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Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. Japan controlled large sections of China, and accusations of war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. www.trumanlibrary.gov
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Nanking Massacre, also called Rape of Nanjing, mass killing and ravaging of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing, China. www.britannica.com
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Blitzkrieg, (German: lightning war) was a military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces. It is most commonly associated with Nazi Germany during World War II even though numerous combatants used its techniques in that war. www.britannica.com
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Paris fell to Nazi Germany. One month after the German Wehrmacht stormed into France. Eight days later, France signed an armistice with the Germans, and a puppet French state was set up with its capital at Vichy. www.history.com
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Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died and about 1,000 were injured. www.history.com
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15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." encyclopedia.ushmm.org
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The U.S. Navy's decisive victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defense of the major base located at Midway Island dashed Japan's hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and effectively turned the tide of World War II. /www.history.com
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The Allies began their invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy. On September 3, Montgomery's 8th Army began its invasion of the Italian mainland and the Italian government agreed to surrender to the Allies. www.history.com
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The Allied invasion of western Europe with the simultaneous landing of U.S., British, and Canadian forces on five separate beachheads in Normandy, France. By the end of August 1944 all of northern France was liberated, and the invading forces reorganized for the drive into Germany, where they would eventually meet with Soviet forces advancing from the east to bring an end to the Nazi Reich. www.britannica.com
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As the Germans drove into the Ardennes, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle's name. The battle proved to be the costliest ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. www.history.com
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American forces invaded the island on February 19, 1945 and the battle lasted for 5 weeks. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it's believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. www.history.com
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Allies celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Reich, formally recognising the end of the Second World War in Europe. www.historic-uk.com
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an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. www.history.com
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(Victory over Japan Day) it marked the end of World War Two. As the name would suggest, 15 August 1945 was the moment that the Allies - that is Britain, the US and other countries that were fighting together - marked victory over Japan. www.bbc.co.uk
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the Soviets also overran the sites of the Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka killing centers. The Germans had dismantled these camps in 1943, after most of the Jews of Poland had already been killed. The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp. encyclopedia.ushmm.org
