On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The operation involved 441 aircraft based on 6 Japanese aircraft carriers, 8 battleships and 6 US cruisers were sunk and damaged, more than 300 aircraft were destroyed. However, by that time the main force of the American fleet - an aircraft carrier formation, by coincidence, was absent at the base.

The next day, Great Britain and its dominions declared war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy, and on December 13, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria declared war on the United States.

On December 8, the Japanese blocked the British military base in Hong Kong and launched an invasion of Thailand, British Malaya and the American Philippines. After a short resistance, on December 21, 1941, Thailand agreed to a military alliance with Japan, and on January 25, 1942, declared war on the United States and Great Britain. Japanese aircraft from the territory of Thailand began the bombing of Burma.

On December 8, the Japanese broke through the British defenses in Malaya and, advancing rapidly, pushed the British troops back to Singapore. Singapore, which until then the British considered an "impregnable fortress", fell on February 15, 1942, after a 6-day siege. About 70 thousand British and Australian soldiers were captured. In the Philippines, at the end of December 1941, the Japanese captured the islands of Mindanao and Luzon. The remnants of the American troops managed to gain a foothold on the peninsula of Bataan and the island of Corregidor.
In January 1942, Japanese troops invaded the Dutch East Indies and soon captured the islands of Borneo and Celebs.

The allies tried to create a powerful defense on the island of Java, but by March 2 they capitulated. At the end of January 1942, the Japanese captured the Bismarck Archipelago, and then captured the northwestern part of the Solomon Islands, in February - the Gilbert Islands, and in early March invaded New Guinea. In May they dominated almost all of Burma, defeating British and Chinese troops and cutting off southern China from India. However, the beginning of the rainy season and the lack of forces did not allow the Japanese to build on their success and invade India. On May 6, the last grouping of American troops in the Philippines capitulated. By the end of May 1942, Japan, at the cost of minor losses, had established control over Southeast Asia and Northwestern Oceania. American, British, Dutch and Australian troops were soundly defeated and lost all of their main forces in the region.

In the summer of 1942 - in the winter of 1943, a radical turning point occurs in the war in the Pacific. To strengthen their positions in the South Pacific, the Japanese armed forces decided to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. To provide air support for the attack, the group included several aircraft carriers. The entire group of Japanese troops was commanded by Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue. Thanks to intelligence, the United States was aware of the attack plans and sent two aircraft carrier groups under the command of Admiral Fletcher to counter the attack. On May 3 and 4, Japanese forces captured Tulagi Island, the Battle of the Coral Sea began (May 4-8, 1942). After the Japanese became aware of the presence of US Navy forces, aircraft carriers entered the Coral Sea in order to search for and destroy enemy forces.

