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Find locations of WWII battlefields, memorials, shrines, POW camps and other information by country.
Pearl Harbor is having the 70th Anniversary Commemorations at the USS Arizona memorial and the USS Missouri memorial December 7 2011.
Australia - Liberty leave (RR) and staging area for US troops, General MacArthur's headquarters in Darwin after he left Philippines, Darwin and other areas in NW Australia were bombed by the Japanese.
Burma - January 20, 1942 Japanese and Thai troops crossed into Burma. Fighting raged north of Myawaddi, 60 miles east of Moulmein. The British were forced to fall back because the Japanese out numbered them. Japanese continued unchecked to capture Moulmein and Rangoon.
China - fighting Japanese since 1931
Fiji Islands - staging area for US and Allied troops, used for liberty leave.
Guam - attacked by Japanese on December 8 began at 8:30am. Guam was not fortified and virtually defenseless. US forces surrendered December 10th.
Hawaii Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941 - Japanese attacked and destroyed most of the US Pacific Fleet.
Hong Kong - Japanese attacked the British colony on December 8 1941 The British, Canadian and Indian troops garrison in Hong Kong fought heroically against overwhelming odds under the Governor Sir Mark Young. Allied troops surrendered on December 25th, 1941, known as Black Christmas. POWs were sent to camps in HK area, Vietnam, Fukuoka, Osaka and Yokohama Japan for slave labor. HK returned to British rule after Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945.
Japan - Okinawa and Iwo Jima otherwise no battles fought on homeland, however, bombing crippled major cities and towns, POW camps throughout. Atomic bomb blasted over Hiroshima and Nagasaki ending the war in August 1945..
- Iwo Jima - major battle
- Okinawa - major battle
Macau - Portugese colony, never occupied by Japanese.
Malaysia - Japanese invaded December 8 1941
- Borneo - Japanese invaded January 1 1942, Resistance fighting in hills, location of Sandakan POW camp where 2000 Australian and British POWs perished.
Manchuria - Mukden POW camp located here.
Micronesia - Japanese Navy base at Truk Lagoon from Nov. 1939 - end of war. Operation Hailstorm destroyed most of the Japanese fleet at Truk Feb. 1944. Afterwhich, Truk endured 18 months aerial bombardment by US. Turk Lagoon was the strongest naval port in the Pacific. Go scuba diving to see munitions, guns, shipwrecks and aircraft wreckage from war.
Midway Islands battle- Turning point of the war for US
New Zealand - staging area for US & Allied Troops.
Papua New Guinea - major military campaign of WWII involving over 200,000 Japanese, Australians and Americans. Fighting began when Japanese took Rabaul in nearby New Britain in 1942 and did not cease until the war ended in 1945.
Rabaul on New Britain island in the territory of New Guinea, Japanese invade on January 23 1942. Rabaul was a major military base for the Japanese throughout the war.
The battle at Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain took place between December 1943 to April 1944.
Palau Islands - US marines, trained on Pavuvu to fight on Peleliu, d-day September 15 1944.
Philippines - attacked by Japanese December 8 at 12:00 noon (same day as Pearl Harbor only across the international dateline). US and Filipino forces on Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942, other areas in the Philippines soon followed.
Singapore - British colony attacked by Japanese Feb 8 1941, surrendered Feb 15 1941. Largest surrender of British military personnel ever, 80,000 British, Australian and Indian troops. POWs sent to Changai Prison in Singapore, Japan, Burma Death Railway and North Borneo for slave labor.
Solomon Islands - Japanese begin assault on the Solomon's January 25th 1942. Japanese land on Guadalcanal May 4 1942, withdraw troops from island on Feb 9th 1943.
Taiwan (Formosa) - Japanese military installations, war factories and POW camps located here.
Tarawa - Gilbert Island group includes Makin, Japanese invaded the Gilbert Islands in the late summer of 1942 and begun to fortify the islands and build an airfield. The Second Marine Division began the assault here on Nov 20 1943.
Thailand -Japanese invaded December 8 1941, used Thailand as base to assault rest of SE Asia. Burma Thai Railway built by POWs and civilian forced slave labor.
Vanuatu - staging area for US troops getting ready to assault Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and other islands in the Pacific.
Vietnam - Japanese invaded in December 1940 to construct military bases in which to launch strikes against Allied forces.
Wake Island - attacked by Japanese on December 8 (same day as Pearl Harbor only across the international dateline).
Washington DC - December 8 - Roosevelt declares war on Japan in his Day of Infamy speech. See the WWII memorial and Iwo Jima statue memorial.