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Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
Emerging as a modern industrial economy in the early 1900s, Japan sought expansion and new resources. In attempt to keep up with the European war powers, Japan invaded Manchuria, China where their industries could be easily exploited. Japan moved million of Korean and Chinese workers to railways and factories to mobilize labor and keep Chinese nationalist forces at bay. Manchukuo was then established as a Japanese puppet state by the Kwantung army. -
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Marco Polo Bridge incident in Wanping catapulted a war between Japan and China into action. Starting on the eastern front, Japanese troops ran China's Second United Front out of Nanjing due to their supreme technologically advanced military .Brutality from the Japanese military caused millions of deaths, rapes, and brutal scientific experiments upon Chinese citizens. By 1942, China gained foreign assistance, ending the war when the U.S. military bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -
Rape of Nanjing
During the Second Sino- Japanese War, Japanese General Matsui ordered the city of Nanjing to be destroyed. As a result, over 20,000 women and girls were raped, often mutilated or left for dead. The city was then burned and looted, leaving more than a third of the buildings destroyed. -
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic occurred between the Western Allies and the Axis powers for the control of Atlantic sea routes. The allied powers wanted to gain blockade of the Axis powers in Europe and have more military power on the seas. The Axis powers wanted to frustrate Allied use of the Atlantic to wage war. The Germans failed to execute assault on Allied shipping by using acoustic homing torpedoes in the autumn of 1943. Their U-boats retreated inshore, resulting in an Allied victory. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The U.S. naval base, Pearl Harbor, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, was attacked in 1941 by Japanese fighter planes. Over 2,400 American citizens were killed and over 300 pieces of military equiptment were destroyed. Japan wanted to destroy the Pacific Fleet after the U.S. had cut off economic sanctions and trade embargoes. Japanese forces felt this attack would leave them unable to respond to any movement in the South Pacific. This event led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare war on Japan. -
Women in War
During World War II, a large percentage of the male population of the United States enlisted in the military. This left a large gap in the work force which women started to fill, mostly in the aircraft and munitions industry. On May 15, 1942, Congress instituted the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps which General George Marshall and Lady Eleanor Roosevelt heavily supported. Women in the workforce were often represented by ‘Rosie the Riveter’, a government campaign that brought in over 300,000 women. -
Tunisia Campaign
The Tunisian Campaign was a series of battles between the Allied and Axis powers that took place in Tunisia of Northern Africa. This win for the allied forces was essential as it destroyed nearly 900,000 German and Italian troops, opened a second front against the Axis, allowed for the invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland, and removed the Axis threat to the oilfields of the Middle East and to British supply lines to Asia and Africa. -
Island Hopping
Island Hopping was a military strategy created by the United States to target key islands, bring B-29 bombers within range of the enemy homeland and hop over strongly defended islands. This strategy allowed the United States forces to reach Japan more efficiently and save manpower, resources, and supplies to capture every Japanese-held island on the way. It would allow the Allies to have the advantage of surprise, keeping the Japanese off balance. -
The Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference took place in Casablanca, Morocco, between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt that finalized Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers in 1943, and the declaration of the policy of “unconditional surrender.” -
Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
Following years of Japanese attacks on the Pacific and the United States, the U.S. B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bombing killed over 100,000 people and destroyed 90% of the city. Days later the B-29 dropped another bomb over the city of Nagasaki, killing 40,000 people. This devastation caused Emperor Hirohito to surrender Japan in World War II.
