Timeline - Hirohito's War
| 1930 | January, June, November |
| 1931 | September |
| 1932 | May, October |
| 1933 | January - March |
| 1934 | July - October |
| 1935 | January - September |
| 1936 | February - December |
| 1937 | June - December |
| 1938 | January - November |
| 1939 | March - December |
| 1940 | March - December |
| 1941 | March - November |
| December | |
| 1942 | January |
| February | |
| March | |
| April - June | |
| July - September | |
| October - December | |
| 1943 | January - March |
| April - June | |
| July - September | |
| October - December | |
| 1944 | January - March |
| April - June | |
| July - September | |
| October - December | |
| 1945 | January - March |
| April - June | |
| July - October | |
PACIFIC WAR TIMELINE
OCTOBER 1944
4 October: China: Stilwell realizes that Washington has no intention of sending more troops to China. An embittered Stilwell loses any hope that China will be the launchpad for an invasion of Japan.
9 October: Russia: TOLSTOY Conference: Meeting in Moscow between Churchill, Stalin, Molotov and Eden.
The Philippines: General Yamashita is brought out the retirement forced on him by a jealous Tojo and arrives in Manila to take the place of General Kuroda.
11 October: Japan: US Air raids against Okinawa.
20 October: The Philippines: General Krueger commands the amphibious landings at Leyte Gulf. MacArthur lands in the Philippines at Leyte Gulf: he famously declares ‘I have returned’.
23-25 October: The Philippines: Battle of Leyte Gulf. In spite of Admiral Halsey’s mistake in falling for a decoy fleet, the US effectively wipes of the Imperial Japanese Navy as an offensive entity. Consists of four battles including the Battle of Sibuyan Sea in which the superbattleship Musashi is sunk. Admiral Kinkaid’s 7th Fleet engages in the last battleship engagement in history and annihilates the Japanese southern force. Admiral Halsey 3rd Fleet follows the decoy ‘ghost’ carrier fleet, which it destroys at the Battle of Cape Engano. Admiral Sprague is fortunate to survive when his escort carriers are left undefended by Halsey. Admiral Kurita calls off the pursuit of Sprague’s escort carriers just as they seemed doomed.
25 October: The Philippines: The first planned Kamikaze operations against the US fleet.
NOVEMBER 1944
2 November: The Philippines: US 24th Infantry take Cariga on Leyte Island.
Battle of Dagami. General Hodge battles to take Dagami heights in an 8-day battle.
10 November: China: Wang Jingwei, Japan’s puppet ruler made head of the Chinese government in Nanking dies of pneumonia.
11 November: Iwo Jima: Iwo Jima bombarded by US Navy.
13 November: Leyte Island: The Battle of Breakneck Ridge: The Battle of Kilay Ridge: A protracted engagement begins which is relieved when General Krueger persuades MacArthur to let him do an amphibious flanking movement at Ormoc.
27 November: Leyte Island: Suicide mission by Japanese paratroopers to take the American airfields at Leyte Gulf. Repelled by General Swing’s 11th Airborne Division after an action lasting two weeks.
DECEMBER 1944
10 December: Leyte Island: The town of Ormoc taken and Leyte Island secured apart from Japanese guerilla action that continues for several months.
15 December: The Philippines: US troops invade Mindoro in the Philippines.
16-27 December: Belgium: German counterattack in the Ardennes is defeated at the Battle of the Bulge.
18 December: Pacific Ocean: Admiral Halsey’s mistakes in seamanship take the 3rd Fleet into the eye of Typhoon Cobra causing the most damage to the US Navy since Pearl Harbor. At the subsequent inquiry Halsey is reprimanded but escapes punishment.
24 December: The Philipinnes. MacArthur for the second time announces the end of the campaign on Leyte Island in spite of there being 61,800 Japanese soldiers still active on the island. General Tomochika later estimated that some 49,790 had been killed by the time he left the island on 17 March 1945.