Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, Dec 18 – 24, 1941

Dec 18, 1941: Japanese forces land on Hong Kong island, crossing narrow straits from mainland

Dec 19, 1941: Japanese landing force southeast of Manila reach municipality of Sipocot

Dec 20, 1941: Admiral Ernest J. King is appointed Commander-in-Chief, US Fleet

Dec 21, 1941: Japanese carrier-based planes bomb US forces on Wake island in mid-Pacific prior to planned invasion

Dec 22, 1941: Japanese forces make landing in Lingayen Gulf north of the Philippine capital of Manila. Photo: US Air Force

Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek offers to send his 5th and 6th Armies to Burma to assist the British defense against Japan

Dec 23, 1941: US military personnel and civilian contractors walk into captivity after Japanese forces take the Pacific island of Wake

Dec 24, 1941: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at his side, delivers Christmas message to the American nation: “Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies”

Japanese troops battle last pockets of resistance in Hong Kong

Categories: War

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