1.
Asiatic-Pacific Theater
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The Asiatic-Pacific Theater, was the area of operations of U. S. forces during World War II in the Pacific War during 1941-45. From mid-1942 until the end of the war in 1945, there were two U. S. operational commands in the Pacific. The Pacific Ocean Areas, divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area, the South West Pacific Area, including New Guinea, Philippines, Borneo, and the Dutch East Indies, was commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific Area. During 1945, the United States added the U. S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, commanded by General Carl Spaatz. Because of the roles of the United States Army and the United States Navy in conducting war in the Pacific Theater. There was no command, rather, the Asiatic-Pacific Theater was divided into the SWPA, the POA. The Official Chronology of the U. S. Navy in World War II, in the Service of the Emperor, Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army. Kafka, Roger, Pepperburg, Roy L. Warships of the World, the Campaigns of the Pacific War. A History of Us, War, Peace and all that Jazz, joint Operational Warfare, Theory and Practice. Newport, Rhode Island, United States Naval War College, the Battle for Leyte,1944, Allied and Japanese Plans, Preparations, and Execution
2.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
3.
Surrender of Japan
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The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2,1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting major operations, on August 6,1945, at 8,15 AM local time, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Sixteen hours later, American President Harry S. Truman called again for Japans surrender, warning them to expect a rain of ruin from the air, later in the day, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. After several more days of negotiations and a failed coup détat. In the radio address, called the Jewel Voice Broadcast, he announced the surrender of Japan to the Allies, on August 28, the occupation of Japan by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers began. The role of the bombings in Japans unconditional surrender. The state of war ended when the Treaty of San Francisco came into force on April 28,1952. Four more years passed before Japan and the Soviet Union signed the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, by 1945, the Japanese had suffered an unbroken string of defeats for nearly two years in the South West Pacific, the Marianas campaign, and the Philippines campaign. In July 1944, following the loss of Saipan, General Hideki Tōjō was replaced as minister by General Kuniaki Koiso. After the Japanese loss of the Philippines, Koiso in turn was replaced by Admiral Kantarō Suzuki, the Allies captured the nearby islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the first half of 1945. Okinawa was to be an area for Operation Downfall, the American invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. The Allied submarine campaign and the mining of Japanese coastal waters had largely destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet, the destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet, combined with the strategic bombing of Japanese industry, had wrecked Japans war economy. Production of coal, iron, steel, rubber, and other vital supplies was only a fraction of that before the war, as a result of the losses it had suffered, the Imperial Japanese Navy had ceased to be an effective fighting force. Although 19 destroyers and 38 submarines were still operational, their use was limited by the lack of fuel, the only course left is for Japans one hundred million people to sacrifice their lives by charging the enemy to make them lose the will to fight. As a final attempt to stop the Allied advances, the Japanese Imperial High Command planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū codenamed Operation Ketsugō and this was to be a radical departure from the defense in depth plans used in the invasions of Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Instead, everything was staked on the beachhead, more than 3,000 kamikazes would be sent to attack the transports before troops. The strategy of making a last stand at Kyūshū was based on the assumption of continued Soviet neutrality, a set of caves were excavated near Nagano on Honshu, the largest of the Japanese islands. In the event of invasion, these caves, the Matsushiro Underground Imperial Headquarters, were to be used by the army to direct the war and to house the Emperor and his family
4.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
5.
