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Imperial Japan launched a surprise, two-wave attack on the U.S Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing over 2,400 Americans, destroying 188 aircraft, and sinking or damaging 21 ships, including eight battleships.
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The Japanese Imperial Navy occupied islands throughout the Western Pacific Ocean. American forces first landed on the Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida on the morning of August 7, 1942
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The Japanese captured an estimated 78,000 to march up the east coast of Baatan Death. Killing alot of the POWs on the way.
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The first US air attack on Tokyo and other Japanese home islands. The raid was aimed at boosting American morale and damaging Japanese morale and war production.
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A decisive U.S naval victory over Japan, turning the tide on the Pacific War by crippling Japan's carrier fleet, sinking four of their carriers while losing only one of its own, halting Japanese expansion and severely damaging their ability to launch future offensive operations
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In response to the Allied invasion to reclaim the Philippine Islands on October 20, 1944, the Japanese sent an armada to the island. The subsequent battles from October 23 to October 26 resulted in the greatest naval battle of World War 2. The various forces for the Japanese included the Main Body, the First Striking Force, and the Southwest Area Force. The combined battles of Leyte Gulf destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy as an offensive force and decisively led to the defeat of Japan in 1945.
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U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima, a strategic air base located between the Mariana Islands and Japan. Approximately 70,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers took part in this battle. in thirty six days of fighting on the island, nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed, and another 20,000 were wounded. Marines captured 216 Japanese soldiers, and the rest were killed in battle. The island was finally declared secure on March 26, 1945.
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More than 60,000 soldiers and marines of the US tenth army stormed ashore at Okinawa in the final island battle before an invasion of mainland Japan. After a largely unopposed initial advance, US forces soon encountered a network of Japanese inland defenses, and savage fighting erupted at the island's southern end. Like the bloodshed on Iwo Jima, Okinawa's savagery forecast a terrible death toll in the anticipated invasion of the home islands of Japan.
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The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. This incident killed over 150,000- 246,000 people.
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Japan's sudden formal suddender in World War 2 occured on September 2nd, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, effectively ending the war.