During World War II, Allied forces conducted air raids on Japan from 1942 to 1945, causing extensive destruction to the country's cities and killing between 241,000 and 900,000 people. During the first years of the Pacific War these attacks were limited to the Doolittle Raid in April 1942 and small-scale raids on military positions in the Kuril Islands from mid-1943. Strategic bombing raids began in June 1944 and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. Allied naval and land-based tactical air units also attacked Japan during 1945.
B-29 Superfortress bombers dropping incendiary bombs on Yokohama in May 1945
An air-raid shelter being built in Japan, September 1940
A B-25 Mitchell taking off from USS Hornet on 18 April 1942
Civilians participating in an air-raid drill during 1942
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theater, was the theater of World War II that was fought in eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast Pacific Ocean theater, the South West Pacific theater, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Soviet–Japanese War.
Image: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, larger edit 1
Image: Carrier shokaku
Image: Nagasakibomb
Image: USS Bunker Hill hit by two Kamikazes