Starting May 7, the groups exchanged air raids for two days. On the first day of the collision, the Americans sank the light aircraft carrier Shoho, while the Japanese destroyed the destroyer and severely damaged the tanker. The next day, the Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku was heavily damaged, and the American aircraft carrier Lexington was sunk as a result of significant damage. The USS Yorktown was also damaged, but remained afloat. After the loss of ships and aircraft of this level, both fleets withdrew from the battle and retreated. And due to the lack of air support, Shigeyoshi Inoue canceled the attack on Port Moresby. Despite the tactical victory of the Japanese and the sinking of several main ships, the strategic advantage was on the side of the allies. The offensive of the Japanese forces was interrupted for the first time.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, aircraft from Japanese aircraft carriers attacked airfields on the island of Oahu and ships anchored in Pearl Harbor. 4 battleships, 2 destroyers, 1 mine layer were sunk. Another 4 battleships, 3 light cruisers and 1 destroyer were seriously damaged. American aviation losses amounted to 188 aircraft destroyed, another 159 were heavily damaged. The Americans lost 2,403 killed (of which more than 1,000 aboard the exploded battleship Arizona) and 1,178 wounded. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft - 15 dive bombers, 5 torpedo bombers and 9 fighters. 5 midget submarines were sunk. Losses in people amounted to 55 people. Another one - Lieutenant Sakamaki - was taken prisoner. He swam ashore after his midget submarine hit a reef. 4 years later ... On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay bomber, under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the equivalent of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, the Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. On August 15, 1945, 6 days after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan announced its surrender. The act of surrender, formally ending World War II, was signed on September 2, 1945. Archival photographs of the Second World War in the Pacific theater of operations in the continuation. Rescue of the crew of the ship "West Virginia", December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Killed civilians eight miles from Pearl Harbor.
Japanese torpedo bomber.
The wreckage of American aircraft.
Downed twin-engine Japanese bomber, Solomon Islands.
August 1942, the offensive of American troops on the positions of the Japanese, the Solomon Islands.
October 1942. Solomon islands.
American reconnaissance aircraft.
General Douglas MacArthur in an SUV in the jungles of New Guinea.
Aerial reconnaissance over Alaska.
November, 1942. Solomon Islands. Killed American soldiers in Papua New Guinea.
American aircraft bomb Salamau, New Guinea. January 1943, Solomon Islands.
Guinean natives help the Americans in every possible way.
Sergeant Greenwood in the cockpit of his plane. Shot down 19 Japanese airplanes. Blood transfusion on board an air hospital.
Four American tankers.
The Americans bomb the Japanese fleet in New Britain.
Bombardment of Rangoon harbor and ammunition ships.
The Navajo Indians fought in the Solomon Islands.
US Marines landed on the islands of New Guinea.
January 1944, New Guinea.
The soldiers are resting.
March 1944. Solomon islands.
Falling Japanese plane.
Preparing to land at Cape Sansapor, New Guinea.
over the Mariana Islands. Attack on the harbor of Cebu, Philippines.
American soldiers in the Philippines.
Loading bombs into a B-29.
American landing in the Philippines in 1945.
Preparation of graves for those killed during the attack on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. A Japanese soldier lay 36 hours pretending to be dead with a grenade in his hand. Having received a promise from him not to resist, the American treated him to a cigarette.
B-29 landed at the Iwo Jime airfield, shot down during a raid over the Japanese islands.
Tracers in the sky over Okinawa. The explosion of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, three days after a similar explosion in Hiroshima.
Consequences of a nuclear explosion.
Lifeless Hiroshima. Celebration in New York at Times Square after the surrender of Japan.
Sea and air parade.
On September 2, 1945, on board the American flagship battleship Missouri, which arrived in the waters of Tokyo Bay, Japanese Foreign Minister M. Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff General Y. Umezu, US Army General D. MacArthur, Soviet Lieutenant General K. Derevyanko, Admiral of the British Fleet B. Fraser, on behalf of their states, signed the “Act of Unconditional Surrender of Japan”.
Ivo Jim.

The war for dominance in the Pacific Ocean 1941 - 1945 for Japan and the United States of America became the main arena of military operations during the Second World War.

Background of the war

In the 1920s and 1930s, geopolitical and economic contradictions grew in the Pacific region between Japan, which was gaining strength, and the leading Western powers - the United States, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, which had their colonies and naval bases there (the United States controlled the Philippines, France owned Indochina, Great Britain - Burma and Malaya, the Netherlands - Indonesia). The states that controlled this region had access to huge natural resources and markets. Japan felt left out: its goods were squeezed out of Asian markets, and international treaties imposed serious restrictions on the development of the Japanese fleet. Nationalist sentiments grew in the country, and the economy was transferred to mobilization rails. The course was openly proclaimed to establish a "new order in East Asia" and create a "great East Asian sphere of shared prosperity."

Even before the outbreak of World War II, Japan turned its efforts to China. In 1932, the puppet state of Manchukuo was created in occupied Manchuria. And in 1937, as a result of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the northern and central parts of China were captured. The impending war in Europe fettered the forces of the Western states, which limited themselves to verbal condemnation of these actions and the rupture of some economic ties.

With the outbreak of World War II, Japan announced a policy of "non-participation in the conflict", but already in 1940, after the stunning successes of the German troops in Europe, it concluded the "Triple Pact" with Germany and Italy. And in 1941, a non-aggression pact was signed with the USSR. Thus, it became obvious that Japanese expansion was planned not to the west, towards the Soviet Union and Mongolia, but to the south - Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands.