Axis powers
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The Axis powers, also known as the Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, were the nations that fought in World War II against the Allied Powers. The Axis agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not completely coordinate their activity, the Axis grew out of the diplomatic efforts of Germany, Italy, and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the treaty signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936, Mussolini declared on 1 November that all other European countries would from then on rotate on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term Axis. The almost simultaneous second step was the signing in November 1936 of the Anti-Comintern Pact, Italy joined the Pact in 1937. At its zenith during World War II, the Axis presided over territories that occupied parts of Europe, North Africa. There were no three-way summit meetings and cooperation and coordination was minimal, the war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of their alliance. As in the case of the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, at the time he was seeking an alliance with the Weimar Republic against Yugoslavia and France in the dispute over the Free State of Fiume. The term was used by Hungarys prime minister Gyula Gömbös when advocating an alliance of Hungary with Germany, when Mussolini publicly announced the signing on 1 November, he proclaimed the creation of a Rome–Berlin axis. Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini had pursued an alliance of Italy with Germany against France since the early 1920s. He believed that Italy could expand its influence in Europe by allying with Germany against France, in early 1923, as a goodwill gesture to Germany, Italy secretly delivered weapons for the German Army, which had faced major disarmament under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. General Hans von Seeckt supported an alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union to invade and partition Poland between them and restore the German-Russian border of 1914. The discussions concluded that Germans still wanted a war of revenge against France but were short on weapons, however at this time Mussolini stressed one important condition that Italy must pursue in an alliance with Germany, that Italy must. Tow them, not be towed by them, the French government warned Italy that it had to choose whether to be on the side of the pro-Versailles powers or that of the anti-Versailles revanchists. Grandi responded that Italy would be willing to offer France support against Germany if France gave Italy its mandate over Cameroon, France refused Italys proposed exchange for support, as it believed Italys demands were unacceptable and the threat from Germany was not yet immediate. In 1932, Gyula Gömbös and the Party of National Unity rose to power in Hungary, Gömbös sought to alter Hungarys post–Treaty of Trianon borders by forming an alliance with Austria and Italy, knowing that Hungary alone was not capable of challenging the Little Entente powers. At the meeting between Gömbös and Mussolini in Rome on 10 November 1932, the question came up of the sovereignty of Austria in relation to the rise to power in Germany of the Nazi Party. Mussolini was worried about Nazi ambitions towards Austria, and indicated that at least in the term he was committed to maintaining Austria as a sovereign state. Italy had concerns over a Germany which included Austria laying land claims to German-populated territories of the South Tyrol within Italy, Mussolini said he hoped the Anschluss could be postponed as long as possible until the breakout of a European war that he estimated would begin in 1938
6.
European theatre of World War II
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The Allied forces fought the Axis powers on two major fronts as well as in the adjoining Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre. Germany was humiliated in front of the world and had to pay very large war reparations, many Germans blamed their countrys post-war economic collapse and hyperinflation on the treatys conditions. After Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations, Mussolini of Fascist Italy and Hitler formed the Rome-Berlin axis, later, Empire of Japan, under the government of Hideki Tojo, would also join as an Axis power. Japan and Germany had already signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1939, other smaller powers also later joined the Axis throughout the war. On September 17, the Soviet forces joined the invasion of Poland, the Polish government evacuated the country for Romania. Poland fell within five weeks, with its last large operational units surrendering on October 5 after the Battle of Kock, as the Polish September Campaign ended, Hitler offered to Britain and France peace on the basis of recognition of German European continental dominance. On October 12, the United Kingdom formally refused, despite the quick campaign in the east, along the Franco-German frontier the war settled into a quiet period. This relatively non-confrontational and mostly non-fighting period between the major powers lasted until May 10,1940, and was known as the Phoney War, several other countries, however, were drawn into the conflict at this time. By September 28,1939, the three Baltic Republics felt they had no choice but to permit Soviet bases and troops on their territory, the Baltic Republics were occupied by the Soviet army in June 1940, and finally annexed to the Soviet Union in August 1940. The Soviet Union wanted to annex Finland and offered an agreement, but Finland rejected it. In the Moscow Peace Treaty of March 12,1940, Finland ceded 10% of her territory, the Finns were embittered over having lost more land in the peace than on the battlefields, and over the perceived lack of world sympathy. Meanwhile, in western Scandinavia, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in April 1940, sweden was able to remain neutral. Most Allied forces were in Flanders, anticipating a re-run of the World War I Schlieffen Plan, as a result of this, and also the superior German communications and tactics, the Battle of France was shorter than virtually all pre-war Allied thought could have conceived. It lasted six weeks, including the Luftwaffe bombing of Paris June 3, on June 10 Italy declared war on both France and the United Kingdom, but did not gain any significant success in this campaign. French government fled Paris, and soon, France surrendered on June 22, many French soldiers, as well as those of other occupied countries, escaped to Britain. The General de Gaulle proclaimed himself the leader of Free France. Following the unexpected victory, Hitler promoted 12 generals to the rank of field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony. Later, on April 24,1941, the USSR gave full recognition to the Vichy government situated in the non-occupied zone in France
7.
