After learning about the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared 7 December 1941 “a date which will live in infamy”. But Japan had not concentrated all its forces solely on Pearl Harbor.
As Japanese aircraft wreaked havoc in Hawaii, Britain’s empire in Southeast Asia found itself subject to several Japanese invasions. What followed was some of the most vicious fighting of World War Two, as Britain and her allies attempted to resist the might of Imperial Japan in this new theatre of war.
Here are 10 facts about the British war in the East in World War Two.
1. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor coincided with strikes against British possessions in Southeast Asia
In the early morning of 8 December 1942 Japanese forces commenced their assault on Hong Kong, began an amphibious invasion of British-controlled Malaya at Kota Bharu, and also bombed Singapore. Like the attack on Pearl Harbor, the multi-pronged Japanese strike at these British-held territories in Southeast Asia was pre-planned and carried through with brutal efficiency.
