Pacific_War

qas: question: When do most people believe the Pacific War began?
answers: text: early December 1941

question: On what date did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
answers: text: 7/8 December 1941

question: When did the Second Sino-Japanese War begin?
answers: text: 7 July 1937

question: Which countries did the Second Sino-Japanese War encompass?
answers: text: Empire of Japan and the Republic of China

question: Has Japan ever attacked Thailand?
answers: text: Japan invaded Thailand

question: What is the generally accepted date the Pacific War started?
answers: text: 7/8 December 1941

question: When did Japan invade Manchuria?
answers: text: 19 September 1931

question: What nation initiated hostilities?
answers: text: Japan

question: What was the Pacific War theater part of after December 1941?
answers: text: World War II

question: When did Japan invade China?
answers: text: 7 July 1937
context: It is generally considered that the Pacific War began on 7/8 December 1941, on which date Japan invaded Thailand and attacked the British possessions of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong as well as the United States military bases in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam and the Philippines. Some historians contend that the conflict in Asia can be dated back to 7 July 1937 with the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China, or possibly 19 September 1931, beginning with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. However, it is more widely accepted that the Pacific War itself started in early December 1941, with the Sino-Japanese War then becoming part of it as a theater of the greater World War II.[nb 9]

qas: question: What events ended the war with Japan?
answers: text: atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

question: On what date did Japan surrender?
answers: text: 2 September 1945

question: Where did Japan's surrender occur?
answers: text: aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay

question: What changed in the ruling of Japan after the war?
answers: text: a new liberal-democratic constitution

question: What was the process called whereby the leader of Japan stepped down?
answers: text: Shinto Directive

question: What nation were the allies against?
answers: text: Japan

question: What nations comprised the Axis?
answers: text: Germany and Italy

question: What cities were destroyed by atom bombs?
answers: text: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

question: When did the Soviet Union invade Manchuria?
answers: text: 8 August 1945
context: The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the latter briefly aided by Thailand and to a much lesser extent by its Axis allies, Germany and Italy. The war culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and other large aerial bomb attacks by the United States Army Air Forces, accompanied by the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on 8 August 1945, resulting in the Japanese announcement of intent to surrender on 15 August 1945. The formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Following its defeat, Japan's Shinto Emperor stepped down as the divine leader through the Shinto Directive, because the Allied Powers believed this was the major political cause of Japan's military aggression and deconstruction process soon took place to install a new liberal-democratic constitution to the Japanese public as the current Constitution of Japan.

qas: question: By what name was the war with Japan referred?
answers: text: Greater East Asia War

question: What did Japanese officials call the war?
answers: text: Japan–China Incident

question: What was the reason Japan gave for the war?
answers: text: achieving their independence from the Western powers

question: What date was the new name of the war released?
answers: text: 12 December

question: What name did Japan call the war?
answers: text: Greater East Asia War

question: When did Japan adobt the name for the war?
answers: text: 10 December 1941

question: What was Japan's publicised war goal?
answers: text: independence from the Western powers

question: What did Japan call the occupied group of Asian nations?
answers: text: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

question: How was the name of the war chosen by Japan?
answers: text: by a cabinet decision
context: Japan used the name Greater East Asia War (大東亜戦争, Dai Tō-A Sensō?), as chosen by a cabinet decision on 10 December 1941, to refer to both the war with the Western Allies and the ongoing war in China. This name was released to the public on 12 December, with an explanation that it involved Asian nations achieving their independence from the Western powers through armed forces of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident (日支事変, Nisshi Jihen?) into the Greater East Asia War.

qas: question: What role did Thailand play in the war?
answers: text: temporary alliance

question: Which group controlled Chinese costal regions?
answers: text: Wang Jingwei regime

question: Which army invaded Burma?
answers: text: Phayap Army

question: Burma was formerly annexed by what country?
answers: text: Britain

question: What states assisting Japan was Thailand a part of?
answers: text: Axis

question: What year did Thailand form an alliance with Japan?
answers: text: 1941

question: What army invaded northeastern Burma?
answers: text: Phayap Army

question: What were the Japanese puppet states?
answers: text: Manchukuo and Mengjiang

question: Who controlled the coast of China?
answers: text: Wang Jingwei regime
context: The Axis states which assisted Japan included the authoritarian government of Thailand in World War II, which quickly formed a temporary alliance with the Japanese in 1941, as the Japanese forces were already invading the peninsula of southern Thailand. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, which was former Thai territory that had been annexed by Britain much earlier. Also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang (consisting of most of Manchuria and parts of Inner Mongolia respectively), and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime (which controlled the coastal regions of China).

qas: question: Did the U.S. believe that Thailand was an Axis ally?
answers: text: not an ally

question: What does the U.S. believe caused Thailand to help Japan?
answers: text: blackmail

question: Is Thailand treated differently than other Axis countries?
answers: text: the same way

question: According to the USA, what country did Japan blackmail?
answers: text: Thailand

question: What nations were occupied by the Axis?
answers: text: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Poland, and the Netherlands

question: After 1945, how did the USA treat Thailand?
answers: text: not as a former enemy

question: Who occupied Thailand according to the USA?
answers: text: Japanese troops
context: The official policy of the U.S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, and that the United States was not at war with Thailand. The policy of the U.S. Government ever since 1945 has been to treat Thailand not as a former enemy, but rather as a country which had been forced into certain actions by Japanese blackmail, before being occupied by Japanese troops. Thailand has been treated by the United States in the same way as such other Axis-occupied countries as Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Poland, and the Netherlands.

