Timeline - Hirohito's War
| 1930 | January, June, November |
| 1931 | September |
| 1932 | May, October |
| 1933 | January - March |
| 1934 | July - October |
| 1935 | January - September |
| 1936 | February - December |
| 1937 | June - December |
| 1938 | January - November |
| 1939 | March - December |
| 1940 | March - December |
| 1941 | March - November |
| December | |
| 1942 | January |
| February | |
| March | |
| April - June | |
| July - September | |
| October - December | |
| 1943 | January - March |
| April - June | |
| July - September | |
| October - December | |
| 1944 | January - March |
| April - June | |
| July - September | |
| October - December | |
| 1945 | January - March |
| April - June | |
| July - October | |
PACIFIC WAR TIMELINE
1937
11 June: Russia: Marshal Tukhachevsky, head of the Russian Army is arrested, tried and executed on Stalin’s orders which are followed up by the purge of 38,000 Red Army officers.
7 July: China: Marco Polo Bridge Incident between Japanese and Chinese soldiers outside Peking is the trigger for the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War and arguably the start of World War II.
9 September: Japan: Diet authorizes an exceptional Y2.2bn supplementary budget. During the course of 1937 Japan is forced to sell 55% of its US$250m gold reserves.
Japan: Emergency Shipping Management Act gave the Japanese government the power to requisition private vessels.
5 October: America: Roosevelt makes speech in which he calls for ‘quarantine of aggressor nations’ with explaining what he meant.
November 1937: China: Battle of Taiyuan secures control of northern China for Japan.
150,000 Chinese soldiers killed in Battle of Shangai.
November-December: The Rape of Nanking: An estimated 250,000 civilians butchered during the two month campaign to take Nanking and its environs. The massacre causes outrage around the world.
12 December: China: USS Panay sunk on the Yangtze River outside Nanking. Japan apologises and agrees compensation but film of the event causes furor in US.