![]() The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945. ![]() Fighting included some of the largest naval battles in history and massive Allied air raids over Japan, the latter resulting in great loss of life. The Japanese had great difficulty replacing their losses in ships and aircraft, while American factories and shipyards produced ever increasing numbers of both. The Allies adopted a Europe first stance, giving first priority to defeating Nazi Germany, but still managed to bring to bear the vast industrial might of the United States. The Japanese achieved great success in the initial phase of the campaign, but were gradually driven back using an island hopping strategy. The Pacific War saw the Allies pitted against Japan, the latter aided by Thailand and to a lesser extent by the Axis powers, Germany and Italy. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific War itself began on 7 December (8 December Japanese time) 1941, when the Japanese simultaneously attacked American military bases in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines and invaded Thailand and the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been in progress since 7 July 1937, with hostilities dating back as far as 19 September 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Soviet–Japanese War. The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. The UN Security Council ended the vast trusteeship in stages, from 1986 to 1994, with the US gaining the territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands is created by the United Nations and placed under the authority of the United States.Seizure and annexation of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands by the Soviet Union.Cession of Japanese-held islands in the Central Pacific Ocean to the United Nations.Liberation of Korea and Manchuria from Japanese rule, followed by the division of Korea.Removal of Japanese troops occupying parts of China and the retrocession of Taiwan to China.Substantial weakening of European colonial powers and the gradual decolonization of Asia.Exploring the infrastructure and technical challenges of waging war across such a huge area, Yenne delves into the hardships that faced individual Japanese soldiers in theatre and explains how the Japanese were able to remain undefeated and establish the aura of invincibility that marked their campaign between 1941-42. Using first-hand accounts from Japanese sources, Yenne reveals the tactics and mindset of the IJA during their offensive, detailing the capturing of Manila, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies. He reveals how the IJA were able to conquer huge swathes of Southeast Asia in a little over eight weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In this fascinating new book, Bill Yenne documents the years when the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was conducting its equally unstoppable ground campaign in the Far East, and unlike other books on this subject, he studies the campaign from the Japanese point of view. The German offensives which crushed Poland in 1939 and swallowed most of Western Europe in less than two months in 1940 have been well documented and heavily studied, however, the overall picture of the remarkable Japanese offensive land campaign in 1941-42 has received less attention.
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