WIKIPEDIA.ORG
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War,[14] was the theatre of World War II which was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area which included the Pacific Ocean and islands, theSouth West Pacific, the South-East Asia, and in China (including the 1945 Soviet-Japanese conflict). The war in Europe was already ended but the Japanese was persistent in not giving up. The allies ordered the Japanese to surrender "OR ELSE". The Japanese ignored these orders. In the end they suffered terrible losses. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. This was a huge surprise to America. They were now in fear that Japan was going to take over Hawaii and Japan. This was a smart plan for Japan because America was not letting them fulfill their duties in Asia. Take out the Americans and they could attack Manchuria for oil, coal, and gas resources. On 7 December 1941 Japan attacked American bases in Pearl Harbor, Guam, and Wake Island. The same day (8 December on the other side of the International Date Line), Japanese forces attacked the British crown colony of Hong Kong, invaded the American controlled Philippines, invaded Thailand from bases in French Indochina and invaded Malaya. Japan made a huge mistake by not taking over Hawaii while the Americans were crippled. Later in the Pacific Theater they try to invade Hawaii but the Americans stopped them at the battle of Midway. The American aircraft carriers, far more important than battleships, were at sea, and vital naval infrastructure (fuel oil tanks, shipyard facilities, and a power station), submarine base, and signals intelligence units were unscathed.[36] Japan's fallback strategy, relying on a war of attrition to make the U.S. come to terms, was beyond the IJN's capabilities.
USHMM.ORG
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Japanese expansion in East Asia began in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria and continued in 1937 with a brutal attack on China. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, thus entering the military alliance known as the "Axis." With the axis powers out of the war Japan was all alone. They had no help because the war in Europe was now over. The Battle of Midway was a huge turning point in the Pacific Theater. The turning point in the Pacific war came with the American naval victory in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The Japanese fleet sustained heavy losses and was turned back. In August 1942, American forces attacked the Japanese in the Solomon Islands, forcing a costly withdrawal of Japanese forces from the island of Guadalcanal in February 1943. Allied forces slowly gained naval and air supremacy in the Pacific, and moved methodically from island to island, conquering them and often sustaining significant casualties. Japan had a samurai way of fighting. Never surrender until you die or your enemy is dead. If you retreated then you were considered a dishonor to your country and you were ordered to commit suicide. On August 6, 1945, the United States Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands of people died in the initial explosion, and many more died later from radiation exposure. Three days later, the United States dropped a bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Approximately 120,000 civilians died as a result of the two blasts. On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria.After Japan agreed to surrender on August 14, 1945, American forces began to occupy Japan. Japan formally surrendered to the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union on September 2, 1945. America dropped two atomic bombs because they ordered Japan to surrender and they ignored it. Japan was going to keep fighting even if they were bombed but the emperor of Japan told the government to surrender.
PBS.ORG
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In what became known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, American and Japanese carriers fought a two-day sea and air battle off the coast of Saipan. It would go down as one of the biggest carrier battles of World War II. Japan lost three aircraft carriers and more than 300 planes. On Saipan, the Marines and army faced an enemy well dug-in and prepared to fight to the death. Of the 30,000 Japanese troops who defended Saipan, less than 1,000 remained alive when the battle ended July 9. Japan had suicide planes where their men decided to crash their planes into American ships. This was hard to deal with because they came straight at them. They had to shoot them down or their ships would be damaged/sunk. However, it was the civilian casualties that stunned American troops. As the battle came to an end, large numbers of civilians committed suicide, terrified of being captured by American forces. Japanese government officials exploited the suicides at Saipan to their advantage, calling those who took their lives heroes and encouraging the entire Japanese population to follow suit if the time came. Death before surrender had been the national policy for Japan's servicemen; now it became the national policy for civilians as well. Civilians didn't want to be taken alive so they decided to kill themselves. The events of summer 1945 -- including the use of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- brought the war to a close before another land battle could take place. President Truman didn't want anymore American casualties so he ordered bombs to be dropped. This brought the Pacific War to a end really quick.