In 1941, the US government extended the lend-lease law to the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek opposing Japan and began supplying weapons. In addition, Japanese banking assets were seized and economic sanctions were tightened. Nevertheless, American-Japanese consultations went on for almost the entire 1941, and even a meeting was planned between US President Franklin Roosevelt and Japanese Prime Minister Konoe, and later with General Tojo, who replaced him. Western countries underestimated the power of the Japanese army to the last, and many politicians simply did not believe in the possibility of war.

Japan's successes at the beginning of the war (late 1941 - mid-1942)

Japan experienced a serious shortage of resources, primarily oil and metal reserves; her government understood that success in the impending war could be achieved only if they acted quickly and decisively, without dragging out the military campaign. In the summer of 1941, Japan imposed the treaty "On the joint defense of Indochina" on the collaborationist French government of Vichy and occupied these territories without a fight.

On November 26, the Japanese fleet under the command of Admiral Yamamoto went to sea, and on December 7, 1941, attacked the largest American naval base, Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. The attack was sudden, and the enemy was almost unable to resist. As a result, about 80% of American ships were disabled (including all available battleships) and about 300 aircraft were destroyed. The consequences could have been even more catastrophic for the United States if, at the time of the attack, their aircraft carriers had not been at sea and, thanks to this, had not survived. A few days later, the Japanese were able to sink two of the largest British warships, and for some time secured dominance over the Pacific sea lanes.

In parallel with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and ground forces launched an offensive in the Malay Peninsula. At the same time, Siam (Thailand), under the threat of occupation, entered into a military alliance with Japan.

Until the end of 1941, British Hong Kong and the American military base on the island of Guam were captured. At the beginning of 1942, units of General Yamashita, having made a sudden forced march through the Malay jungle, took possession of the Malay Peninsula and stormed British Singapore, capturing about 80,000 people. In the Philippines, about 70,000 Americans were captured, and the commander of the American troops, General MacArthur, was forced, leaving his subordinates, to evacuate by air. At the beginning of the same year, resource-rich Indonesia (which was under the control of the Dutch government-in-exile) and British Burma were almost completely captured. Japanese troops reached the borders of India. Fighting began in New Guinea. Japan set its sights on conquering Australia and New Zealand.

At first, the population of the western colonies met the Japanese army as liberators and provided it with all possible assistance. Support was especially strong in Indonesia, coordinated by the future President Sukarno. But the atrocities of the Japanese military and administration soon prompted the population of the conquered territories to begin guerrilla operations against the new masters.

Battles in the middle of the war and a radical change (mid-1942 - 1943)

In the spring of 1942, American intelligence was able to pick up the key to the Japanese military codes, as a result of which the Allies were well aware of the future plans of the enemy. This played a particularly large role during the largest naval battle in history - the Battle of Midway Atoll. The Japanese command expected to conduct a diversionary strike in the north, in the Aleutian Islands, while the main forces would capture Midway Atoll, which would become a springboard for capturing Hawaii. When Japanese planes took off from the aircraft carriers at the start of the battle on June 4, 1942, American bombers bombed the aircraft carriers in accordance with the plan developed by the new commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Nimitz. As a result, the planes that survived the battle simply had nowhere to land - more than three hundred combat vehicles were destroyed, the best Japanese pilots died. The naval battle continued for two more days. After its completion, Japanese superiority at sea and air was over.

Earlier, on May 7-8, another major naval battle took place in the Coral Sea. The target of the advancing Japanese was Port Moresby in New Guinea, which was to become a springboard for landings in Australia. Formally, the Japanese fleet won, but the forces of the attackers were so exhausted that the attack on Port Moresby had to be abandoned.

For a further attack on Australia and its bombardment, the Japanese needed to control the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands archipelago. The fighting for it lasted from May 1942 to February 1943 and cost huge losses to both sides, but, in the end, control over it passed to the Allies.

