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China Joins the War
-China joins the allies on December 9, 1941, by officially declaring war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.-The United States had already sent military advisors and Lend-Lease arms and equipment to China.
-They hoped to strengthen China and stop Japan from the drive to conquer southeast asia. -
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War In the Pacific
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The Fall of the Phillipines
- Most of Bataan's defenders surrendered in early April 1942.-American troops on Corregidor survived another month of continual Japanese bombardment by living in the rock tunnels. -11,000 Americans and Filipinos surrendered to invading Japanese forces on May 6. -Bataan March: most prisoner captured by the japanese were forced to march. most prisoners were treated brutally and denied water. 10,000 prisoners died during the 6- to 12-day journey.
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Battle of Coral Sea
The fall of the Dutch East Indies opened the way to Australia.-a largely American naval group engaged a superior Japanese fleet in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia.
-The five-day battle cost both sides more than half their planes. The Japanese destroyed the Lexington and badly damaged the Yorktown, another carrier.
One Japanese carrier sank, another lost most of its planes, and a third was put out of action. T
he battle prevented the Japanese from invading Australia. -
Battle of Midway
Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, wanted to destroy what remain of the United States Pacific Fleet.
-The american warplanes surprised Japan's carriers at a vulnerable time as the Japanese were refueling planes and loading them with bombs.
The Americans swiftly sank three of the four heavy Japanese carriers and finished off the fourth, the Hiryu, the next day.
-The Battle of Midway was fought entirely from the air. -
The Battle of Guadalcanal
-When more than 11,000 marines landed on the island in August 1942, the 2,200 Japanese who were defending the island fled into the jungle.
-The Battle of Guadalcanal provided the marines with their first taste of jungle warfare.
-After several fierce naval battles, the American navy took control of the waters around the island in November.
-Japan's outnumbered forces finally slipped off the island in February 1943.
- The Allies had conquered their first piece of Japanese-held territory. -
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Island Hopping
In 1943 and 1944, the Allies pushed north from Australia and west across the Central Pacific.-Forces under General MacArthur and Admiral William Halsey hopped through the Solomon Islands.-After seizing the island of Tarawa, Nimitz used it to launch bombing raids on Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands.-. By February 1944, these attacks had crippled Japanese air power, allowing Nimitz's forces to seize Kwajalein and Eniwetok at the northwest end of the island group. -
The Philippines Campaign & Battle of Leyte Gulf
-As American forces pushed toward Japan in the summer of 1944, military planners decided to bypass the Philippine Islands.-MacArthur vigorously opposed this strategy.
-More than 280 warships took part in the three-day Battle of Leyte Gulf.
-The Japanese high command directed nearly every warship still afloat-This was the first battle in which Japanese kamikazes, or suicide planes, were used.
-Despite this tactic, the American force virtually destroyed the Japanese navy and emerged victorious. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
- Eventually nearly 110,000 American troops took part in the campaign. Although opposed by fewer than 25,000 Japanese, the marines needed almost a month to secure the island- 216 japanese were taken prisoner. -American forces suffered an estimated 25,000 casualties. -Admiral Nimitz described the island as a place in which “uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
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Battle of Okinawa
fought from April to June 1945, was equally bloody.-The small island of Okinawa, little more than 350 miles from Japan itself, was historically Japanese soil.
- It was the last obstacle to an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. -
Japan Surrenders
-On August 6, 1945, an American plane, the Enola Gay, dropped a single atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the site of a large army base.-intense heat annihilated the city's center and its residents in an instant.
- Perhaps 80,000 died and at least as many were injured by fire, radiation sickness, and the force of the explosion.
- At least 90 percent of the city's buildings were damaged or destroyed.
