The USS Arizona Memorial (inset) spans the sunken hull of the ship.Īlready in control of Manchuria, Japan in mid-1937 escalated a minor incident into a major war, launching a full-scale attack on China. The USS Arizona is consumed by fire during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. With the opening of the Philippine campaign in October 1944, the stage was set for two of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war: the assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. By spring 1943 the Japanese empire encompassed the Gilbert Islands to the east, most of New Guinea to the southeast, the Netherlands East Indies, Indochina, Thailand, and parts of Burma.įolloing hard-fought battles in 1942 between Allied and Japanese naval forces, the Allies took the initiative and began a dual advance through the central and southwest Pacific, converging on the Philippines. Pacific Fleet and open the road to further conquests. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in an attempt to destroy the U.S. Civilians, forced laborers, and prisoners of war were subject to brutal mistreatment, biological experiments, and execution. The slaughter of 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese in Nanking in December 1937 shocked the world. Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 began what would evolve into a campaign to take control over East Asia and the western Pacific, creating a new empire which would later be called the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." Japanese expansionism was marked by naked aggression and extreme brutality. This exhibition describes the war between Japan and the United States and its allies, the building of the atomic bomb, the decision to use it, the military effort to carry out that mission, the effects of the bombing, and the surrender of Japan. The event was one of the critical turning points of our century. Source: The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II by the Curators of the National Air and Space Museumįifty years ago, the atomic bomb brought a sudden end to World War II and ushered in the nuclear age. The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II
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