Although Japan declared war on the United States and the British Empire, the declaration was not delivered until after the attacks began. Worst of all, before the war, an uninformed US Customs officer had seized a copy of the Japanese merchant marine code (called the "maru code" in the USN), not knowing that the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) had broken it. [136] During the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly campaign of attrition. See Related Resource: World War II Casualties for Navy, Marine Corps, . 3.8 million Chinese military deaths (19371945; 3.2 million Nationalist/allied and 580,000 Communist). On 7 December US Army units landed at Ormoc Bay and, after a major land and air battle, cut off the Japanese ability to reinforce and supply Leyte. An estimated 5,800,000 Poles died, which was 20 percent of Polands prewar population. World War 2 Casualty Resources World War 2 was the bloodiest conflict in human history. The attention of the Allies then switched back to the central east coast, with the last major amphibious assault of World War II, at Balikpapan on 1 July. [234][235], The US protectorate in the Philippines suffered considerable losses. [102] On 7 January, the Japanese attacked Bataan. [222] Three days later, on 9 August, the US dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Then followed the invasion and occupation of Panay, Cebu, Negros and several islands in the Sulu Archipelago. After the Allied setbacks in 1943, the South East Asia command prepared to launch offensives into Burma on several fronts. They were supported by about 400 aircraft from Chinese and American air forces. In the middle of these uncoordinated attacks, a Japanese scout aircraft reported the presence of an American task force, but it was not until later that the presence of an American carrier was confirmed. Unit 731, a detachment of the Imperial Japanese Army headquartered in Harbin dedicated to the production of these weapons, performed fatal experiments on thousands of Chinese and Korean civilians as well as Allied prisoners of war. A month after the invasion of Saipan, the US recaptured Guam and captured Tinian. However, the smaller powers continued to push for an American-based body. The seizure of Shuri castle, the center of Japanese resistance, on 29 May represented both a strategic and psychological blow. Because of this, after the surrender in 1945, the stance of the United States was that Thailand should be treated as a puppet of Japan and be considered an occupied nation rather than as an ally. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War (, Dai T-A Sens), as chosen by a cabinet decision on 10 December 1941, to refer to both the war with the Western Allies and the ongoing war in China. During April, the Japanese attacks against Imphal failed, while fresh Allied formations relieved the garrison of Kohima and drove the Japanese from the positions they had captured on Kohima ridge. On 8 June 1942, two Japanese submarines briefly shelled Sydney's eastern suburbs and the city of Newcastle.[108]. Because this required far fewer troops, on 13 March the Naval General Staff and the Army agreed to operations with the goal of capturing Fiji and Samoa. As the advance on Manila continued from the north and the south, the Bataan Peninsula was rapidly secured. From 12 to 15 November, Japanese and American surface ships engaged in fierce night actions in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, one of the only two battles in the Pacific War during which battleships fought each other, that saw two US admirals killed in action and two Japanese battleships sunk. 25 (1): 53. 1947 pp. In addition, Japanese control of northern and central China was somewhat tenuous, in that Japan was usually able to control railroads and the major cities ("points and lines"), but did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinese countryside. University of California Press. A great majority of the Chinese forces were able to retreat out of the area, and later come back to attack Japanese positions at the Battle of West Hunan. In the South Western Pacific the Allies now seized the strategic initiative for the first time during the War and in June 1943, launched Operation Cartwheel, a series of amphibious invasions to recapture the Solomon Islands and New Guinea and ultimately isolate the major Japanese forward base at Rabaul. Prange, Gordon W. Donald Goldstein, and Katherine Dillon. [180] These losses to the already outnumbered Japanese fleet air arm were irreplaceable. [125] The victory was mitigated only by the failure of the Japanese to attack the vulnerable transports. In an effort to discourage Japanese militarism, Western powers including Australia, the United States, Britain, and the Dutch government in exile, which controlled the petroleum-rich Dutch East Indies, stopped selling oil, iron ore, and steel to Japan, denying it the raw materials needed to continue its activities in China and French Indochina. During the previous month, US destroyers had destroyed 17 out of 25 submarines in Ozawa's screening force[177][178] and repeated American air raids destroyed the Japanese land-based aircraft. The Japanese leadership looked to base the conduct of the war against America on the historical experiences of the successful wars against China (189495) and Russia (190405), in both of which a strong continental power was defeated by reaching limited military objectives, not by total conquest.