• On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pear Harbor, the United States Pacific fleet.

• This attack led to the United States declaring war on Japan and Germany.

• After Pearl Harbor, Japan continuously conquered islands in the Pacific because the League of Nations wasn't taking any action.

• "The turning point in the Pacific war came with the American naval victory in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, (United States Memorial Museum, World War II in the Pacific)."

• After this victory, the Allied forces kept gaining on Japan through strategies such as island-hopping.

• The Japanese retaliated in the Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They also used kamikazes, where Japanese soldiers would commit suicide and crash their planes into American forces.

• Since the United States felt that the War in the Pacific wasn't coming to an end, the decided to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a highly populated Japanese city.

• When the United States government did not hear from the Japanese, they decided to drop another bomb on the city of Nagasaki.

• "Japan formally surrendered to the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union on September 2, 1945, (United States Memorial Museum, World War II in the Pacific)."

The Pacific War

• The Indianapolis was the cargo ship that carried the atomic bomb to Hiroshima. After the ship had dropped of it's luggage, it was torpedoed by the Japanese. Dr. Lewis Haynes was aboard the ship when it was torpedoed and told his side of the story. "I awoke. I was in the air. I saw a bright light before I felt the concussion of the explosion that threw me up in the air almost to the overhead. A torpedo had detonated under my room. I hit the edge of the bunk, hit the deck, and stood up. Then the second explosion knocked me down again. As I landed on the deck I thought, ‘I've got to get the hell out of here!’ I grabbed my life jacket and started to go out the door. My room was already on fire, (Lewis Haynes, Survivor of the Indianapolis)."