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Japan invades machuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident -
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact
was an agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Adolf Hitler, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu -
Manhattan Project launches
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US troops halt the Japanese island-hopping advance at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
By the end of 1942, the Japanese Empire had expanded to its farthest extent. Japanese soldiers were occupying or attacking positions from India to Alaska, as well as islands across the South Pacific. From the end of that year through early 1945, the U.S. Navy, under Admiral Chester Nimitz, adopted a strategy of "island-hopping". -
MacArthur ordered out of the Philippine
The Philippines had been part of the American commonwealth since it was ceded by Spain at the close of the Spanish-American War. When the Japanese invaded China in 1937 and signed the Tripartite Pact with fascist nations Germany and Italy in 1940, the United States responded by, among other things, strengthening the defense of the Philippines. General MacArthur was called out of retirement to command 10,000 American Army troops, 12,000 Filipino enlisted men who fought as part of the U.S. Army, a -
The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II
On this day in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on Japan in perhaps the most memorable speech of his career. The speech, in which he called Japan’s act a “deliberate deception,” received thunderous applause from Congress and, soon after, the United States officially entered the Second World War. -
British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.
At the height of its power, the Imperial Japanese Navy was poised to land a crushing blow to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. But at the Battle of Midway, the U.S. Navy turned the tables on its powerful enemy, sinking four aircraft carriers and changing the momentum of the war in the Pacific -
Allied troops conquer Okinawa, the last island stop before the Japanese islands
was a series of battles fought in the Ryukyu Islands, centered on the island of Okinawa, and included the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War during World War II, the 1 April 1945 invasion of the island of Okinawa -
USS Indianapolis sunk
was a Portland-class cruiser of the United States Navy. She was named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. -
Trinity test- Atomic Bomb
as the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles -
Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.
was the theatre of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area -
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War. -
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.
On this day in 1945, the Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. -
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki
On Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The New York Times article reported that the dropping of the bomb occurred at noon, Japanese time -
Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named “Operation Olympic -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, -
Firebombing raids of Tokyo and other Japanese cities begin
causing extensive destruction to the country's cities and killing between 241,000 and 900,000 people