[80]. US Navy Seabees quickly made the field operational for use for American aircraft. They then based their possible actions on the defense of an inner perimeter, which included the Marianas, Palau, Western New Guinea, and the Dutch East Indies. Retrieved 31 October 2010. While the Japanese attempted to recapture Meiktila, XXXIII Corps captured Mandalay. From July 1942, a few Australian reserve battalions, many of them very young and untrained, fought a stubborn rearguard action in New Guinea, against a Japanese advance along the Kokoda Track, towards Port Moresby, over the rugged Owen Stanley Ranges. On 22 June, the front of the northward advancing 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions widened to such a degree that General Holland Smith ordered the bulk of the Army's 27th Division to take over the line in the center, between the two US Marine divisions. Throughout the Philippines, Filipino guerrillas aided US forces to find and dispatch the holdouts. Operations on the Gilberts were followed in late-January and mid-February 1944 by further, less costly, landings on the Marshall Islands. [103][143] Submarines strangled Japan by sinking its merchant fleet, intercepting many troop transports, and cutting off nearly all the oil imports essential to weapons production and military operations. As the Japanese troops converged on Manila, General Douglas MacArthur began executing plans to make a final stand on the Bataan Peninsula and the Island of Corregidor in order to deny the use of Manila Bay to the Japanese. Many were lost in numerous engagements with the Allied air forces based at Henderson Field as well as carrier-based aircraft. [225], In February 1945 during the Yalta Conference the Soviet Union had agreed to enter the war against Japan 90 days after the surrender of Germany. [26], The entire 140,000-strong Royal Dutch East Indies Army was killed, captured, or missing by the conclusion of the East Indies Campaign. During the Pacific War, Japanese soldiers killed millions of non-combatants, including prisoners of war, from surrounding nations. [139] At this point, a Japanese division moved to Arakan from Central Burma and attacked the 14th Indian Division's exposed left flank. Meanwhile, Japanese aircraft had all but eliminated Allied air power in Southeast Asia and were making air attacks on northern Australia, beginning with a psychologically devastating but militarily insignificant bombing of the city of Darwin on 19 February, which killed at least 243 people. On 9 January 1945 General Krueger's Sixth Army landed its first units on the south shore of Lingayen Gulf on the western coast of Luzon. The convoys often faced night battles with enemy naval forces in which they expended destroyers that the IJN could ill-afford to lose. 2007. p. 4. [196] The Japanese also went to great lengths to construct large underground chambers, some as much as five stories deep to serve as storage and hospital areas with thick walls and ceilings made of reinforced concrete. [65], The war entered a new phase with the unprecedented defeat of the Japanese at the Battle of SuixianZaoyang, 1st Battle of Changsha, Battle of Kunlun Pass and Battle of Zaoyi. [169] The Japanese were forced to abandon Truk and were now unable to counter the Americans on any front on the perimeter. About 298,000 Americans died. By early 1945, Japanese oil supplies were so limited that its fleet was virtually stranded. [211] 94% of the Japanese soldiers died along with many civilians. Australia was ill-prepared for an attack, lacking armaments, modern fighter aircraft, heavy bombers, and aircraft carriers. [100] Meanwhile, in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road, the Japanese captured Toungoo after a severe battle and sent motorised units to capture Lashio. [124] With their hangar decks laden with fully fueled and armed aircraft, Sry, Kaga, and Akagi were turned into blazing wrecks. The Chinese Expeditionary Force captured Mong-Yu and Lashio,[190] while the Chinese and American Northern Combat Area Command resumed its advance in northern Burma. [110] However, the Naval General Staff, the Combined Fleet, and the Imperial Army, all had different strategies for the next sequence of operations. When the Americans landed on Saipan in the Marianas the Japanese viewed holding Saipan as an imperative. [269], The IJN lost over 341 warships, including 11 battleships, 25 aircraft carriers, 39 cruisers, 135 destroyers, and 131 submarines, almost entirely in action against the United States Navy. As soon as the Marines pushed inland they came under devastating machine gun and artillery fire. 5. [212] Kamikaze attacks also sank 36 ships of all types, damaged 368 more and led to the deaths of 4,900 US sailors, for the loss of 7,800 Japanese aircraft. The Naval General Staff advocated an advance to the south to seize parts of Australia. [89] The government of Thailand formally allied with Japan on 21 December. A battle-hardened, one million-strong Soviet force, transferred from Europe,[227] attacked Japanese forces in Manchuria and landed a heavy blow against the Japanese Kantgun (Kwantung Army). Thus, only in 1944 did the US Navy begin to use its 150 submarines to maximum effect: installing effective shipboard radar, replacing commanders