Japanese soldiers at Marco Polo Bridge.

When Was World War Two?

When was World War Two? This seems like an easy question, but it can be an elusive answer. There are several answers to that question, as many historians debate when World War Two began. The end of World War Two is fairly simple to answer, as the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay.So, when did World War Two begin? Depends on which part of the war you look at.

There are several competing dates for the starting point. If we look at World War Two as a truly global war (which of course it was), and not looking at it from the European or Western point of view, we can pin the answer down to only two dates:

September 18, 1931–The Mukden Incident (also known as the Manchurian Incident) was a pretext for the Japanese invasion and occupation of the region of China known as Manchuria.

July 7, 1937–the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This is when Japan (one of the Axis powers of World War Two) began its massive invasion of China. 

Many historians prefer the 1937 date over the 1931 incident as the Marco Polo Bridge incident led to a major war between China (which became one of the Allies of World War Two), and Japan and Germany had already, in November of 1936, signed an Anti-Comintern Pact that made them allies against the democracies and against the Soviet Union.

The start of the European part of World War Two is a bit clearer, as most historians put the start date with the German Invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

http://www.historyguy.com/japan_earthquake_history.htm

Japan is a densely-populated island nation in the northwest Pacific and is a part of the “Ring of Fire” chain of earthquake-prone Pacific Rim. As a result, the Japanese people have endured massive earthquakes throughout their history. Japan is so quake-prone, that minor earthquakes are an almost monthly aspect of life for the Japanese. However, several times in the past hundred years or so, Japan suffers through powerful earthquakes that cause massive amounts of destruction and result in thousands of deaths.

On March, 2011, a huge earthquake measuring around 8.9 to 9.0 on the Richter scale hit off the coast of the Japanese city of Sendai. In addition to destruction on the ground, the quake also triggered a powerful tsunami that hit Japan hard. As of March 13, 2011, full casualty figures are not complete, but the death toll is in the thousands, with millions of people without power, and at least two nuclear plants in the throes of possible meltdown.

Below is a list of the most destructive Japanese earthquakes since the late 1800s.

Japanese Earthquakes since 1891

Sendai, Japan (March 11, 2011)–Magnitude 8.9/9.0 –Fatalities in the thousands, full casualty numbers are not yet available

Kobe, Japan (Jan. 16, 1995)- Magnitude 6.9 –Fatalities 5,502

Niigata, Japan (June 6, 1964)- Magnitude 7.5 –Fatalities 26

Fukui, Japan (June 28, 1948) – Magnitude 7.3 –Fatalities 3,769

Nankaido, Japan (Dec. 20, 1946)- Magnitude 8.1 –Fatalities 1,330

Mikawa, Japan (January 12, 1945)- Magnitude 7.1 –Fatalities 1,961

Tonankai, Japan (December 7, 1944) – Magnitude 8.1 –Fatalities 1,223

Tottori, Japan (Sept. 10, 1943)-Magnitude 7.4 –Fatalities 1,190

Sanriku, Japan (March 2, 1933)- Magnitude 8.4 –Fatalities 2,990

Tango, Japan (March 7, 1927)- Magnitude 7.6 –Fatalities 3,020

Kanto, Japan (Sept. 1, 1923) – Magnitude 7.9 –Fatalities 143,000

Sanriku, Japan (June 15, 1896)- Magnitude 8.5 –Fatalities 27,000

Mino-Owari, Japan (Oct. 27, 1891)-Magnitude 8.0 –Fatalities 7,273

Believing that America had suffered a crippling blow, Hitler and Mussolini also declared war on the United States, thereby bringing American power into the war against the Nazis and the Fascists.  As history now shows, America’s entry into World War Two ensured Allied victory, as the Nazis and Fascists were destroyed in Europe, and Japan fell under the power of two atomic bombs some four years after their ill-fated and ill-advised assault on Pearl Harbor.

For more information, go to: http://www.historyguy.com/battle_of_pearl_harbor.html