| 9 October |
President Roosevelt decides to move forward with the effort to construct an atomic bomb. |
| 24 November |
First B-29 Bomber raids on Japan to be staged from the Islands |
| 9 March |
Program of low-level (10,000 ft.) incendiary attacks against Japanese cities begins with a massive B-29 raid on Tokyo that kills about 100,000 Japanese and bomb 16 square miles of city |
| 5 April |
Japanese Prime Minister Koiso resigns and is succeeded by anti-militarist Kantaro Suzuki. The USSR formally informs the Japanese Government that the 1941 Neutrality Pact between the two nations will be allowed to lapse. |
| 20 May |
Japanese forces begin pulling back from positions within China. |
| 16 July |
Plutonium weapon successfully detonated at Trinity sire near Alamogordo, New Mexico |
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Potsdam Conference begins |
| 26 July |
Potsdam Declaration issued, demanding unconditional surrender of Japan |
| 6 August |
Atomic bomb destroys most of Hiroshima |
| 8 August |
USSR declares war on Japan |
| 9 August |
Plutonium weapon detonated over Nagasaki |
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Massive Russian offensive in Manchuria begins |
| 10 August |
Ambiguous peace feelers from Japan to neutral capitals seem to signal a desire to modify the terms of the Potsdam Declaration |
| 12 August |
Military members of the Japanese cabinet block surrender |
| 14 August |
Raids on targets in Japan by B-29’s from the Marianas. The last bombs drop after 2:00AM on the 15th |
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Prime minister Suzuki gains agreement to ask the Emperor to decide on continuing the war or suing for peace, and the Imperial Conference decides to accept the Potsdam declaration. a speech is written for the Emperor, and he records it at midnight. |
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Militant militarists mutiny and attempt to seize the recording. They fail due to lack of support from the Minister of War, who commits ritual suicide. |
| 15 August |
The Emperor’s speech, broadcast at noon, announces defeat and the end of the war to the people of Japan |
| 21 August |
Fighting in Manchuria ends |
| 2 September |
Formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor |
24 October
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The last major Japanese Army units in the Pacific are disarmed.
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