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War In The Pacific Marine troops landing on Guam
     
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End of the War Photo Gallery
 
     
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Chronology of the End of the War

 
  1941
9 October President Roosevelt decides to move forward with the effort to construct an atomic bomb.

 

1944
24 November First B-29 Bomber raids on Japan to be staged from the Islands

 

1945
9 March Program of low-level (10,000 ft.) incendiary attacks against Japanese cities begins with a massive B-29 raid on Tokyo that kills about 100,000 Japanese and bomb 16 square miles of city
5 April Japanese Prime Minister Koiso resigns and is succeeded by anti-militarist Kantaro Suzuki. The USSR formally informs the Japanese Government that the 1941 Neutrality Pact between the two nations will be allowed to lapse.
20 May Japanese forces begin pulling back from positions within China.
16 July Plutonium weapon successfully detonated at Trinity sire near Alamogordo, New Mexico
  Potsdam Conference begins
26 July Potsdam Declaration issued, demanding unconditional surrender of Japan
6 August Atomic bomb destroys most of Hiroshima
8 August USSR declares war on Japan
9 August Plutonium weapon detonated over Nagasaki
  Massive Russian offensive in Manchuria begins
10 August Ambiguous peace feelers from Japan to neutral capitals seem to signal a desire to modify the terms of the Potsdam Declaration
12 August Military members of the Japanese cabinet block surrender
14 August Raids on targets in Japan by B-29’s from the Marianas. The last bombs drop after 2:00AM on the 15th
  Prime minister Suzuki gains agreement to ask the Emperor to decide on continuing the war or suing for peace, and the Imperial Conference decides to accept the Potsdam declaration. a speech is written for the Emperor, and he records it at midnight.
  Militant militarists mutiny and attempt to seize the recording. They fail due to lack of support from the Minister of War, who commits ritual suicide.
15 August The Emperor’s speech, broadcast at noon, announces defeat and the end of the war to the people of Japan
21 August Fighting in Manchuria ends
2 September Formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor

24 October

 

 

The last major Japanese Army units in the Pacific are disarmed.

 
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Created by Kenneth Cole