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Japanese Invasion of China
On September 1931, the Kwantung army of Imperial Japan invaded Manchuria, China after the Mukden incident. On the same day of the invasion, an explosion on a railroad near the city of Mukden. The Japanese, who happened to own the railroad, blamed it on Chinese nationalists and used it to retaliate and invade China. China tried to negotiate with the country, and the League of Nations were powerless against them. -
German Invasion Of Poland
On September 1, 1939, at 4:45 am, German troops invaded Poland from all directions, attacked Polish ships with German U-boats, and opened fire on garrisons. Poland was claimed as "Living Space" by Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed it was "an act of defense", however England and France thought otherwise. On September 3rd, England and France declared war on Germany. -
Fall of Paris
On May 10, German planes began to bomb the Netherlands and Belgium, many soldiers landing on the border between them and France. By June 25, 1940, the Germans reached Paris and claimed it. As a result, France was split into two, where the Germans controlled the east and the Allies the west. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg in Germany is the "lightning war", in 1939, Poland was invaded, proceeded to Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 1940, and Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941. Its main purpose was to conquer many places all at once without any casualties. After this tactic, the majority of Europe now belonged to Germany. -
Pearl Harbor
Due to rivalry between the U.S and Imperial Japan, the intesity between both finally arrived to a head. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing as many as 2,400 people. On that same day, the U.S declared war on Japan and the next day after that, Italy and Germany declared war on the U.S. -
Bataan Death March
Upon entering the war, the U.S suffered a defeat in the phillipines to the Japanese. About 75,000 American and Filipino troops were forced to march 65 miles to prison camps in the intense heat. Many died on the way, however were avenged after the U.S invasion of Leyte in 1944. -
Allied Invasion of Italy
British troops invaded Calabria, Italy on September 3. Upon entering the coast, Italy agreed to terms for surrender to the allies.However, this was not public until Sep 8. The causes were the people of Italy were uniting against Mussolini, however the strong German presence in Italy threatened any sort of resistance. As a result of the invasion, Italy surrendered to the allies. -
D-Day
On the beaches of Normandy France, an allied attempt to attack the Germans launched with a combined assault from the allies. Lasting from June to August 1944, it resulted in the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first of the Allies to reach and liberate those imprisoned in concentration camps. When other allies arrived, they discovered the many bodies despite how much the Germans tried to conceal what they had done. Those who were alive were nothing more than "living skeletons". This as a result showed the atrocities that went on in the holocaust. -
Battle Of Iwo Jima
American troops set out an amphibious assault on the coasts of Iwo Jima, Japan that lasted from February 19, to March 16. It was a plan to win the battle in the far east. Out of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers, only 212 were taken prisoner. The others were either killed or are "missing ini action". This victory placed the U.S closer to Japan, and to ending the war. -
Battle of Okinawa
Described by Eugene B. Sledge, it was "the most ghastly corner of hell I had ever witnessed". It is most known as the bloodiest battle in the Pacific War. There were three reasons as to why they wanted to claim Okinawa. Those three was that from there, they could reach the Japanese homelands, the seizure would sever supply lines to Japan, and it would be a stable support base for the scheduled invasion in November. They defeated the Japanese and diminished the last areas of Japanese resistance. -
VE Day
VE day is the day the Allies won victory over Europe, when Nazi Germany declared its unconditional surrender to the Allies and their armed forces. General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender documents that officially ended the war in Europe, who had succeeded Adolf Hitler after his suicide. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
On the morning of August 6, 1945, as a final attempt to end the war in the east, the U.S dropped Atomic bombs onto the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. An estimate 120,000 people were killed in total of both bombiings, not including those who died later of radiation poisoning. This "new and cruel weapon" as Emperor Hirohito put it, caused the Japanese to surrender on August 15. -
VJ Day
VJ day marks the day when Japan finally surrendered to the Allies after the dropping of the atomic bombs. It was declared as the end of World War II when Emperor Hirohito declared an unconditional surrender.