End of World War II in Europe
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The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Soviet Union and the Western Allies took place in late April and early May 1945. Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners, The total number of prisoners taken on the Western Front in April 1945 by the Western Allies was 1,500,000. April also witnessed the capture of at least 120,000 German troops by the Western Allies in the last campaign of the war in Italy, in the three or four months up to the end of April, over 800,000 German soldiers surrendered on the Eastern Front. In early April, the first Allied-governed Rheinwiesenlagers were established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands of captured or surrendered Axis Forces personnel, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force reclassified all prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces, not POWs. The legal fiction circumvented provisions under the Geneva Convention of 1929 on the treatment of former combatants, by October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease. Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps and refugees, Allied forces begin to discover the scale of The Holocaust, the advance into Germany uncovers numerous Nazi concentration camps and forced labor facilities. Up to 60,000 prisoners were at Bergen-Belsen when it was liberated on April 15,1945, Four days later troops from the American 42nd Infantry Division found Dachau. Allied troops force the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses, due to the prisoners poor physical condition, thousands continue to die after liberation. Captured SS guards are subsequently tried at Allied war crimes tribunals where many are sentenced to death, however, up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals will eventually flee Europe using ratlines such as ODESSA. Germans leave Finland, On 25 April 1945, the last Germans were expelled by the Finnish Army from Finland, Mussolinis death, On 25 April 1945, Italian partisans liberated Milan and Turin. On 27 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and it is disputed whether he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland, and was traveling with a German anti-aircraft battalion. On 28 April, Mussolini was executed in Giulino, the other Fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo, the bodies were then taken to Milan and hung up on the Piazzale Loreto of the city. On 29 April, Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta, Graziani was the Minister of Defence for Mussolinis Italian Social Republic. Upper Inn river to the American General Jacob L. Devers, hitler appointed his successors as follows, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler. However, Goebbels committed suicide the day, leaving Dönitz as the sole leader of Germany. In the document, the Germans agreed to a ceasefire and surrender of all the forces under the command of Vietinghoff at 2pm on 2 May, German forces in Berlin surrender, The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. On that date, General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, on the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin, surrendered to the Western Allies. Lehrter Bahnhof is close to where the remains of Bormann, confirmed as his by a DNA test in 1998, were unearthed on 7 December 1972, the number of German land, sea and air forces involved in this surrender amounted to 1,000,000 men
8.
Tehran Conference
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The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was held in the Soviet Unions embassy in Tehran, Iran and it was the first of the World War II conferences of the Big Three Allied leaders. It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place on 22–26 November 1943, although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, a separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Irans independence. As soon as the German-Soviet war broke out in June 1941, Churchill offered assistance to the Soviets, and an agreement to this effect was signed on 12 July 1941. Delegations had traveled between London and Moscow to arrange the implementation of this support and when the United States joined the war in December 1941, a Combined Chiefs of Staff committee was created to coordinate British and American operations as well as their support to the Soviet Union. There was the question of opening a second front to alleviate the German pressure on the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front, the question of mutual assistance. Also, neither the United States nor Britain were prepared to give Stalin a free hand in Eastern Europe and, lastly, communications regarding these matters between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin took place by telegrams and via emissaries—but it was evident that direct negotiations were urgently needed. Stalin was reluctant to leave Moscow and was unwilling to risk journeys by air, while Roosevelt was physically disabled, in order to arrange this urgently needed meeting, Roosevelt tried to persuade Stalin to travel to Cairo. Stalin turned down this offer and also offers to meet in Baghdad or Basra, the conference was to convene at 16,00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin arrived well before, followed by Roosevelt, brought in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the venue, Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met, Churchill, walking with his general staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later. The U. S. and Great Britain wanted to secure the cooperation of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany, Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. In order to compensate Poland for the loss of territory. This decision was not formally ratified, however, until the Potsdam Conference of 1945, the leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France, as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941. It was agreed Overlord would occur by May 1944, Stalin agreed to support it by launching a concurrent major offensive on Germanys eastern front to divert German forces from northern France, Iran and Turkey were discussed in detail. In addition, the Soviet Union was required to support to Turkey if that country entered the war. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey entered on the Allies side before the year was out, despite accepting the above arrangements, Stalin dominated the conference
9.