deemed lacking in aggression, and fixing the faults in the torpedoes. [166] By the time campaigning ceased during the monsoon, the Northern Combat Area Command had secured a vital airfield at Myitkyina after a prolonged siege which ended in early August. Japan's ally Germany lost ten submarines and four auxiliary cruisers (Thor, Michel, Pinguin, and Kormoran) in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Once the monsoon rains descended in the middle of May, they also succumbed to disease in large numbers. With heavy air support, Army units pushed inland, taking Clark Field, 40 miles (64km) northwest of Manila, in the last week of January. The aircraft from Midway attacked, but failed to score a single hit on the Japanese. The attack on Port Moresby was codenamed MO Operation and was divided into several parts or phases. Initiated in 1940 by Rykichi Tanaka, the Sank Sakusen was implemented in full scale in 1942 in north China by Yasuji Okamura. At noon on 15 August, after the American government's intentionally ambiguous reply, stating that the "authority" of the emperor "shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers", the Emperor broadcast to the nation and to the world at large the rescript of surrender,[231] ending the Second World War. In the United States, the term Pacific Theater was widely used, although this was a misnomer in relation to the Allied campaign in Burma, the war in China and other activities within the South-East Asian Theater. In all, ten US divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest campaign of the Pacific War, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France. Other areas, including India, Hawaii, and the rest of Australia remained under separate local commands. The First Operational Phase was further divided into three separate parts in which the major objectives of the Philippines, British Malaya, Borneo, Burma, Rabaul and the Dutch East Indies would be occupied. Chihaya went on to note that when the IJN belatedly improved its ASW methods, the US submarine force responded by increasing Japanese losses. The Naval General Staff still wanted to cut the sea links between Australia and the United States by capturing New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa. According to a report compiled by the Relief Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare in March 1964, combined Japanese Army and Navy deaths during the war (19371945) numbered approximately 2,121,000 men, mostly against either the Americans (1.1+ million) in places such as the Solomons, Japan, Taiwan, the Central Pacific, and the Philippines, or against various Chinese factions (500,000+), predominantly the NRA and CCP, during the war on the Chinese mainland, the Chinese resistance movement in Manchuria and Burma campaign. 1314. [203] The British Pacific Fleet operated as a separate unit from the American task forces in the Okinawa operation. On 10 December, Japanese forces began a series of small-scale landings on Luzon. The raid also contributed to the Japanese decision to invade India during 1944. For the rest of February, the Americans pushed north, and by 1 March, had taken two-thirds of the island. [133][134][135], On 2 November 1943, Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the Imperial Japanese 11th Army, deployed the 39th, 58th, 13th, 3rd, 116th and 68th Divisions, a total of around 100,000 troops, to attack Changde. [49] Japan's Shinto Emperor relinquished much of his authority and his divine status through the Shinto Directive in order to pave the way for extensive cultural and political reforms. China had already been engaged in a bloody war against Japan since 1937 including both the KMT government National Revolutionary Army and CCP units, such as the guerrilla Eighth Route Army, New Fourth Army, as well as smaller groups. In February 1944 the Japanese mounted a local counter-attack in Arakan. The surrender was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, with representatives of several Allied nations, from a Japanese delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu and Yoshijir Umezu. [167] In 194344, Allied forces in the Solomons began driving relentlessly to Rabaul, eventually encircling and neutralizing the stronghold. "". In torrential rains and over difficult terrain, the US advance continued across Leyte and the neighboring island of Samar to the north. Of the 117,000 Okinawan and Japanese troops defending Okinawa, 94 percent died. ", "Battle of Milne Bay from 25 August 1942 to 07 September 1942", "Chinese Victory: Changteh is Lost and Won in Battle Called Most Decisive in Three Years", United States Submarine Operations in World War II, Japanese submarine operations against Australia 19421944, "Japanese Naval and Merchant Vessels Sunk During World War II By All U.S. Submarines", National Revolutionary Army Order of Battle for the Battle of West Hunan, "Potsdam Declaration: Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender Issued, at Potsdam, July 26, 1945", "Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan", "The Voice of the Crane: The Imperial Rescript of 15Aug45", University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "British Losses & Losses Inflicted on Axis Navies", "Soviet Losses in the Khalkhin Gol Battle", "BBC History World Wars: Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan", "Denial