The Second World War The Pacific Theater |
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| By Betty Crane |
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| The Asia-Pacific War, which refers to a significant part of
the Second World War, took place in the Pacific region,
particularly in East Asia. The war was considered to have
formally started with Japan´s invasion of Thailand, British
Malaya and the sneaky attack on Pearl Harbor. Some argued
that the second Sino-Japanese war between Japan and China
back in 1937 marked the start of the conflict in the Pacific
region. However, many considered the war to have started on
December 1941. The Pacific War pitted the Allied Powers against the seemingly unstoppable Japanese Empire. The entire war theater unfortunately culminated with the use of atomic weapons on the Japanese homeland by the US. With large-scale aerial bombings of Japanese military infrastructure and the Russian attack and occupation of Manchuria brought the Japanese empire down on her knees. Aside from Japan some Axis states, particularly Thailand´s authoritarian government also participated in the war, though the US government never thought of her as an Axis ally, but rather blackmailed by Japan forcing her to into certain actions during the war. Thailand had been treated the same as other Axis-occupied countries (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Poland, etc.) Japan also enlisted manpower from her Korea and Formosa colonies. A portion of the Indian National Army, Vichy French, and even the Burmese National Army were also activated. Collaborationist units from Dutch East Indies, Philippines, British Malaya and other areas also assisted the Japanese war efforts. Opposing them are the major Allied participants: the United States, United Kingdom, the Republic of China, the Netherlands, Canada, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia. Russia also participated in the war in this side of the world with two short border conflicts against Japan in 1938 and 1939. From 1942 to 1945, there were four major conflict areas within the Pacific War: the Central Pacific, the South West Pacific, South East Asia, and China. In the pacific theater of operations, the Allies divided among themselves the operational control of forces in two supreme commands: the Southwest Pacific Area and the Pacific Ocean Areas. By December 1941, Japan launched a surprise and devastating attack on Pearl Harbor without announcing it in an effort to deal a decisive blow on the Americans and hopefully put them out of action. Japan´s plans of dominating the whole Pacific were halted by fierce resistance of American Naval forces, particularly at the Battle of Midway. With the obliteration of her powerful navy and the methodical flushing out of Japanese troops by Allied forces through bitter island-hopping campaigns, Japan was forced to retreat back to her own islands. With systematic aerial bombing campaigns on Japanese military and industrial infrastructures by American air forces and the very first use of atomic weapons on Japanese islands Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japanese finally surrendered. In the morning of September 2, 1945, and after two weeks of accepting the Allied terms, Japan formally surrendered on a short ceremony aboard the USS Missouri. This marked the end of the Second World War from this side of the world. |
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