Yalta Conference
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The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea, USSR. The goal of conference was to shape a post-war peace that represented not just a collective security order, the meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, to a degree, it has remained controversial. Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three and it had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, which was attended by Stalin, Churchill and Harry S. Truman, Roosevelts successor. All three leaders were attempting to establish an agenda for governing post-war Germany and they wanted to keep peace between post-world war countries. On the Eastern Front, the front line at the end of December 1943 remained in the Soviet Union but, by August 1944, Soviet forces were inside Poland, by the time of the Conference, Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukovs forces were 65 km from Berlin. Stalins position at the conference was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms. According to U. S. delegation member and future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, t was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, moreover, Roosevelt hoped for a commitment from Stalin to participate in the United Nations. Stalin, insisting that his doctors opposed any long trips, rejected Roosevelts suggestion to meet at the Mediterranean and he offered instead to meet at the Black Sea resort of Yalta, in the Crimea. Stalins fear of flying also was a factor in this decision. Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the U. S, Poland was the first item on the Soviet agenda. Stalin stated that For the Soviet government, the question of Poland was one of honor, in addition, Stalin stated regarding history that because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland, the Soviet government was trying to atone for those sins. Stalin concluded that Poland must be strong and that the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty, free, Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacific War with the Allies. Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific War three months after the defeat of Germany, Stalin pledged to Truman to keep the nationality of the Korean Peninsula intact as Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. At the time, the Red Army had occupied Poland completely, the Declaration of Liberated Europe did little to dispel the sphere of influence agreements that had been incorporated into armistice agreements. They also agreed to give France a zone of occupation, carved out of the U. S. also, the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would be repatriated. The Declaration of Liberated Europe is a declaration that was created by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and it was a promise that allowed the people of Europe to create democratic institutions of their own choice. The declaration pledged, the earliest possible establishment through free elections governments responsive to the will of the people and this is similar to the statements of the Atlantic Charter, which says, the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live
10.
Potsdam Conference
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The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, the three powers were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. The goals of the conference included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues. In the five months since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would affect the relationships between the leaders. Firstly, the Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe, by July, the Red Army effectively controlled the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and fearing a Stalinist take-over, refugees were fleeing from these countries. Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland and he insisted that his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks and claimed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence. Secondly, Britain had a new Prime Minister, a general election was held in the UK on 5 July, the results of which became known during the conference, with a Labour Party majority, Labour leader Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister. During the war and in the name of Allied unity, Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe, while inexperienced in foreign affairs, Truman had closely followed the allied progress of the war. With the end of the war, the priority of allied unity was replaced with a new challenge, the two leading powers continued to sustain a cordial relationship to the public but suspicions and distrust lingered between them. As the suspicion grew between the two rising powers, Stalin proposed that America will use their advantage and success in order to entices other nations into expanding their U. S. policies. Truman became much more suspicious of communist moves than Roosevelt had been, Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism which was incompatible with the agreements Stalin had committed to at Yalta the previous February. However, the Potsdam Conference marks the first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in person, at the end of the conference, the three Heads of Government agreed on the following actions. All other issues were to be answered by the peace conference to be called as soon as possible. Allied Chiefs of Staff at the Potsdam Conference decided to temporarily partition Vietnam at the 16th parallel for the purposes of operational convenience. It was agreed that British forces would take the surrender of Japanese forces in Saigon for the half of Indochina. The Allies issued a statement of aims of their occupation of Germany, Germany and Austria were to be divided respectively into four occupation zones, and similarly each capital, Berlin and Vienna, was to be divided into four zones. It was agreed that the Nazi war criminals would be put to trial, all German annexations in Europe were to be reversed, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, and the westernmost parts of Poland. Germanys eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder–Neisse line, the territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania
11.
