History: Pacific War

The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in the Far East. The term Pacific War is used to encompass the Pacific Ocean theatre, the South West Pacific theatre, the South-East Asian theatre and the Chinese theatre, also including the 1945 Soviet-Japanese conflict.
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.