end of war (V-j day)Three years of ground and naval battles in the Pacific finally put the United States in a position in late 1944 where it could launch a strategic bombing campaign against Japan. This time bombing did all that the air force generals said it would. Japan surrendered without a single American infantryman having to die on its beaches. Tens of thousands of bombs were dropped on Japan, but it was two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that really made the difference. The development and use of the atomic bomb not only brought World War II to an end. It also guaranteed that the world would be a very different place after 1945 than it had been before 1939. The Japanese military had waged war without regard for civilian life. In China, millions of civilians died at the hands of Japanese aggressors between 1931 and 1945. In war, unfortunately, the crimes of the guilty are often paid for by the innocent. Japan's civilian government and population had little control over the actions of the Japanese military. Japan soon surrendered and it marked the end of fighting between America and Japan.
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Mikeska, Jonathan R. “V-J Day.” Encyclopedia of American History, Vol. 8, Revised Edition, Facts On File, 2009. American History, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/197508?q=V-j day. Accessed 2017.
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