Japanese aggression in the Pacific

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On the morning of Sunday December 7, 1941, the Second World War in the Pacific was begun with an attack by Japanese naval aviation against the American held island of Oahu, Hawaii and its main port, Pearl Harbor. Within hours of this dawn attack, a meticulously planned campaign was launched against key American and British Commonwealth forces in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya and China, the ultimate goal of which was Japanese control of eastern Asia and the western Pacific, including the priceless natural resources of the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia).

The Japanese government believed that once these regions were firmly under their control, the Allies, and especially the United States, would sue for peace rather than fight a bloody war in distant lands. The Japanese however, did not anticipate the angry backlash which arose as a result of their use of force at Pearl Harbor, and a negotiated settlement of the type envisioned in 1941 became impossible.

In the end, a grimly determined Allied coalition fought its way back across the Pacific, island by island, until the twin spectres of nuclear bombardment over Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced and the end of war.

From: http://www.wtj.com/articles/pacific_...acific_war.htm