of the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking", "Don't Forget, Japan Used Biological Weapons on China", "U.S. The many well-camouflaged 120mm and 6-inch guns were emplaced so that their fire could be directed to the beaches. In late 1944 and early 1945, the Allied South East Asia Command launched offensives into Burma, intending to recover most of the country, including Rangoon, the capital, before the onset of the monsoon in May. Fleet battles involving heavier ships and even daytime carrier battles resulted in a stretch of water near Guadalcanal becoming known as "Ironbottom Sound" from the multitude of ships sunk on both sides. Japanese military planners' expectation of success rested on the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union being unable to effectively respond to a Japanese attack because of the threat posed to each by Germany; the Soviet Union was even seen as unlikely to commence hostilities. [125] Parshall and Tully noted that although the Japanese lost four carriers, losses at Midway did not radically degrade the fighting capabilities of the IJN aviation as a whole. This gamble did not pay off. About 4,200,000 Germans died, and about 1,972,000 Japanese died. The result was later dubbed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. After an intense seven-day bombardment the main landings on Okinawa took place on 1 April 1945, on the Hagushi beaches near the central part of the island's west coast. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel See Related Resource:World War II Dead and Missing from Army and Army Air Forces From: [table striped="true" responsive . [169] The Japanese then developed a new plan, known as A-GO. There was bitter fighting against well-entrenched Japanese troops, but US forces slowly made progress. Robert S. Burrell, "Breaking the Cycle of Iwo Jima Mythology: A Strategic Study of Operation Detachment,", Raymond L. Garthoff. [213], By April 1945, China had already been at war with Japan for more than seven years. Australia had been shocked by the speedy and crushing collapse of British Malaya and the Fall of Singapore in which around 15,000 Australian soldiers were captured and became prisoners of war. In August, Japanese and US carrier forces engaged in an indecisive clash known as the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, resulting in the sinking of the light carrier Ryujo, and damage to the USSEnterprise(CV-6). Admiral Yamamoto viewed the operation against Midway as the potentially decisive battle of the war which could lead to the destruction of American strategic power in the Pacific,[118] and subsequently open the door for a negotiated peace settlement with the United States, favorable to Japan. On 15 December 1944 landings against minimal resistance took place on the southern beaches of the island of Mindoro, a key location in the planned Lingayen Gulf operations, in support of major landings scheduled on Luzon. Although the Japanese had moved their major vessels out in time to avoid being caught at anchor in the atoll, two days of air attacks resulted in significant losses to Japanese aircraft and merchant shipping. A Japanese division which had advanced to Kohima in Nagaland cut the main road to Imphal and isolated a small British garrison, but failed to capture the whole of the defences at Kohima. Natural caves were enlarged, and many new ones were blasted out. Loaded 0% - Auto (360p LQ) How Many Horses Died in WWI [168] The strategy of holding overextended island garrisons was fully exposed. Almost 175,000 men followed across the twenty-mile (32km) beachhead within a few days. In late January 1945, these two forces linked up with each other at Hsipaw. [63] The Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinionin particular in the United Statescondemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle of World War II and arguably the largest naval battle in history. That's how many Ukrainian civilians were killed by cluster munitions in March, according to Human Rights Watch. [196] The main underground command post had a concrete roof 10 feet (3.0m) thick. The Japanese launched a long-planned offensive of their own into India in the middle of March, across the mountainous and densely forested frontier. Both nations were exhausted by years of battles, bombings and blockades. At the same time and afterwards, the United States Army Air Forces based out of these islands conducted an intense strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese cities of military and industrial importance, including Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and others. [215] At the same time, it airlifted the entire Chinese New 6th Corps, an American-equipped corps and veterans of the Burma Expeditionary Force, from Kunming to Zhijiang. [220] In the ten days that followed, almost 10,000 bombs were dropped destroying 31% of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe. [116] For the operation, the Japanese had only four carriers; Akagi, Kaga, Sry and Hiry. Nobody has exact figures, but it is estimated that around the U.S. counted around 407,000 military deaths and around 12,000 civilian deaths (due to crimes of war and military activity such as bombings.) [110] The Second Operational Phase began well when Lae and Salamaua, located in eastern New Guinea, were captured on 8 March. The council