The death of the best Japanese commander, Admiral Yamamoto, was also of great importance for the course of the war. On April 18, 1943, the Americans carried out a special operation, as a result of which the plane with Yamamoto on board was shot down.

The longer the war went on, the stronger the economic superiority of the Americans began to affect. By the middle of 1943, they had established a monthly production of aircraft carriers, and three times surpassed Japan in the production of aircraft. All the prerequisites for a decisive offensive were created.

The offensive of the allies and the defeat of Japan (1944 - 1945)

Since the end of 1943, the Americans and their allies have been consistently pushing Japanese troops out of the Pacific islands and archipelagos, using a tactic of rapid movement from one island to another, nicknamed "frog jump". The largest battle of this period of the war took place in the summer of 1944 near the Mariana Islands - control over them opened the sea route to Japan for American troops.

The largest land battle, as a result of which the Americans under the command of General MacArthur regained control of the Philippines, took place in the fall of that year. As a result of these battles, the Japanese lost a large number of ships and aircraft, not to mention numerous human casualties.

Of major strategic importance was the small island of Iwo Jima. After its capture, the allies were able to make massive raids on the main territory of Japan. The most terrible was the raid on Tokyo in March 1945, as a result of which the Japanese capital was almost completely destroyed, and the losses among the population, according to some estimates, exceeded the direct losses from the atomic bombings - about 200,000 civilians died.

In April 1945, the Americans landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa, but they were able to capture it only three months later, at the cost of huge losses. Many ships were sunk or seriously damaged by suicide bombers. Strategists from the American General Staff, assessing the strength of the resistance of the Japanese and their resources, planned military operations not only for the next year, but also for 1947. But everything ended much faster due to the appearance of atomic weapons.

On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and three days later on Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese were killed, mostly civilians. Losses were comparable to the damage from previous bombings, but the use of a fundamentally new weapon by the enemy also dealt a huge psychological blow. In addition, on August 8, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, and the country did not have the resources for a war on two fronts.

On August 10, 1945, the Japanese government made a decision in principle to surrender, which was announced by Emperor Hirohito on August 14. On September 2, an act of unconditional surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri. The war in the Pacific, and with it the Second World War, ended.

War in the Pacific

background

Since the end of the 19th century, Japan has been pursuing an aggressive foreign policy aimed at dominating the region. In the 1930s, Japanese claims led to an armed conflict with China. In 1937, this conflict escalated into a full-fledged war, in which Japan won victory after victory, and China suffered huge losses. Japanese interests extended to almost all of East and South Asia and the Pacific region, which caused tense relations with the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States, which had their own interests there, as well as colonies. In September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy for cooperation in rebuilding the world order.

Developments

December 7, 1941- Japanese aircraft and navy attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, causing significant damage to it. After that, the United States declared war on Japan and began to take an active part in the battles of World War II.

December 1941 - May 1942- Japan is conducting successful military operations in Hong Kong, Thailand, the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, Burma and other regions, inflicting defeats on local, as well as American, British, Dutch, Australian and Chinese troops. In May 1942, local and American troops in the Philippines surrendered. After that, Japan controlled virtually all of Southeast Asia and northwestern Oceania.

June 4-6, 1942- Battle of Midway Atoll. The United States defeated Japan by sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers and destroying about 250 aircraft. This battle is considered by many historians as a turning point in the Pacific theater of operations, after which Japan lost the initiative.

August 1942 - February 1943- the battle for the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Both the United States and Japan suffered significant losses, but in general, the United States confirmed its military superiority, after this battle, finally moving from defense to attack.

October 1944- the beginning of the use of kamikaze tactics (suicide pilots who rammed enemy ships).

October 1944 - August 1945- The Philippine operation, which ended in the defeat of the Japanese and the liberation of the Philippines.

March 10, 1945- the bombing of Tokyo with incendiary bombs, the victims of which were about 100 thousand people, mostly civilians.

August 6 and 9, 1945- the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of which were about 200 thousand people, not counting those who died later from exposure to radiation. The first and only use of atomic weapons in history (chronology of events in Hiroshima).

