War in the Pacific

War in the Pacific. . , The Japanese Empire, like its European ally Germany, was determined to expand its control in East Asia by "annexing" territory and asserting control over the region. Japan took advantage of the European war to invade and seize French, Dutch, and British colonial possessions in Asia, adding to territory it had seized in China starting in the early 1930s. The United States, with its presence in the Philippines and in Hawaii, was a continued threat to Japan., To neutralize American power in the Pacific, Japanese war strategists struck American naval power by attacking the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. A worcester sailor remembered the surprise of the attack, "I was scared because they were machine gunning all over the place.", The attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed or damaged much of the United States Pacific battle fleet. An attack on the Philippines on the same day was followed by a Japanese invasion of the islands. Despite stubborn resistance at the battle of Corregidor in the Philippines, the Japanese took control of the islands. Within days, Nazi Germany also declared war on the United States., Although it was the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into war, President Franklin Roosevelt and other Allied leaders agreed that the overall Allied strategy should be to end the European conflict fist. As in Europe, the enemy had the early advantage with successes in the war in the Pacific; by late 1942, Japanese forces controlled most of coastal China and the colonial possessions of Europe powers in Indo-China, the East Indies, and the Malay Peninsula, as well as the Philippines and several American Islands in the Pacific Ocean., The tide of war turned with the American visitors in the naval and air battles of Coral Sea and Midway in May and June 1942. These were followed by the impressive American victories at Guadalcanal and the defeat of the Japanese navy at Leyte Gulf in late 1942., The Pacific War relied on American naval resources to regain control of the ocean. The Americans made use of a strategy called island hopping, which focused on retaking one small island at a time. Simultaneously, Allied land forces challenged the Japanese hold on mainland Asia., As in Europe, air power played a significant role in the slow regaining of the Pacific. Names of islands previously unknown to Americans became famous as the sites of brutal, hard-fought, bloody American victories such as Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The raising of the stars and stripes on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima symbolized the high price paid for success in the Pacific War., As the European conflict was ending in May 1945, the allies were making plans to attack the Japanese Empire's home islands. Victories on islands near Japan provided bases for American air attacks and for mounting a planned invasion of the Japanese mainland. In the meantime, fighting for the liberation of the Philippines continued., Both the Allied and Axis powers devoted considerable resources to the development of new weapons and new technology in the Second World War. In the last few months of the European conflict, Germany developed rocketry powerful enough to fire rockets on British cities, and both Allies and Axis powers worked to develop atomic weapons. Allied scientists and engineers succeeded in developing the first atomic bombs for use in late 1945., American planning at that stage of the war called for an invasion of Japanese home islands. The American casualty estimate , based on experiences at Iwo Jima and Okinawa , was predicted to be extraordinarily high. This new nuclear weapon offered a way to shorten the war and save American soldiers. President Harry S. Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt after his death in April 1945, approved the use of this new weapon to prevent further American casualties., The first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, and a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. Seeing the destruction, Japanese Emperor Hirohito forced Japan's military leaders to accept the ultimatum for unconditional surrender on August 15th, ending the war in the Pacific and marking the end of World War II for the United States., Timeline of Events , August 19, 1934 , Adolf Hitler becomes Germany's Führer, November 9-10, 1938 , Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) start of Jewish pogrom in Germany, 1939 , September 1, 1939 , Germany invades Poland, 1940 , April 9, 1940 , Germany invades Denmark and Norway, May 10, 1940 , France signs armistice with Nazi Germany, June 22, 1940 , Germany invades France, Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands, July 10, 1940 , Battle of Britain begins, December 11, 1941 , Hitler declares war on the United States, June 1942 , Genocide of more than a million Jews, Poles, and POWs begins at Auschwitz, January 22, 1944 , Allies land at Anzio, Italy, 1944 , June 5, 1944 , Allies enter Rome, June 6, 1944 , D-Day: Allies land at Normandy, France, August 25, 1944 , Liberation of Paris, December 16, 1944 - January 25, 1945 , Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes mountains, January - April 1945 , Concentration camps liberated by Allied troops, April 12, 1945 , President Roosevelt dies, April 30, 1945 , Adolf Hitler commits suicide, May 9, 1945 , Victory over Europe Day (V-E Day)