The Pacific War (30 pictures)

The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the Pacific theatre of the Second World War that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East. The term Pacific War is used to encompass the Pacific Ocean theatre, the South West Pacific theatre, the South-East Asian theatre and the Second Sino-Japanese War, also including the 1945 Soviet-Japanese conflict.

It is generally considered the Pacific War began on 7/8 December 1941 with the invasion of Thailand for the invasion of British Malaya, and the attack on Pearl Harbor in the United States’ Territory of Hawaii by the Empire of Japan. Some authors consider that the conflict in Asia dates back to 7 July 1937, beginning with the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China, or possibly 19 September 1931, beginning with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific War itself started in early December 1941, with the Sino-Japanese War then becoming part of it as a theater of the greater World War II.

The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the latter briefly aided by Thailand and to a much lesser extent by its Axis allies, Germany and Italy. The war culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and other large aerial bombing attacks by the United States Army Air Forces, accompanied by the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on 8 August 1945, resulting in the surrender of Japan and the end of fighting during World War II on 15 August 1945. The formal and official surrender of Japan occurred aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. /wikipedia

U.S. troops on Okinawa.

 

British crew rescue a sinking battleship “Prince of Wales”, sunk by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 10, 1941, the South China Sea near Singapore

 

 

Japanese kamikaze pilots with the puppy.

 

 

 Japanese troops captured on the atoll of Tarawa

 

Burial of USS “Guest” sailor. The ship was damaged by a Japanese kamikaze plane off the coast of Okinawa, May 24, 1945.

 

U.S. soldier carries a wounded Japanese prisoner.

 

Col. Francis Fenton on the funeral of his son Mike, who was killed on Okinawa.

 

Camp for people of Japanese descent in California.

 

Marines on the beach in Okinawa.

 

B-24 bombers bombing the island of Iwo Jima.

 

Captured wounded Japanese soldier surrounded by Americans on Kwajalein Atoll.

 

View from the cockpit of an American B-29 bomber during the bombing of Japan.

 

USA flag on the island of Iwo Jima.

 

American landing craft approaching the coast of Iwo Jima.

 

Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda surrenders 28 years after the war.

Hiroo Onoda was a former Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought in World War II and did not surrender in 1945. In 1974 his former commander traveled from Japan to personally issue orders relieving him from duty. Onoda had spent almost 30 years holding out in the Philippines, believing the war is not over.

 

 

Japanese soldier on Iwo Jima for 36 hours pretended he was dead.

 

Kamikaze attack on the U.S. “Missouri”.

 

American family of Japanese origin returns home from the internment camp.

 

Discussion aboard the aircraft carrier “Kaga” before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

The deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier “Saratoga” a few seconds after the kamikaze attack.

 

Sailorson the battleship “Missouri” look at the Japanese surrender ceremony.

 

 View of Pearl Harbor and several battleships during the Japanese attack.

 

A direct hit on a Japanese patrol boat.

 

U.S. Sailors play volleyball on board the aircraft carrier USS “Wasp”.

 

Battleship “Yamashiro”.

 

U.S. soldier next to shot down Japanese fighter “Zero”.