Curated playlist
1945 in Japan
- Invasion of the Kuril IslandsThe decision to invade the Kuril Islands emerged from a sudden shift in Soviet military strategy during August 1945. Planners initially targeted Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, as part of their broader Pacific campaign. That…
- Soviet invasion of South SakhalinThe Soviet invasion of South Sakhalin kept troops fighting for more than a week after Japan had already surrendered. It struck the southern half of Sakhalin Island, a Japanese territory called Karafuto Prefecture. Japan had taken the whole…
- Surrender of JapanAt 8:15 in the morning on the 6th of August 1945, a single aircraft released a single bomb over Hiroshima. Sixteen hours later, President Harry S. Truman went on the air to promise Japan "a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has…
- Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiThe atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of them civilians. On the 6th of August 1945, the United States dropped a bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, on the 9th of August, a second…
- Battle of OkinawaThe Battle of Okinawa began on the 1st of April 1945, when American forces launched the largest amphibious assault ever attempted in the Pacific Theater of World War II. They called it Operation Iceberg. The island they were storming lay…
- Battle of Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima began on the 19th of February 1945, when the first wave of Marines landed on the southeastern beaches of a small volcanic island eight square miles in area. What they found was not what American intelligence had…
- Battle of West HunanThe Battle of West Hunan began on the 6th of April 1945, just weeks before Germany's surrender in Europe, but on the other side of the world the Second Sino-Japanese War was still raging through its eighth year. Japan launched what would…
- Soviet invasion of ManchuriaThe Soviet invasion of Manchuria began at one minute past midnight Trans-Baikal time on the 9th of August 1945, simultaneously on three fronts. Hours earlier, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov had summoned Japanese ambassador…
- Bombing of TokyoThe bombing of Tokyo on the night of the 9th of March 1945 was the single most destructive aerial raid in human history. Operation Meetinghouse, as the mission was codenamed, reduced vast stretches of central Tokyo to ash before dawn. It…
- Hirohito surrender broadcastAt precisely noon on the 15th of August, 1945, a radio announcer instructed the Japanese nation to stand for an announcement "of the highest importance." The national anthem, Kimigayo, was played. Then came a voice that no ordinary…
- Invasion of Lingayen GulfThe Invasion of Lingayen Gulf began on the 3rd of January 1945, and what followed over the next ten days would claim the lives of around 738 ship-based personnel and wound another 1,282. The operation was a massive Allied amphibious…
- Occupation of JapanOn the 2nd of September 1945, aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan signed the instrument of surrender that ended the largest war in human history. What followed was something with no real precedent: a foreign power taking…
- Japanese Instrument of SurrenderThe Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the printed agreement that ended World War II, signed on the deck of a warship anchored in Tokyo Bay just after nine o'clock in the morning on the 2nd of September 1945. Nine Allied nations put…
- Victory over Japan DayVictory over Japan Day marks the moment the deadliest conflict in human history finally stopped. On the 15th of August 1945, Emperor Hirohito's voice came across the radio in Japan, announcing that his country would accept the terms of the…