Japan Events

"I know not where to end. Never I have heard or read such brutality. Rape! Rape! Rape! We estimate at least 1,000 cases a night, and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that see..." —Reverend James M. McCallum

On the afternoon of December 13, the Shanghai Expeditionary Force Headquarters at Tangshuizhen was ambushed by Chinese stragglers. The Japanese repelled them, but they attacked again arou...

The bombing of Chongqing (Traditional Chinese: 重慶大轟炸, Simplified Chinese: 重庆大轰炸, Japanese: 重慶爆撃, from 18 February 1938 to 23 August 1943) was part of an Imperial Japanese Army Air Service...

The Battle of Tai'erzhuang (simplified Chinese: 台儿庄会战; traditional Chinese: 臺兒莊會戰; pinyin: Tái'érzhūang Huìzhàn) was a battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, between armies of Ch...

The Battle of Xuzhou was fought between Japanese and Chinese forces in May 1938 during Second Sino-Japanese War. In contemporary accounts in English, the event was usually referred to as ...

On 13 June, the Japanese made a naval landing that captured Anqing, which signalled the onset of the Battle of Wuhan. On the southern shore of Yangtze River, the Chinese 9th Military Regi...

Battle of Wanjialing, well known in Chinese text as the Victory of Wanjialing (simplified Chinese: 万家岭大捷; traditional Chinese: 萬家嶺大捷; pinyin: Wànjīalîng Dàjíe) refers to the Chinese Army'...

The Japanese Navy, after the capture of Canton the previous year, had maintained a formidable blockade all along the coast of south, central and north China. However, loopholes were found...

The Battle of Nanchang (Traditional Chinese: 南昌會戰, Simplified Chinese: 南昌会战) was a major battle between the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the Japanese Imperial Japanese Army in ...

The Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang (simplified Chinese: 随枣会战; traditional Chinese: 隨棗會戰; pinyin: Suízǎo Huìzhàn), also known as the Battle of Suizao was one of the 22 major engagements between...

The Swatow Operation, (June 21–27,1939) was part of a campaign by Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade China to prevent it from communicating with the outside world and i...

After two years of near stalemate, Lieutenant General Seishiro Itagaki led the Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, while the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 13th...

The 1939–40 Winter Offensive was one of the major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Nationalist failure t...

The Battle of Kunlun Pass (simplified Chinese: 昆仑关战役; traditional Chinese: 崑崙關戰役; pinyin: Kūnlúnguān Zhànyì) was a series of struggles between the Japanese and the Chinese in contention...

On 3 and 4 Feb, Wuyuan and Linhe were taken successively. On 20 Mar, Chinese General Fu Zuoyi's 35th Corps, the New 31st Division, and a regiment of the Garrison Brigade, which had been s...

The Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang (simplified Chinese: 枣宜会战; traditional Chinese: 棗宜會戰; pinyin: Zǎoyí Huìzhàn), also known as the Battle of Zaoyi was one of the 22 major engagements between t...

The Japanese Invasion of French Indochina (仏印進駐 Futsu-in shinchū?), also known as the Vietnam Expedition, was an attempt by the Empire of Japan, during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blo...

On this day in 1940, the Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The Pact provided for mutual assistance shoul...

The occupation of Nanning cut a Chinese line of supply along the highways from French Indo-China into Kwansi Province. The railway from Indo-China into Yunnan Province, however, lies much...

The Central Hupei Operation was one of the engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Known as the Central Hupei O...

On high at about 120 km southwest of Nanchang, the Jinjiang River north, briefly Hunan and Jiangxi Road (Nanchang to Changsha) hub of the east Poyang Plain, back nine and Luo Xiao Ling Sh...

The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed between Russia and Japan two years after the war between Russia and Japan at the Manchurian and Mongolian borders slowed inconclusively. The...

The Battle of South Shanxi (simplified Chinese: 晋南会战; traditional Chinese: 晉南會戰; pinyin: Jìn Nán Huìzhàn), also known as the Battle of Jinnan and as Chungyuan Operation by the Japanese, i...

In Sep 1941, more than 120,000 Japanese troops embarked on the second attempt to take the Chinese city of Changsha. The first engagement took place in the mountains southeast of Yueyang w...