August 9, 1945- Fulfilling the promise given to the allies, the USSR declares war on Japan. The Soviet offensive in Manchuria ended with the defeat of the Kwantung Army, sharply worsening Japan's position.

Conclusion

Events in the Pacific theater were an important part of World War II. First of all, they can be characterized as a confrontation between the United States and Japan. The fate of Japan in many respects repeated the German one: by the beginning of the war, she also had a powerful army and confidence in her right to aggressive territorial expansion, but her resources were not unlimited. At the same time, Japan had no allies in the region, which reduced its chances of success and accelerated its defeat.

An important result of the war was the establishment of democratic orders in Japan and the country's rejection of imperial claims.

Abstract

December 6, 1941 Japanese forces attack US naval base in Hawaii Pearl Harbor by destroying the United States Pacific Fleet. The attack was sudden. Following this, the states of the anti-Hitler coalition declare war on Japan. In turn, the United States declares war on Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and a number of countries of the fascist bloc.

The defeat of the American fleet and the lack of large military forces in the colonies of European countries allowed Tokyo to carry out a lightning-fast seizure of the territory of Southeast Asia, Indonesia and launch an offensive against the pearl of the British Empire - India, simultaneously occupying Burma.

By 1942, the Japanese managed to establish control over the overwhelming part of East and Southeast Asia, deploying ruthless terror in these territories (especially in China). Continuing the territorial seizures, Japanese landings began to land on the islands of Oceania and the Philippines, threatening the security of Australia and New Zealand, which forced the latter to enter the war.

1943 marked by the Battle of the Solomon Islands, which ended with the victory of the United States.

The territories occupied by the Japanese were under constant attack by partisan detachments, which did not give Tokyo confidence in the safety of its rear. Sufficiently powerful resistance to the invaders was provided by partisans under the command of a communist Mao Zedong.

The protracted war was exhausting Japan. She could no longer successfully control the vast occupied territories. Trophies and minerals taken out of the occupied lands were subjected to constant bombardment by the Allied forces.

At the end of 1944, the Americans make a successful landing attempt on the Philippine Islands.. Striking at the center of the Japanese Empire, they mercilessly sank Japanese ships and submarines, shot down planes, and practically took no prisoners. The Philippines became a stronghold for the United States Navy and Air Force.

In October 1944, a major naval battle took place in Leyte Gulf, in which the Japanese fleet was almost destroyed.

Beginning in 1945, American aircraft bombed Japanese cities daily. The joint actions of the allies made it possible to liberate large areas of Asia and Oceania.

After the end of the war in Europe, following the Yalta agreements, according to which, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the USSR should declare war on Japan, hostilities begin in the Soviet Far East.

Redeployed from Europe, battle-hardened Soviet troops formed a powerful fist. In August 1945 several operations began at once - in Northeast China, Korea, on Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. The Soviet blow was so strong that the Japanese troops were broken and fled in disarray, leaving vast territories behind.

6 and 9 August 1945of the year American command dropped on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki two atomic bombs, wiping them off the face of the earth. The Americans have demonstrated to the whole world that they have a new type of weapon.

On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Unconditional Surrender Act on the USS Missouri.

World War II 1939-1945 ended.

Bibliography

1. Shubin A.V. General history. Recent history. Grade 9: textbook. for general education institutions. - M.: Moscow textbooks, 2010.
2. Soroko-Tsyupa O.S., Soroko-Tsyupa A.O. General history. Recent history, 9th grade. - M.: Education, 2010.
3. Sergeev E.Yu. General history. Recent history. Grade 9 - M.: Education, 2011.

Homework

1. Read §13 of A.V. Shubin's textbook, pp. 137-139 and answer questions 3 and 4 on p. 142.
2. Why did the USSR enter the war with Japan only after the end of the war in Europe?
3. Was the atomic bombing of Japanese cities necessary at the end of the war?

1. Internet portal Nb-info.ru ().
2. Internet portal Militarymaps.narod.ru ().
3. Internet portal Waralbum.ru ().

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