WWII: the Pacific Theater - Statistics and Facts
The scale and complexity of the Second World War means that it is often studied as two major, concurrent conflicts: the war in Europe and the Pacific War. The major Allied powers most involved in the Pacific War were China, the British Empire, and the United States, who fought against the Empire of Japan. Various colonial, collaborator, and resistance forces played a significant part in the conflict, both in their respective regions and overseas. The Pacific War began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937 (two years before Germany's invasion of Poland), and it escalated in December 1941 with Japan's push into Southeast Asia. Millions of civilians died due to famines and pandemics that were caused or exacerbated by the war, as well as from widespread atrocities committed by the invading Japanese forces, with some smaller Pacific Islands suffering the war's highest civilian losses per capita. The Pacific War was notable for its major naval battles and aerial attacks, and involved the only military use of nuclear weapons in history, which led to the formal surrender of Japan on September 2. 1945, bringing the Second World War to a close.
