On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most decisive
U.S. victories against Japan during World War II—began.
During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S.
Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft
carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the
previously invincible Japanese navy.
On November 5, 1941, the Combined Japanese Fleet receive Top-
Secret Order No. 1: In just over a month’s time, Pearl Harbor is
to be bombed, along with Malaya (now known as Malaysia), the
Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.
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Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto Commander-in-Chief of the
Japanese Combined Fleet who planned the attack.
On February 8, 1943, Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal,
leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign.
The American victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the
Solomon Islands.
Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons, a group of 992 islands
and atolls, 347 of which are inhabited, in the South Pacific Ocean.
"Guadalcanal" Painting by Keinichi Nakamura 1943.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Port Arthur, the Russian naval
base in China, fell to Japanese naval forces under Admiral
Heihachiro Togo. It was the first in a series of defeats that by
June turned the tide of the imperial conflict irrevocably against
Russia.
In February 1904, following a Russian rejection of a Japanese plan
to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan
launched a surprise naval attack on Port Arthur, decimating the
Russian fleet. In the subsequent fighting, Japan won a series of
decisive victories over the Russians, who underestimated the
military potential of its non-Western opponent.
Surrender of the Russian defenders to the Japanese after the Siege of Port Arthur, Russo-Japanese War.