never had any direct operational control, and any decisions it made were referred to the US-UK Combined Chiefs of Staff, which was also in Washington. Only one American warship was slightly damaged. However, they were slow to respond when the attack was launched and did not foresee some Japanese objectives. From the Allied point of view, if Port Moresby fell, the Japanese would control the seas to the north and west of Australia and could isolate the country. [95], At the Battle of the Java Sea in late February and early March, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) inflicted a resounding defeat on the main ABDA naval force, under Admiral Karel Doorman. The Japanese put up little direct defense of Palawan, but cleaning up pockets of Japanese resistance lasted until late April, as the Japanese used their common tactic of withdrawing into the mountain jungles, dispersed as small units. The Marines then steadily advanced northward. A force, under the command of Admiral Seiichi It, consisting of the battleship Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi and eight destroyers, was assembled. The United States used the ensuing period to turn its vast industrial potential into increased numbers of ships, planes, and trained aircrew. [171] For the Americans, the Marianas operation would provide the following benefits: the interruption of the Japanese air pipeline to the south; the development of advanced naval bases for submarine and surface operations; the establishment of airfields to base B-29s from which to bomb the Japanese Home Islands; the choice among several possible objectives for the next phase of operations, which would keep the Japanese uncertain of American intentions. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines to formulate a Pacific defence plan with Australia in March 1942. 2,129 European French and 2,100 Indochinese colonial troops were killed, while 12,000 French and 3,000 colonial troops were kept as prisoners. 2. Another argument in favor of the atomic bombs is that they helped avoid Operation Downfall, or a prolonged blockade and conventional bombing campaign, any of which would have exacted much higher casualties among Japanese civilians. Opposition to war in the US vanished after the attack. She would, in fact, sortie for Midway after just three days of repairs to her flight deck, with civilian work crews still aboard, in time to be present for the next decisive engagement. [147] Furthermore, they played important reconnaissance roles, as at the battles of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) and Leyte Gulf (October 1944) (and, coincidentally,[clarification needed] at Midway in June 1942), when they gave accurate and timely warning of the approach of the Japanese fleet. Yamamoto hoped that the attack would lure the Americans into a trap. His figure for Japanese "battle dead" in China was 126,000 in the same period (thus excluding the preceding four years). The US reinforced the Sixth Army successfully, but the US Fifth Air Force devastated Japanese attempts to resupply. Under Lieutenant General William Slim, its training, morale and health greatly improved. It was also hoped that this penetration of the Japanese inner defense zone, which was a little more than 1,250 miles (2,010km) from Tokyo, might force the Japanese fleet out for a decisive engagement. Overall, the Japanese lost some 150,000 men in Burma. "The Shock of the Atomic Bomb and Japan's Decision to Surrender: A Reconsideration". Midway proved to be the last great naval battle for two years. Had they done so, the first American counterattack in the Pacific could have been stopped. American planners recognized the strategic importance of the island, which was only 5 miles (8.0km) long, 8 square miles (21km2) in area and had no native population. The 69 aircraft from the two Japanese carriers succeeded in sinking the carrier Lexington and damaging Yorktown. The US Navy proposed to force a Japanese surrender through a total naval blockade and air raids. Concurrently, Japanese forces invaded southern and eastern Thailand and were resisted for several hours, before the Thai government signed an armistice and entered an alliance with Japan. Shaw, Henry, Bernard Nalty, and Edwin Turnbladh. For the next two days, the American and Japanese carrier forces tried unsuccessfully to locate each other. [20] Combined, the US and allied navies lost nearly 200 warships, including 4 battleships, 12 aircraft carriers, 25 cruisers, 84 destroyers and destroyer escorts, 63 submarines, and nearly 30,000 aircraft. 15 August 2005. [113] During a series of meetings held from 25 April, the Naval General Staff and representatives of the Combined Fleet reached a compromise. Chinese launched a counter offensive to retake Guangxi which was the last major Japanese stronghold in South China. "[285][pageneeded]. Japanese Monograph no. Many of the Chinese troops were trapped and were forced either to retreat to India or in small parties to Yunnan. The islands could also open the way for tightening the blockade of Japanese shipping and be used as a staging area and supply base for any invasion of the home islands.[202]. Since World War II, cluster munitions have killed an estimated 56,500 to 86,500 civilians. They had lost over 50,000 troops, mainly to starvation and disease.
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