Burma Campaign
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The Burmese Independence Army was trained by the Japanese and spearheaded the initial attacks against British Empire forces. The campaign had a number of notable features, the geographical characteristics of the region meant that factors like weather, disease and terrain had a major effect on operations. The lack of transport infrastructure placed an emphasis on engineering and air transport to move and supply troops. The campaign was politically complex, with the British, the United States. It was also the land campaign by the Western Allies in the Pacific Theatre which proceeded continuously from the start of hostilities to the end of the war. This was due to its geographical location, the climate of the region is dominated by the seasonal monsoon rains, which allowed effective campaigning for only just over half of each year. Japanese objectives in Burma were initially limited to the capture of Rangoon and this would close the overland supply line to China and provide a strategic bulwark to defend Japanese gains in British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese successfully attacked over the Kawkareik Pass, and captured the port of Moulmein at the mouth of the Salween River after overcoming stiff resistance and they then advanced northwards, outflanking successive British defensive positions. Troops of the 17th Indian Infantry Division tried to retreat over the Sittaung River, on 22 February, the bridge was demolished to prevent its capture, a decision that has since been extremely contentious. The loss of two brigades of 17th Indian Division meant that Rangoon could not be defended, although some units arrived, counterattacks failed and the new commander of Burma Army, ordered the city to be evacuated on 7 March after its port and oil refinery had been destroyed. The remnants of Burma Army broke out to the north, narrowly escaping encirclement, with the effective collapse of the entire defensive line, there was little choice left other than an overland retreat to India or to Yunnan. After the fall of Rangoon in March 1942, the Allies attempted to make a stand in the north of the country, having been reinforced by a Chinese Expeditionary Force. The Japanese had also reinforced by two divisions made available by the capture of Singapore, and defeated both the newly organised Burma Corps and the Chinese force. The Allies were also faced with growing numbers of Burmese insurgents, with their forces cut off from almost all sources of supply, the Allied commanders finally decided to evacuate their forces from Burma. The retreat was conducted in very difficult circumstances, starving refugees, disorganised stragglers, and the sick and wounded clogged the primitive roads and tracks leading to India. Burma Corps managed to make it most of the way to Imphal, in Manipur in India just before the monsoon broke in May 1942, having lost most of their equipment, there, they found themselves living out in the open under torrential rains in extremely unhealthy circumstances. The army and civil authorities in India were very slow to respond to the needs of the troops, due to lack of communication, when the British retreated from Burma, almost none of the Chinese knew about the retreat. After recuperating they were re-equipped and retrained by American instructors, the rest of the Chinese troops tried to return to Yunnan through remote mountainous forests and out of these, at least half died
12.
Victory over Japan Day
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Victory over Japan Day is the day on which the Empire of Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect ending the war. August 15 is the official V-J Day for the UK, while the official U. S. commemoration is September 2, the name, V-J Day, had been selected by the Allies after they named V-E Day for the victory in Europe. On September 2,1945, a surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan. In Japan, August 15 usually is known as the day for the end of the war. This official name was adopted in 1982 by an issued by the Japanese government. On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima, on August 9, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. The Japanese government on August 10 communicated its intention to surrender under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, the news of the Japanese offer, however, was enough to begin early celebrations around the world. Allied soldiers in London danced in a line on Regent Street. Americans and Frenchmen in Paris paraded on the Champs-Elysées singing Dont Fence Me In, American soldiers in Berlin shouted Its over in the Pacific, and hoped that they would now not be transferred there to fight the Japanese. Germans stated that the Japanese were wise enough to—unlike themselves—give up in a hopeless situation, moscow newspapers briefly reported on the atomic bombings with no commentary of any kind. While Russians and foreigners alike could hardly talk about anything else, in Chungking, Chinese fired firecrackers and almost buried in gratitude. In Manila, residents sang God Bless America, on Tinian island, B-29 crews preparing for their next mission over Japan were told that it was cancelled, but that they could not celebrate because it might be rescheduled. S. President Harry S Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington, a nationwide broadcast by Truman was aired at seven oclock p. m. on August 14 announcing the communication and that the formal event was scheduled for September 2. In his announcement of Japans surrender on August 14, Truman said that the proclamation of V-J Day must wait upon the signing of the surrender terms by Japan. In Australia, the name V-P Day was used from the outset, the Canberra Times of August 14,1945, refers to VP Day celebrations, and a public holiday for VP Day was gazetted by the government in that year according to the Australian War Memorial. In Washington, D. C. a crowd attempted to break into the White House grounds as they shouted We want Harry, in San Francisco two women jumped naked into a pond at the Civic Center to soldiers cheers. The largest crowd in the history of New York Citys Times Square gathered to celebrate. S, in the Garment District, workers threw out cloth scraps and ticker tape, leaving a pile five inches deep on the streets. A coast-to-coast frenzy of kissing occurred, with Life publishing photographs of such kisses in Washington, Kansas City, Los Angeles, one of the best-known kisses that day appeared in V-J Day in Times Square, one of the most famous photographs ever published by Life
