Japan+1920-1960

Type in the content of your new page here. Attack on Pearl Harbor Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 * A chronology of key events: **
 * 1894 ** - Japan goes to war with China. Japan's better equipped forces win victory in just nine months.
 * 1895 ** - China cedes Taiwan to Japan and permits Japan to trade in China.
 * 1904 ** - Japan goes to war with Russia. Japanese victory in 1905.
 * 1910 ** - Japan annexes Korea after three years of fighting. Japan is now one of the world's great powers.
 * 1914 ** - Japan joins World War I on the side of Britain and her allies. Japan has limited participation.
 * 1919 ** - Treaty of Versailles gives Japan some territorial gains in the Pacific.
 * 1923 ** - Earthquake in Tokyo region kills more than 100,000 people.
 * 1925 ** - Universal male suffrage is instituted. The electorate increases fivefold.
 * Ultra-nationalism and war **
 * Late 1920s ** - Extreme nationalism begins to take hold in Japan. The emphasis is on a preservation of traditional Japanese values, and a rejection of "Western" influence.
 * 1931 ** - Japan invades Manchuria, renames it and installs a puppet regime.
 * 1932 ** - Japanese prime minister is assassinated by ultra-nationalist terrorists. The military holds increasing influence in the country.
 * 1936 ** - Japan signs an anti-communist agreement with Nazi Germany. It concludes a similar agreement with Italy in 1937.
 * 1937 ** - Japan goes to war with China. By the end of the year, Japan has captured Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing. Japanese forces commit atrocities, including the "Rape of Nanjing", in which up to 300,000 Chinese civilians are said to have been killed.
 * 1939 ** - Outbreak of World War II in Europe. With the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Japan moves to occupy French Indo-China.
 * 1941 ** - Japan launches a surprise attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Twelve ships are sunk, with a further 9 damaged; nearly 2,500 people are killed. The US and its main allies declare war on Japan the following day.
 * 1942 ** - Japan occupies a succession of countries, including the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Burma and Malaya. In June, US aircraft carriers defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. The US begins a strategy of "'island-hopping", cutting the Japanese support lines as its forces advance.
 * 1944 ** - US forces are near enough to Japan to start bombing raids on Japanese cities.
 * 1945 ** - US planes drop two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima (6 August), the second on Nagasaki (9 August). Emperor Hirohito surrenders and relinquishes his divine status. Japan is placed under US military government. All Japanese military and naval forces are disbanded.
 * 1947 ** - A new constitution comes into force. It establishes a parliamentary system, with all adults eligible to vote. Japan renounces war and pledges not to maintain land, sea or air forces for that purpose. The emperor is granted ceremonial status.
 * 1951 ** - Japan signs peace treaty with the US and other nations. To this day, there is no peace treaty with Russia, as the legal successor to the Soviet Union.
 * Independence **
 * 1952 ** - Japan regains its independence. The US retains several islands for military use, including Okinawa.
 * 1955 ** - Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) formed. Apart from a brief interlude in the early 1990s, the party governs almost uninterruptedly for the rest of the century and beyond.