Tokyo, Japan • August 14, 1945 Two days after the United States had dropped a second atomic bomb on a major Japanese city, this on Nagasaki on August 9, Emperor Hirohito (posthumously referred to as Emperor Shōwa) personally intervened during an Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi) to let diehard hawks in his government and armed services know…
509th Composite Group HQ, Tinian, Mariana Islands • August 9, 1945 Despite the shockwaves that Hiroshima’s destruction on August 6, 1945, sent through Imperial circles, Japan’s government refused to agree to an unconditional surrender; their leaders insisted on preconditions, chief among them protecting the “prerogatives” of Emperor Hirohito as Japan’s “sovereign ruler.” (Had there been no Japanese…
Moscow, Soviet Union • August 8, 1945 On this date the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, the last Axis hold-out after the Soviets and their Western Allies had vanquished Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had long urged Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to join…
Guadalcanal, Southern Solomon Islands • August 7, 1942 On this date in 1942 some 11,000 Marines of the 1st Marine Division assaulted the northcentral beaches of Guadalcanal, the largest of the nearly 1,000 tropical islands in the Solomon Islands chain (see map below). Guadalcanal’s 2,000 Japanese defenders were caught by complete surprise. The amphibious Marine…
509th Composite Group HQ, Tinian, Mariana Islands • August 6, 1945 For several months the U.S. had dropped more than 63 million leaflets across Japan, warning civilians of devastating aerial bombings and to evacuate the cities identified in the leaflets. Radio broadcasts from the American-held island of Saipan underscored the printed warnings. Many Japanese cities suffered terrible…
Philippine Sea Between Guam Island and Leyte Gulf • July 30, 1945 On July 15, 1945, Capt. Charles B. McVay III, 46‑year-old skipper of the USS Indianapolis, a fast Portland-class cruiser in California for repairs, received orders to pick up some special cargo at Hunters Point (predecessor name for the now-closed San Francisco Naval Yard). Eleven days later, on…
Potsdam, Germany • July 26, 1945 After the conclusion of the ruinous Battle of Berlin (April 16 to May 2, 1945) and the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany (May 7 and 8, 1945), U.S. President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin gathered at a “Big Three” victors’ conference in Potsdam. Their…
Saipan, Marianas, Central Pacific • July 6, 1944 The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a pivotal U.S. naval victory, effectively eliminating Japan’s ability to both conduct large-scale carrier actions and reinforce its garrisons to the east in the Mariana Islands chain. The most important islands in the Marianas were Guam (an…
Tokyo, Japan • June 30, 1941 On September 19, 1931, soldiers of the Kwantung Army (eventually the largest, most prestigious branch of the Imperial Japanese Army) invaded Manchuria in Northeast China from their Chinese base at Port Arthur (known as Ryojun in Japanese; present-day Dalian or Lüshun Port) and established a puppet state they called…
New Georgia Islands, Solomon Islands • June 21, 1943 On this date in 1943, the U.S. kicked off Operation Toenails, as the New Georgia campaign was called, with unopposed landings by the elite 4th Marine Raider Battalion followed the next day by the Army’s 43rd Infantry Division. The year before, in October, the Japanese had reconnoitered…