Key Dates and Events

September 1931 Manchurian Incident

1932 More Assassinations; PM Inukai, last party PM assassinated

1933 Japan withdraws from the League of Nations

1934 Washington Naval Treaty System of 1922 declared unacceptable

Feb. 26, 1936 2-26 Incident, a nearly successful military coup d'etat by Young Officers

Nov. 25, 1936 Japan and Germany sign Anti-Comintern Pact to oppose USSR

July 7, 1937 "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" and beginning of the "China Incident," an undeclared war between Japan and China

July 31st Peking Falls

August 1937 Expansion of China War to Shanghai

Dec. 12, 1937 Japanese troops perpetrate the infamous "Rape of Nanking"

Jan. 16, 1938 "Aite ni sezu" Declaration by Konoe Cabinet--no longer recognizes Nationalist Govt of Jiang Kaishek

Nov. 1938 "New Order in East Asia" Proclaimed

May 1938 onwards indiscriminate bombing of Chinese capitol at Chungking

Late 1938 - early1939 "3 Alls" policy in N. China: burn all, kill all, steal all

Sept. 27, 1940: Conclusion of Tripartite Treaty with Germany and Italy

April 13, 1941: Signing of Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Treaty

April 16 Hull announces his "Four Principles"

July 28, 1941: Japan Advances into southern French Indochina

August 1941 Konoe meets Emperor who agrees to summit with FDR; US rejects

 

September 6, 1941 Imperial Conference sanctions decision to go to war with US and GB if diplomacy fails

 

Oct. 18, 1941: Establishment of cabinet of Hideki Tojo after Konoe resigns

Tojo , Army's strongest advocate for war, felt Konoe lacked "firm beliefs and courage."

November 1-2 long Liaison Conference decides end of November is final deadline

Nov. 8, 1941 Hirohito briefed on Pearl Harbor plans; Nov. 15, shown full war plans

Nov. 27 Task Force w/ 6 carries leaves Japan for Hawaii

Dec. 1, 1941: Formal decision to wage war against United States, Britain and Netherlands made at Imperial Council meeting

Dec. 8, 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7 U.S. time)

In a matter of days, Japanese land in Thailand, Maylaya

British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse Sunk

Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Singapore all fall to Japanese in rapid succession

Japan invades British Boreno, Burma, then Dutch Borneo, bombs Darwin Australia and Bali

 

The History of the War in the Pacific falls neatly into three periods.

1. The first six months of the war, from December 1941 to May 1942, were a time of unbroken Japanese military victory.

2. At the-height of Japanese expansion in mid-1942, the tide turned. The period from mid-1942 to mid-1943 saw Japanese strategic thrusts into the south and central Pacific blunted by the carrier battles of the Coral Sea (May 1942) and Midway (June 1942). Limited U.S. offensives in the Solomons and in the Papuan area of eastern New Guinea were launched in the last months of 1942. Both offensives were begun on a shoestring, and both came close to failure. Yet they represented the end of defeat in the Pacific and the first tentative steps toward victory.

3. Those steps became great leaps in 1944 and 1945. Two amphibious offensives developed, as MacArthur advanced across the northern coast of New Guinea into the Philippines and Nimitz island-hopped 2,000 miles across the central Pacific from the Gilbert Islands to Okinawa.

 

Feb. 27-March 1, Japan defeats US Navy in Battle of Java Sea

 

June 7, 1942: US Navy Defeats Japan at Battle of Midway--Japan loses 4 carriers: the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu =Key Turning Point

 

July 7, 1944: Fall of Saipan, Mass suicides; US can bomb home islands now from Saipan

July 18, 1944: Resignation en masse of Tojo Cabinet

March 10, 1945: Major Tokyo air raids

April 1, 1945: U.S. forces land on Okinawa

May 7, 1945: Germany unconditionally surrenders

July 27, 1945: Allied Powers issue Potsdam Declaration

Aug. 6, 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

Aug. 8, 1945: Soviet Union declares war against Japan

Aug. 9, 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Aug. 14, 1945: Imperial Council accepts Potsdam Declaration

Aug. 15, 1945: Emperor's surrender rescript broadcast