Wake Island was an American outpost in the central Pacific. Wake is a coral atoll, made up of three islands. Wake Island itself is the largest, and forms two sides of a triangle. Peal...

The First Battle of Guam, was an engagement during the Pacific War in World War II, and took place on December 8, 1941 on Guam in the Mariana Islands between the Empire of Japan and Ameri...

Air Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, commanding officer of the British Forces in the Far East, fearing that the Japanese Fleet was trying to provoke a British attack and thus provide an ...

The Battle of Jitra was a major engagement fought between the invading Japanese and Allied forces in Malaya. The battle lasted from 11 to 13 December 1941. The resulting defeat compelled ...

With 120,000 soldiers organized in four divisions, the Japanese attempted a third attack on the Chinese city of Changsha. 300,000 men defended the city under the command of General Xue Yu...

The Battle of Kampar was an engagement of World War II between the 11th Indian Infantry Division and the Japanese 5th Division. The battle lasted from December 30, 1941 to January 2, 1942...

The Battle of Slim River occurred during the Malayan campaign in January 1942 between the Imperial Japanese Army and the British Indian Army on the west coast of Malaya. Japanese force...

The unit of Compagnie Menado, which numbered only 188 men under Captain W.F.J. Kroon and Landstorm Compagnie with its 200 troops under 1st Lieutenant F. Masselink were not enough to oppos...

The Battle of Tarakan took place on January 11–12, 1942. Even though Tarakan was only a small marshy island at northeastern Borneo in the Netherlands East Indies, but the 700 oil wells, o...

The Battle of Gemas—part of the wider Battle of Muar—during the invasion of Malaya in the Pacific Campaign of the Second World War. The action occurred on 14 January 1942 at the Gemencheh...

The Battle of Muar was the last major battle of the Malayan campaign. It took place from 14–22 January 1942 around Gemensah Bridge and on the Muar River. After the British defeat at Slim ...

While the Japanese invasion force was landing at Balikpapan, on the early morning of January 24, at around 02:45, the Allied (ABDACOM's) 59th US Navy Destroyer Division under Rear Admiral...

The Battle of Rabaul (Operation R), on the island of New Britain, in the Australian Territory of New Guinea, in January and February 1942, represented a strategically significant defeat o...

On January 23, 1942, the Parit Sulong Massacre was committed against Allied soldiers by members of the Imperial Guards Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. A few days earlier, the Alli...

From 6 January onwards, Ambon was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Allied aircraft made some sorties against the approaching Japanese fleet, with little success. On 13 January, the two B...

The Battle of Makassar Strait, also known as the Action of Madura Strait, the Action North of Lombok Strait and the Battle of the Flores Sea, was a naval battle of the Pacific theatre of ...

The Battle of Sarimbun Beach was the first stage of the Japanese assault on Singapore in February 1942, during World War II. Sarimbun, in the west of Singapore Island, was the area in whi...

The Battle of Kranji was the second stage of the Japanese plan for the invasion of Singapore during the Second World War. On 9 February 1942 the Japanese Army assaulted the north-western ...

As of September 1938, the number of insurgents had dwindled to an estimated 10,000 combatants as a result of years of fighting and privation. The Kwantung Army then brought reinforcements...

The Battle of Palembang was a battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II. It occurred near Palembang, on Sumatra, on 13–15 February 1942. The Royal Dutch Shell oil refineries at nea...

At about 1.00pm on 14 February Japanese soldiers advanced towards the Alexandra Barracks Hospital. A British lieutenant, acting as an envoy with a white flag, approached the Japanese forc...

By the morning of Chinese New Year, 15 February, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence and the Allies were running out of food and ammunition. The anti-aircraft guns ha...

The Battle of Badung Strait was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the night of 19–20 February 1942 in Badung Strait between the American-British-Dutch-Aust...

During the night of 19–20 February, 1,500 troops from the Imperial Japanese Army's 228th Regimental Group, 38th Division, XVI Army, under the command of Colonel Sadashichi Doi, began land...

The Battle of the Java Sea was a major naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy, on Febru...

The Battle of Java (Invasion of Java, Operation J) was a battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II. It occurred on the island of Java, between 28 February and 12 March 1942. It involv...