In 1944 with the war in Europe turning in the Allies' favour, Japan still occupied vast swathes of South East Asia and the Pacific. In Burma, the seemly unstoppable Japanese advance was halted at Kohima and Imphal in June and July 1944. Six months later the advances made by British-led forces enabled the re-opening of the supply routes from India to US forces in China. It was not until Spring 1945 that British-led forces seized first Mandalay and then the port city of Rangoon after a year of gruelling fighting. Admiral Nimitz's and General MacArthur's forces meanwhile were overcoming fanatical Japanese resistance as they invaded Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Leyte and Luzon in late 1944. Iwo Jima and Okinawa fell to the Allies in early 1945. These successes enabled USAAF Superfortresses to bomb mainland Japan. Late Spring/early Summer 1945 saw the steady recapture of the Northern Solomons and Brunei, Borneo and former Dutch colonies. The Soviets were advancing into Manchuria and Korea. The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 finally forced the Japanese to surrender without the inevitable carnage of an invasion of their mainland. The tumultuous events of the final year of the Second World War in the Far East are brilliantly described here in contemporary well captioned images and succinct text. AUTHOR: Jon Diamond MD is a kidney specialist in the USA with a deep interest in the Second World War. He is a keen collector of photographs. His Stilwell and the Chindits, War in the South Pacific, Invasion of Sicily, Invasion of the Italian Mainland: Salerno to Gustav Line, 1943-1944, Onto Rome 1944; Anzio and Victory at Cassino, Beyond Rome to the Alps; Across the Arno and Gothic Line, 1944-1945, Op Plunder - The Rhine River Crossing, MacArthur's Papua New Guinea Campaign, Hell in the Central Pacific, Liberation of the Philippines, The Fall of Malaya and Singapore, The Battle of Okinawa 1945 and Burma Victory are all published by Pen and Sword in the Images of War series. 250 b/w illustrations
