Australasia 1945: End of the Pacific War
6 August 1945
6 Aug 1945
The War in the Pacific
1788–1859 The Australasian Colonies
1859–1901 Colonial Consolidation
1901–1941 Southern Dominions
1941–1945 The War in the Pacific
1945–pres Decolonization of the Pacific
End of the Pacific War
08 Dec 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor
23 Jan 1942 Japan Comes South
19 Feb 1942 Bombing of Darwin
08 May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea
06 Sep 1942 Kokoda Trail
15 Nov 1942 Guadalcanal Campaign
14 Jan 1943 Battle of Timor
15 Dec 1943 Operation Cartwheel
17 Jun 1944 Western New Guinea Campaign
06 Aug 1945 End of the Pacific War
By May 1945, Germany had been defeated and the War in Europe was over. Meanwhile in the Pacific, the Americans had pushed north and secured the Philippines, allowing the Australians to attack the Japanese in oil-rich Borneo. This still left much of East Asia under Japanese control, but in August the War came to an abrupt end when America dropped newly invented atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.