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Battles of World War II involving Japan

  • Battle of Northern Burma and Western YunnanIn May 1942, Japan cut the Burma Road, the only overland supply route into China.
  • Western New Guinea campaignThe Western New Guinea campaign brought soldiers from three different armies onto the same stretch of tropical coastline in 1944 and 1945. Forces of the Dutch East Indies army, known as the KNIL, fought alongside American and Australian…
  • Battle of Changsha (1944)After losing Hengyang in 1944, General Fang Xianjue was decorated, not punished. The siege had lasted forty-seven days.
  • Siege of MyitkyinaRain and disease turned a planned quick march on Myitkyina into a siege. The fight in Burma dragged on for months.
  • Battle of Guilin–LiuzhouOnly 20,000 Chinese troops defended Guilin when Japan attacked on the 1st of November. The city fell after ten days.
  • Arakan campaign (1942–1943)A British brigade commander in Burma ordered his own guns to fire on his captured headquarters.
  • Battle of OkinawaJapan's army sent 1,780 schoolboys aged 14 to 17 to the front at Okinawa. About half were killed outright.
  • Fall of SingaporeIn February 1942, Britain surrendered Singapore with 85,000 soldiers to a Japanese force about a third that size.
  • Battle of Guam (1941)Guam's 1941 defenders had no artillery on land and no airfield. Japan took the island in about two days.
  • Battle of LuzonMost Japanese soldiers who died in the Battle of Luzon were killed by starvation and disease, not enemy fire.
  • Battle of LeyteAt the Battle of Leyte, MacArthur waded ashore to keep a two-year promise. He had vowed in 1942 to return.
  • Battle of Mount SongIn 1944, several tons of TNT under Mount Song finally destroyed a Japanese fortress.
  • Battle of Iwo JimaPlanners expected Iwo Jima to fall in a week, but it took five weeks. Japanese defenders had dug deep tunnels.
  • Battle of Manila (1945)In 1945, a Japanese admiral refused orders to leave Manila and chose to fight to the last man.
  • Battle of West HunanIn April 1945, Japan sent 80,000 men into west Hunan to seize one Chinese airfield. They were pushed back by June 7.
  • Battle of Buna–GonaThe Battle of Buna–Gona ended with evidence that starving Japanese defenders had eaten their own dead.
  • Battle of ImphalJapan's general expected to win the Battle of Imphal in three weeks.
  • Battle of the Philippine SeaAt the Philippine Sea in June 1944, Japan lost 346 carrier aircraft in a single day.
  • Battle of KohimaThe Battle of Kohima came down, at one point, to a tennis court. Enemy trenches sat a grenade throw apart in April 1944.
  • Invasion of Lingayen GulfKamikaze attacks at Lingayen Gulf on January 6, 1945 hit at a rate approaching 50 percent.
  • Operation U-GoJapan's Operation U-Go was led by a general who once called the terrain impassable.
  • Guadalcanal campaignTwo Japanese battleships fired 973 shells at Henderson Field, yet planes flew from it the next day.
  • Battle of MadagascarBritish forces landed on Madagascar on the 5th of May 1942 to stop Japan from getting there first.
  • Battle of Wake IslandAt Wake Island, a small Marine garrison sank two Japanese warships in December 1941.
  • Battle of Hong KongThe Battle of Hong Kong began just as Japan struck Pearl Harbor. The British colony fell within seventeen days.
  • Kokoda Track campaignAt one point in 1942, Japanese forces stood within 32 km of Port Moresby on the Kokoda Track.
  • Battles of Khalkhin GolA search for horse pasture in 1939 helped push Japan toward Pearl Harbor. It began at the Khalkhin Gol river.
  • Operation KeNearly 36,000 Japanese troops went to Guadalcanal, and only about 11,000 were alive when Operation Ke began.
  • Battle of HengyangChinese troops held the city of Hengyang for 47 days in 1944. Japanese losses topped the defenders' whole force.
  • Battle of Rabaul (1942)Before dawn on January 23, 1942, about 5,000 Japanese troops landed at Rabaul. Roughly 1,400 Australians held it.

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