The battles of the two coalitions during World War II deployed on the space of the four basis theaters of war: the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the West European and the Eastern ones, with the Pacific playing the role of the primary battleground that witnessed the great sea battles between the Japanese and Allies. Apart from Nazi Germany, Military Japan also had expansionist plans in its strategy during WWII. As long as in 1931 it made an attempt to occupy Manchuria and North China, as well as the invasion into the depth of China in 1937 (Japanese Conquest). The expansion was actively opposed by the leading nations, however. Great Britain, the U.S.A. and the Netherlands imposed economic sanctions on Japan. Likewise, the Soviet-Japanese border conflicts of 1938-39 were about to outgrow into a full-scale warfare. To avoid this, the USSR had to react more seriously to the development of the events near its eastern borders.
Japan faced a serious choice regarding the future direction of its expansion: it had to decide whether it would go north against the USSR or south against Korea and China. In the final analysis, the choice was made in favor of the southern variant. As a result, on April 1941 Japan and the USSR signed the neutrality pact for a period of 5 years (Soviet-Japanese Neutrality).
Having frozen all the Japanese assets in the US and established the embargo regarding oil supply in Japan on June 26 1941, the Allies opened another front, thus urging Japan to join the war (United States Freezes). At the same time, Japan was deprived of 95% of the oil that had previously been imported into the country. By doing this, the Allies saved the Soviet Union from Japanese attacks on the Far East, which allowed reallocating Soviet divisions to Moscow in the most severe period of the Soviet history. At the same time, Japan began preparation for war against the US allies in the Pacific - Great Britain and the Netherlands.
On December 7 1941 441 Japanese aircrafts attacked Pearl Harbor. As a result, the Japanese destroyed 4 battleships, including USS Arizona, 2 cruisers and 1 minelayer (Attack on Pearl Harbor). The US casualties accounted for more than 2400 people. After 6 hours after the attack the US battleships and submarines were ordered to launch hostilities in the Pacific against Japan. At the very beginning of 1942 Japanese air forces attacked Darwin Port on the northern coast of Australia, which was followed by great naval battles involving aircraft carriers in the Coral Sea, as well as on Midway Atoll where US forces had their first victories over the Japanese (Attack on Pearl Harbor). The Battle of Midway proved a turning point in the Pacific war.
On the island of New Guinea the Japanese forces were advancing toward Port Moresby, yet they were stopped by the American and Australian forces under the command of Douglas MacArthur (Attack on Pearl Harbor). On August 7 1942 the US marines landed on Guadalcanal and captured a Japanese aerodrome. During the period of October-November of 1942 the Japanese made several unsuccessful counterattacks. By the beginning of 1942 the US forces had conquered Guadalcanal, which was followed by the capture of the southern and central parts of the Solomon Islands. Furthermore, on November 20-23 the US marines conquered the Gilbert Islands, and landed on the Marshall Islands on January and February 1944 (Chen, Marshall Islands Campaign).
During the spring of 1944 the US forces carried out a series of landing operations on the northern coast of New Guinea, which hastened the advance of the Allies from the southern part of the island. During the summer and autumn the Allies freed the major part of New Guinea, thus making the Japanese parts caught into encirclement. Moreover, the Japanese parts of the Caroline Islands were also blocked and cut from the outer world.
On June 15 1944 the US forces landed on the strongly fortified island of Saipan. The Japanese offered a severe resistance, but had been defeated by July 9. The US conquest of Saipan led to the collapse of the reign of Hideki Tojo in Japan (Hideki Tojo, 2016). During the summer of 1944 the Mariana Islands were completely conquered, which allowed the US to launch bombardment of Japan itself from its own aerodromes, since it was a sufficient distance for the operation of B-29 Superfortress.
On February 19 1945 the US marines landed on Iwo Jima, where the Japanese offered a severely strong resistance (Mueller, Battle of Iwo Jima, 2016). Nonetheless, the island had been captured by March 26 (Mueller, Battle of Iwo Jima, 2016). On April 1 the US forces landed on Okinawa Island and conquered it on June 22 with the support of the air forces of the US and Great Britain. The Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa witnessed the harshest resistance of the Japanese forces throughout the war, since the islands were in direct possession of Japan. The ships of the Allies faced a number of attacks of the Japanese kamikaze, which resulted in severe losses among the Allies' forces. Nevertheless, the Battles of the islands ended up with a virtually complete destruction of the Japanese forces during WWII.
Works Cited
"Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact April 13, 1941." Avalon Project. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/s1.asp>.
Chen, Peter C. "Marshall Islands Campaign." World War II Database. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=73>.
"United States Freezes Japanese Assets." History. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-freezes-japanese-assets>.
"Japanese Conquest of Manchuria 1931-1932." Mount Holyoke College. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/WorldWar2/manchuria.htm>.
Mueller, John. "Battle of Iwo Jima (19 Feb – 26 Mar 1945)." Armored Column. 19 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://armored-column.com/battle-of-iwo-jima-19-feb-26-mar- 1945/>.
"Attack on Pearl Harbor." New World Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor>.
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