History: Pacific War

It is generally considered that the Pacific War began on 7 December 1941 with the invasion of British Malaya and the attack on Pearl Harbor in the United States' Territory of Hawaii by the Empire of Japan. Some authors consider that the conflict in Asia can be dated as far as July 7, 1937, beginning with the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China, or possibly September 19, 1931, beginning with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific war itself started in December 1941, with the Sino-Japanese war then becoming part of it as a theatre of the greater World War II.
The Pacific War saw the Allied powers against the Empire of Japan, the latter aided by Thailand and to lesser extent by its Axis allies Germany and Italy; it culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, resulting in the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II on August 15, 1945. The surrender of Japan occurred aboard the battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.