divert their attention from the real bomber planes. Some 2,300 tons of bombs were dropped from 791 planes all the way into November. Afterwards, suffice to say Germany suffered major destruction and a loss of morale. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
France was occupied by Germany in 1940 and after the US joined the war, plans for invasion were imminent. The Normandy invasion finally happened after many deceptions of the Nazis so they believed the attack was a mere distraction. Allied air power took out various important routes for the Germans. Additionally, the military leader Rommel was unable to help, as he was on leave. The win of this war was a major turning point for the war because the Nazis had little footing for future advancements. -
Operation Thunderclap
Allied forces had long discussed the idea of Operation Thunderclap, which intended to bomb the eastern front of Germany to disrupt transports. After these plans had been made, it was decided that the city of Dresden, perhaps one of the farthest-east cities in Germany, should be a focus target. It was fairly large and had received little bombing from previously in the war. Severe damage was done to Dresden, but the chaos allowed many Jews still living there to escape before being sent to camps. -
Battle of the Bulge
After D-Day, Allies now occupied France, which caused a major disadvantage to Germans. The Nazis decided to give it all they got and try and regain France by pushing the Americans out. They disguised themselves as Americans to confuse and deceive the US soldiers. On top of that, the Americans were greatly outnumbered. There was a severe loss for US forces, but thankfully it all ended finally when US planes could bomb German positions. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
US forces sought a naval base near the Japanese coast in order to gain an advantage, so they planned an amphibious invasion of the island of Iwo Jima. Following an intricate series of US bombing raids, the Japanese spontaneously changed fighting style for this battle by hiding inland and having a complicated land-based, partially underground system to wait in. Americans suffered tremendous losses as a result, but still managed to win the battle, which became a turning point for Allied forces. -
Battle of Okinawa
Americans needed to reclaim island territories taken by Japanese forces. On April 1, the newly formed American force called the Tenth Army managed to secure a Japanese airstrip. Once the US occupied more of Okinawa, they offered terms on which the Japanese could surrender, which were refused. Japanese resistance halted and on June 21 the US generals won. On June 23, the Japanese generals lost and committed suicide. It was a major turning point between America and Japan during the Pacific War. -
Liberation of concentration camps
Concentration camps were originally a place to put all anti-Nazi political opponents, but when Hitler began bringing his idealism to fruition, they became a place for all groups that were victims of xenophobia, such as Gypsies, Jews, gays, repeat criminals, and Jehovah's Witnesses. These horrendous and dehumanizing places were largely abandoned thanks to the Allied invasions, and the Allies liberated these people from the camps.The genocide has become a timeless lesson to future generations. -
VE Day
Nazis finally began to surrender from May 8-9 in numerous nations. Their final attempts at reviving the war were crushed by Russians, who took about 2 million Nazi soldiers as prisoner. May 9 has become a holiday celebrating the victory over the Nazis and the end of the war. Victory in Europe Day is celebrated in both Europe and America by putting up banners and having remembrance for the great victory for the Allied forces and for humanity. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Manhattan Project was started to research nuclear weapons in America in response to Nazi research into the same. American scientists and Axis refugee scientists teamed together to create the atomic bomb. Japan was the only remaining Axis force that refused to surrender, so Allies decided to drop two atom bombs to quickly end the war. They picked Hiroshima and Nagasaki so as to minimize the damage. Obviously many died and Japan surrendered. Many are still dying from cancer as a result today. -
VJ Day
After many horrible war crimes committed by Japan and the vivid memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Victory over Japan Day was created in celebration of the Japanese surrender. V-J Day is obviously very controversial, since many believe the dropping of the atomic bombs to have been a total overstep and some believe it to have been a war crime itself. V-J Day. However, others disagree, saying that it's disrespectful to American veterans to reference the end of the Pacific War over V-J Day.
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