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"...we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain... Remember Dec. 7th!" U.S. Armed Forces
recruiting poster from 1942. |
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Allied POWs with hands tied behind their backs pause
during the Bataan Death March. About
76,000 prisoners including 12,000 Americans were forced on the 60
mile march under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new
POW camp in the Philippines. Over 5,000 Americans died on the march which began April 10, 1942, and lasted
six days for some and up to twelve days for others. |
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Upon completing the Bataan Death March prisoners wound up at Camp O'Donnell, a new Japanese POW camp, where many continued to suffer and die. This photo, often identified as a view of the death march itself in progress, has recently been re-identified by Bataan survivors as a later photo depicting an Allied burial detail removing bodies of fallen comrades to a mass grave located outside the POW camp. |
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With only 450 feet of 'runway,' one of sixteen Army
B-25 Mitchell bombers takes off from the deck of the USS HORNET on
its way to take part in the Doolittle Raid,
the first U.S. bombing raid on Japan. The all volunteer strike
force, trained and led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle, flew 800 miles
then bombed Tokyo and 3 other cities without opposition. The raid
inflicted little damage but gave a big boost to Allied morale in the
face of the seemingly unstoppable Japanese. April 18, 1942. |
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U.S. troops surrender to the Japanese at Corregidor
in the Philippine Islands, May 6, 1942.
A total of 11,500 Americans and Filipinos became POWs, including the
commander, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright. POWs from Corregidor and
Bataan were among the worst treated. May 6, 1942. |
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Map of the Japanese Empire at its height in 1942. |
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A U.S. Navy officer at the periscope in the control
room of a submarine. 1942. |
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A periscope photo of a torpedoed Japanese destroyer.
June 1942. |
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Although it was against Japanese regulations and could
have meant death, these American POWs celebrate the 4th of July, 1942,
in the Japanese prison camp of Casisange in the Philippines. Overall,
an estimated 40 percent of U.S. Army and Air Force POWs died while
in Japanese captivity, compared to 1.2 percent in German and Italian
custody. |
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Landing operations on Rendova Island in the Solomon
Islands. Attacking at dawn in a heavy rainstorm, the first
Americans ashore huddle behind tree trunks and any other cover they
can find. June 30, 1943. |
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A 165th Infantry assault wave attacks Butaritari, Yellow
Beach Two, finding it slow going in the coral bottom waters while
Japanese machine gun fire from the right flank makes it even more
difficult. Makin Atoll, Gilbert Islands.
November 20, 1943. |
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Marines assault a heavily reinforced Japanese pillbox
on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands by climbing
to the top and shooting down inside. November 21, 1943. |
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Two enlisted men of the U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier LISCOME
BAY, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Gilbert
Islands, are buried at sea from the deck of a transport ship.
November 1943. |
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Crewmen lift Kenneth Bratton out of the turret of a
Navy torpedo plane on the USS SARATOGA after an air raid on Rabaul.
November 1943. |
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As the invasion of the Solomon
Islands gets under way, U.S. troops go over the side of a transport
ship to enter landing barges at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville.
November 1943. |
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A Japanese torpedo bomber blown out of the sky after
a direct hit by 5 inch shell from the U.S. Aircraft Carrier YORKTOWN
which it attempted to attack, off Kwajalein.
December 4, 1943. |
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In an underground surgery room behind the front lines
on Bougainville in the Solomon
Islands, an American Army doctor operates on a U.S. soldier
wounded by a Japanese sniper. December 13, 1943. |
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Marines hit three feet of rough water as they leave
their landing ship to take the beach at Cape Gloucester, New
Britain. December 26, 1943. |
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Marine Raiders, with a reputation as lethal jungle fighters,
pose in front of a Japanese dugout they took on Cape Totkina on Bougainville,
Solomon Islands. January 1944. |
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Marine machine gunners repel a Japanese counter-attack
in the jungle of Cape Gloucester. January
1944. |
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A Marine survivor emerges after two days and nights
of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall
Islands. February 1944. |
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Two LSTs open their giant jaws on Leyte
Island as soldiers build sandbag piers out to the ramps to
speed up unloading operations. 1944. |
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Mopping up on Bougainville.
A tank goes forward as infantrymen follow in its cover. Each night
the Japanese would infiltrate American lines. At dawn, U.S. troops
went out looking for them. March 1944. |
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American Army troops of the 163rd Infantry Regiment
storm the beach during the invasion of Wakde
Island, New Guinea. May 17, 1944. |
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Using a canvas tarpaulin for a church and packing cases
for an altar, a Catholic Navy chaplain holds mass for Marines at Saipan
in memory of those who lost their lives during the initial landings.
June 1944. |
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A Marine patrol on Saipan
found this Japanese family hiding in a hillside cave. The mother,
four children and a dog had taken shelter from the fierce fighting
in that area. June 21, 1944. |
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A Japanese plane shot down as it attempted to attack
the USS KITKUN BAY near the Mariana Islands.
