Bataan falls and the death march begins

British colonial Hong Kong surrendered to Japan on Christmas Day after a short, brutal campaign. Japanese occupation brought executions, imprisonment, forced labor, shortages, and currency controls....

At Wannsee, senior Nazi officials coordinated how state ministries would assist the already developing genocide of Europe’s Jews. The meeting did not initiate the Holocaust or make the first...

After a rapid campaign down the Malay Peninsula, British-led forces surrendered Singapore. The defeat shattered the myth of European military superiority and intensified Japanese occupation across the...

President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing military exclusion zones that enabled the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. More than 120,000 people of Japanese...

Dutch forces in Java surrendered to Japan, ending Dutch colonial rule there and beginning a harsh occupation. Japanese authorities mobilized Indonesian labor, extracted rice and other resources, and...

The first 29 Navajo recruits arrived for Marine training in May 1942, building a secure communications system from their language. The military depended on Indigenous linguistic knowledge even as...

At Midway, U.S. forces destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and checked Japan’s rapid expansion. The battle’s strategic importance is clear, but its familiar carrier-centered narrative can...

Allied troops landed on Guadalcanal, beginning a six-month campaign against Japanese forces. Solomon Islanders served as guides, coastwatchers, laborers, and rescuers, often at great personal risk....

The All-India Congress Committee adopted the Quit India resolution in Bombay on 8 August, demanding an end to British rule; Gandhi urged mass nonviolent struggle. British authorities arrested national...

British-led forces began an offensive near El Alamein in Egypt, stopping Axis plans to reach the Suez Canal. The battle’s logistics depended on colonial and Commonwealth troops, port labor, and...