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Japan invades China
A fight happened between japan and China near peiping in north China. The japanese invaded because they wanted to protect their interests in the railroad and the kwantung leased territory. Then eventually in 1937 the big fight finally happened between them because japan provoked China with the Marco Polo bridge incident. It became part of ww2 history and known as the chinese resistance era because Japan was occupying china but it it lasted less than a year only. -
Rape of Nanking
It was a time of mass murder and mass rape comitted by imperial japanese troops against the residents of nanking. Then again in china during the second sino-Japanese war. This all lasted over a period of six weeks. The imperial japanese troops stole like everything from the chinese people and crazily raped them. Its not certain, but its estimated that over 200,000 chinese were killed during this. -
Ribbentrop/moltov pact
It was a neutrality pact between the soviet union and germany which was signed in moscow. It also said that that neither leader of the two would help out an enemy of the others in any way. -
Germanys invasion of poland
German forces bombarded poland on land and from the air. Hitler was doing this to regain lost territory and just rule all of poland. During this time japan and china had already been at war. Hitler tried to tell the world he invaded poland in defensive action, but no one believed him. Then on september 3rd, they declared war on germany. Hitler was just thinking about taking over poland to create living space for the german people. -
Fall of paris
This is when the germans attacked france and easily/quickly defeated their army. The germans occupied France about a month after defeating them because the french government left paris. -
germans blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a term meaning "offensive warfare" and to strike a swift blow to your enemy by any means necessary. It usually leads to quick victory because it limits the opposing side of soldiers and artillery because they've all been blown up. This german military tactic worked very well because it threw the opposing army out of order and caused psychological disorientation. But the only way to pull it off was to have a good radio connection and a coordinated plan and action. -
Operation Barbarossa
It was a code name the germans used as an action plan to take over the western side of the soviet union to repopulate it with germans. Then they were planning to use the remaining russians they capture as slave laborers for the axis war effort, then make them show them the oil reserves and all the agricultural spots they have, then just kill all of them and make it so there is nothing but germans. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan airplanes attacked the U.S. Naval base by flying themselves into the ships and committing suicide just to destroy the ships and do as much damage all around as possible. This killed more than 2,300 Americans and completely destroyed the American battleship, the U.S.S. -
Wannsee conference
This was just the nazi party trying to figure out what to do with the jews. They were even thinking about either doing a mass killing spree of them or sending as many as they can to the island of madagascar. They also thought about just sending all the jews to concentration camps and working them all to death. -
Bataan death march
This was when the japanese forced 76,000 captured allied soldiers to march 80 miles across the Bataan Peninsula. The japanese were forcing them to march to their own prison camps. 1,000 American men died and 9,000 Filipino men died during this. But if you survived you would spend the next 40 months in terrible conditions in confinement camps. -
The battle of midway
This was an intense naval battle between the U.S. and imperial japan. The U.S. absolutely destroyed the japanese fleet with a very smart and decisive blow that won them that fight. -
Warsaw ghetto uprising
It was the resistance of polish jews under nazi occupation. nazis were the ones who created ghettos for jews to be held temporarily until they were to be executed. The revolt wasnt very effective and only lasted 4 weeks before it was shut down by the nazis. -
D-Day
The invasion of the beach of Normandy. The allied forces of America, Britain, Canada, and France attacked german forces on the coast of normandy. With our huge force of about 150,000 troops we gained a very important victory on ww2. -
Liberation of concentration camps
As allies advanced across Europe after ww2, they found concentration camps filled with sick and starving prisoners. After they found this out they knew there would be more and more, so they set all the people that were being held in the camps free all across Europe. The germans found out that the opposite side found out about the camps, and tried to hide the evidence of mass murders and cruel doings, but things like the gas chambers and stuff like that bwere left standing. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
It was a major battle where the United states marine corps and the navy landed on Iwo Jima island and eventually captured it from the japanese. This was the goal, including also capturing the three japanese controlled airfields. The Americans just completely dominated the whole island by having complete air and ground control all over the island. -
Battle of Okinawa
Okinawa is another island that was controlled by the japanese. Its capture by the Americans was looked at as a vital precursor to a ground invasion to the japanese home islands. This was one of the bloodiest battles of the pacific war, with the deaths over over 12,000 Americans and over 100,000 japanese. On top of that at least 100,000 civilians were killed in combat, or ordered to kill themselves by the japanese. -
VE day
VE day, also known as "victory in Europe day" is the day of celebrating when germany surrendered its armed forces and put an end to ww2. Adolf Hitler commited suicide on april 30th. This whole day is basically just a surrender of the german forces so they didnt keep losing their battles, including more and more people with it. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
President Harry S. Truman was warned by some of his advisors that if they were to invade japan by ground army there would be significant casulties, so they just used their new weapon which is the atomic bomb to bring the war to an end very quickly. So we dropped a 5 ton atomic bomb over the japanese city of hiroshima. -
Vj day
This was known as victory over japan day. Its the day when imperial japan surrendered in ww2. On septemeber 2nd 1945, they did a formal surrender ceremony in tokyo bay. -
Battle of the bulge
This was the last major offensive attack from germany of the war. Its called the Battle of the bulge because the germans literally created a bulge around the Ardennes forest trying to push through the American defensive line. This was the largest battle fought on the western front. The germans through 250,000 soldiers into this battle, with all this other infantry stuff, while there was only about 80,000 American soldiers.