June 1944. |
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Just 8 minutes after U.S. Marines and Army assault troops
landed on Guam, two U.S. officers plant
the American flag, using a boat hook as a mast. July 20, 1944. |
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Taking time out for a cigarette while mopping up on
Peleliu Island are
Marine Pfc. Gerald Churchby (left)
and his buddy Pfc. Douglas Lightheart, who cradles his 30-cal. machine
gun in his lap. September 14, 1944. |
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The USS PENNSYLVANIA along with a second battleship
and three cruisers move into Lingayen Gulf preceding the landing on
Luzon in the Philippines. January 1945. |
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Landing barges sweep through the waters of Lingayen
Gulf carrying the first wave of invaders to the beaches of Luzon
following a naval bombardment of Japanese shore positions. January
9, 1945. |
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Marines of the 5th Division inch their way up a slope
on Red Beach No. 1 toward Mount Suribachi on Iwo
Jima, defended by seven Japanese Battalions.
By nightfall, 566 Marines were killed and 1,854 wounded. February
19, 1945. |
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Smashed by Japanese mortar and shellfire and trapped
by Iwo Jima's soft black sands, amtracs
and other vehicles lay wrecked on the beach. February 1945. |
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Across Iwo Jima's black
sands, Marines of the 4th Division shell cleverly concealed Japanese
inland positions on the tiny volcanic island. February 1945. |
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Five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raise the
flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, using
a piece of Japanese pipe as a mast, February 23, 1945. Three of the
flag raisers were later killed as the fighting raged on. By March
16, when Iwo Jima was declared secured, 6,821 Americans and 21,000
Japanese (the entire force) had died. The flag raising photo and subsequent
statue came to symbolize being a Marine. |
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Pilots aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier receive last
minute instructions before taking off to attack industrial and military
installations in Tokyo. February 17,
1945. |
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40mm guns of the USS HORNET fire at Japanese suicide
dive bombers, the Kamikazes, as the carrier's
own planes were raiding Tokyo, February
16, 1945. By the end of the war, Japan will
have sent an estimated 2,257 Kamikazes.
"The only weapon I feared in the war," Admiral Halsey said. |
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USS BUNKER HILL hit by two Kamikazes
in 30 seconds off Kyushu, resulting in 372 dead and 264 wounded. May
11, 1945 |
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Transfer of the wounded from the USS BUNKER HILL to
the USS WILKES BARRE, off Okinawa. May
11, 1945. |
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Marines unload a Japanese POW
from a submarine which just returned from patrol. May, 1945. By the
end of the war the U.S. held about 20,000 Japanese POWs. |
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On Okinawa, just
350 miles from Japan, a Marine dashes through Japanese machine
gun fire while crossing a draw, called 'Death Valley' by the men fighting
there. Marines sustained more than 125 casualties in eight hours crossing
this valley. May 1945. |
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A member of the Marine 1st Division draws a bead on
a Japanese sniper with his tommy-gun as his companion ducks for cover
while his division works to take Wana Ridge before the town of Shuri,
Okinawa. The ferocious
hand to hand fighting on Okinawa resulted in 12,281 Americans and
110,000 Japanese killed by June 21, 1945. The suicidal dedication
of the Japanese defenders indicated an invasion of Japan itself would
be costly, with estimates of at least 500,000 potential Allied casualties. |
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A Corsair fighter plane fires its load of rockets against
a Japanese stronghold on Okinawa. June
1945. |
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The Tapel Massacre of July 1, 1945. Pedro Cerono, the
man who discovered the group of 8 skulls is shown. Philippine
Islands, November 23, 1945. |
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Col. Paul W. Tibbets, pilot of the B-29 Superfortress
ENOLA GAY, waves from the cockpit just before taking off from Tinian
Island to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima.
The 9,000 lb. bomb was dropped from 31,600 feet and detonated
at 8:15 a.m., August 6, 1945, about 1,900 feet above the center of
Hiroshima. A blinding light, tremendous explosion and dark gray cloud
enveloped the city, followed by a rising mushroom shaped cloud. The
Japanese estimated 72,000 were killed and 70,000 out of 76,000 buildings
in the city were destroyed. |
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A Roman Catholic cathedral on a hill is all that remains
in this section of Nagasaki
following the dropping of the second Atomic Bomb from a B-29 flown
by Major Charles W. Sweeney, August 9, 1945. The Japanese estimated
25,680 were killed and 44 percent of the city was destroyed. |
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Japanese POWs at Guam,
with bowed heads, after hearing Emperor Hirohito announce Japan's
unconditional surrender. August 15, 1945. |
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Allied POWs at Aomori camp near Yokohama
cheer their U.S. Navy liberators, waving flags of the United States,
Great Britain and Holland. August 29, 1945. |
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Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander
during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay.
September 2, 1945. |
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Standing amid row upon row of crosses in an American
cemetery, two men pay silent homage to a fallen comrade. 1945. |