Pacific Theater Time Line
June: Japan now occupies all of Indochina
July 26: Roosevelt freezes all Japanese assests in the U.S., levies embargo on Japan
October 17: General Hideki Tojo, war minister and leader of military extremists, becomes Prime Minister of Japan
December 7: Japan unleashes surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. Pacific fleet is decimated
December 8: U.S. Congress declares war on Japan, Britain declares war on
Japan
Japan
invades Thailand, Malaya, and the Phillipines
December 10: Japanese air attacks sink two British warships near Malaya
December 25: Hong Kong surrenders to Japan
January 1: Twenty-six nations sign the Declaration of the United Nations, forming a coalition against the Axis
January 2: Japanese occupy Manila, MacArthur retreats to the Bataan peninsula
February 15: British forces in Singapore surrender to Japan
February 27 - March 1: Small Allied naval force destroyed in the Battle of the Java Sea
March 7: British evacuate Burma
March 9: Java unconditionally surrenders to Japanese
April 9: U.S. forces on Bataan surrender to Japanese
April 18: Famous "Doolittle Raid" on Tokyo shatters Japanese myth of the impregnability of the home islands
May 4 - May 8: Battle of the Coral Sea
May 6: Beginning of the Bataan Death March
June 3 - June 6: Battle of Midway. Carrier U.S.S. Lexington sunk, Japan loses 4 carriers; sea power severely crippled
August 7: U.S. Marines land on Guadalcanal
February 7: Japanese evacuate Guadalcanal
March 2 - March 4: Battle of the Bismarck Sea, large portion of Japanese fleet destroyed
May 11: U.S. forces land in Aleutian Islands
November 1: American troops land on Solomon Islands
November 20: American marines land on Tarawa
February 2 - February 7: U.S. Marines capture Marshall Islands
February 21: Tojo becomes military dictator of Japan
July 9: American forces take Saipan after a month-long struggle
July 21: U.S. troops establish beachheads on Guam
August 10: Americans liberate Guam
October 20: Americans land in the Philippines
October 23 - October 26: Battle of Leyte Gulf, Japanese fleet suffers heavy losses
November 6: Stalin renounces neutrality pact with Japan
November 24: U.S. B-29's from Saipan bomb Tokyo
January 9: MacArthur's forces land on Luzon, 100 miles from Manila
February 3: U.S. liberates Manila
February 19: U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima
February 23: Marines capture Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima
March 9: Biggest bombing of Tokyo flattens 16 square miles and kills 100,000
March 26: Iwo Jima secured
April 1: Americans invade Okinawa
April 7: Suzuki becomes PM of Japan
April 12: Roosevelt dies, succeeded by Truman
May 3: Rangoon liberated by British
June 21: Americans achieve victory on Okinawa
July 4: MacArthur announces liberation of all of Philippines
July 16: Atom bomb successfully tested in New Mexico
August 6: Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima
August 9: Atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki
August 14: Japan surrenders unconditionally
September 2: Japan signs formal surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay