How One American Destroyer Changed the Course of World War II in the Pacific
For their outstanding combat performance, the men of the USS England were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, making them one of only three destroyer escort crews in World War II to be so recognized.
Here s What You Need to Know: Historian W.H. Holmes considers England’s 12-day battle as “the most brilliant antisubmarine operation in history.”
Admiral Soemu Toyoda needed answers. The newly appointed commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet, Toyoda found himself facing several unpleasant facts. By May 1944, Allied naval and air strength in the Pacific Ocean was growing at an alarming rate. Already, fast-moving enemy forces had advanced far across northern New Guinea and into the Admiralties and through the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.
Kazutoshi Hando is seen in his home archive room in Tokyo s Setagaya Ward in 2014. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
In the decisive battles of the Soviet-Japanese border conflict in 1939, known in Japan as the Nomonhan Incident, the hitherto invincible Japanese Army was thoroughly defeated by the Soviet forces.
The tragedy was condensed into a narrative titled Nomonhan no Natsu (Summer in Nomonhan), by Kazutoshi Hando. When I read it for the first time, I felt my heart skipping a beat.
Japanese shells and other assault weapons had no effect whatsoever on state-of-the-art Soviet tanks. The two nations were not even close in military strength.
The status of the islands has continued to sour relations between Moscow and Tokyo.
Here s What You Need to Remember: After the war, 17,000 Japanese civilian residents were deported, while those captured Japanese soldiers were interned in Siberia and many didn t return home until 1950. Today 19,000 Russian citizens lived on the island chain, and given the impending arrival of tanks it isn t likely they ll be leaving anytime soon.
Since the end of the Second World War seventy-five years ago, the Kuril Islands have remained under Russian administration even despite Japanese claims for the four southernmost (including two largest) of the islands. Known as the South Kurils by the Russians and the Northern Territories to the Japanese, these islands were captured by the Soviet Red Army in late August and early September 1945 and annexed to the Soviet Union.
Defeat in Hong Kong was first major loss for Canada during WWII
A look back at 1942 and the Canadian war effort
Jan 11, 2021 11:00 AM By: Jason G. Antonio
It was an unhappy new year for hundreds of Canadian troops in January 1942, after they became prisoners of war following a month-long battle against the Imperial Japanese Army in Hong Kong.
A contingent of 1,975 Canadian soldiers had been sent to the British colony in November 1941 to join 14,000 other British and Indian troops expecting guard duty. However, that “guard duty” was shattered when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7 and kicked off the Second World War in the Pacific.
Goal: Accept responsibility for wide-scale exploitation of and violence towards women during World War II.
Before and during the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army held hundreds of thousands of young women and girls in captivity as sex slaves, euphemistically described as “comfort women.” These women, some as young as 14, were subjected to horrific psychological, emotional, and physical abuse. While those who survived were duly returned to their countries of origin, they were never offered any restitution for their experiences.
Now, a South Korean court has taken the landmark step of ordering the Japanese government to compensate 12 of the surviving victims of this programmatic abuse. Although Japan has declared that it enjoys sovereign immunity to charges of sanctioning the systematic abduction and abuse of these women, the victims’ demands remain unanswered, and the recent court decision, as well as international law, is on their side.