qas: question: Where did many of Japan's soldiers come from?
answers: text: Korea and Formosa

question: What type of soldiers came from Hong Kong? 
answers: text: Collaborationist units

question: What other Asian country, a group of islands, helped the Japanese?
answers: text: Philippines

question: What colonies did Japan conscript soldiers from?
answers: text: Korea and Formosa

question: What French forces assisted Japan?
answers: text: Vichy

question: Who were the collaborators assisting Japan in Hong King?
answers: text: ex-colonial police
context: Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa (Taiwan). To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, and Burmese National Army forces were active in the area of the Pacific War. Collaborationist units from Hong Kong (reformed ex-colonial police), Philippines, Dutch East Indies (the PETA) and Dutch Guinea, British Malaya and British Borneo, Inner Mongolia and former French Indochina (after the overthrow of Vichy French regime) as well as Timorese militia also assisted Japanese war efforts.

qas: question: Did Mexico play a part in the war?
answers: text: took part

question: On which side of the war were the Chinese?
answers: text: United States

question: What other major continent participated as an ally of the U.S.?
answers: text: Australia

question: What colonies did the Netherlands possess?
answers: text: Dutch East Indies and the western part of New Guinea

question: What large Asian country was allied with the United States?
answers: text: Republic of China

question: What was the name of the Philippines nation?
answers: text: Commonwealth of the Philippines

question: What nation possessed the Dutch East Indies?
answers: text: Netherlands

question: What nation possessed west New Guinea?
answers: text: Netherlands
context: The major Allied participants were the United States, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom (including the armed forces of British India, the Fiji Islands, Samoa, etc.), Australia, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the Netherlands (as the possessor of the Dutch East Indies and the western part of New Guinea), New Zealand, and Canada, all of whom were members of the Pacific War Council. Mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies.

qas: question: What incident occured on July 7, 1937?
answers: text: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

question: Who supplied assistance to the Chinese military?
answers: text: Soviet Union

question: When did the Nanking Massacre occur?
answers: text: December 1937

question: Where was the first Nationalist victory?
answers: text: Taierzhuang

question: How did people around the world react to Japan's Panay Incident?
answers: text: condemned

question: When was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident?
answers: text: 7 July 1937

question: What incident started the war between China and Japan?
answers: text: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

question: What nation provided material support to China?
answers: text: Soviet Union

question: What was the capital of China?
answers: text: Nanking

question: When was Nanking captured?
answers: text: December 1937
context: By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. The Nationalist and Communist Chinese suspended their civil war to form a nominal alliance against Japan, and the Soviet Union quickly lent support by providing large amount of materiel to Chinese troops. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang. but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan and captured it in October. The Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay Incident.

qas: question: Who controled Indochina in 1940?
answers: text: Vichy France

question: When did Japan invade Indochina?
answers: text: September 1940

question: Who were the Axis Powers along with Japan in 1940?
answers: text: Germany and Italy

question: Did Japan and Germany work closely together prior to 1944?
answers: text: little coordination

question: When did Japan take over Indochina?
answers: text: September 1940

question: Who controlled Indochina before the Japanese takeover?
answers: text: Vichy France

question: When did Japan become an Axis power?
answers: text: 27 September

question: How many nations comprised the Axis powers?
answers: text: three

question: How much coordination was there between Japan and Germany?
answers: text: little
context: In September 1940, Japan decided to cut China's only land line to the outside world by seizing Indochina, which was controlled at the time by Vichy France. Japanese forces broke their agreement with the Vichy administration and fighting broke out, ending in a Japanese victory. On 27 September Japan signed a military alliance with Germany and Italy, becoming one of the three Axis Powers. In practice, there was little coordination between Japan and Germany until 1944, by which time the U.S. was deciphering their secret diplomatic correspondence.

qas: question: Why did the Chinese ultimately fail in its counter offensives?
answers: text: low military-industrial capacity

question: What policy did Japan adopt to retaliate against China?
answers: text: "Three Alls Policy" ("Kill all, Burn all, Loot all")

question: What slowed the Japanese in their attacks on China?
answers: text: mountainous terrain

question: In what city did Japan set up a provisional capital?
answers: text: Chungking

question: What was Japan's "Three Alls Policy"?
answers: text: "Kill all, Burn all, Loot all"

question: What year did China and Japan reach a stalemate?
answers: text: 1941

question: Where was the Chinese provisional capital?
answers: text: Chungking

question: What natural obsticles stalled the Japanese offensive against the Chinese?
answers: text: mountainous terrain

question: What group organised guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in China?
answers: text: Communists
context: The war entered a new phase with the unprecedented defeat of the Japanese at Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang and 1st Battle of Changsha. After these victories, Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940; however, due to its low military-industrial capacity, it was repulsed by Japanese army in late March 1940. In August of 1940, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted the "Three Alls Policy" ("Kill all, Burn all, Loot all") in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. By 1941 the conflict had become a stalemate. Although Japan had occupied much of northern, central, and coastal China, the Nationalist Government had retreated to the interior with a provisional capital set up at Chungking while the Chinese communists remained in control of base areas in Shaanxi. In addition, Japanese control of northern and central China was somewhat tenuous, in that Japan was usually able to control railroads and the major cities ("points and lines"), but did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinese countryside. The Japanese found its aggression against the retreating and regrouping Chinese army was stalled by the mountainous terrain in southwestern China while the Communists organised widespread guerrilla and saboteur activities in northern and eastern China behind the Japanese front line.

qas: question: Who was the leader of the Nationalist government?
answers: text: Chiang Kai-shek

question: When did cooperation between communist and nationalist forces end?
answers: text: January 1941

question: Did Japan support rival governments?
answers: text: supporting several

question: When did the co-operation between Chinese nationalist forces and communists end?
answers: text: January 1941

question: What was Wang Jingwei's government considered?
answers: text: puppet

question: What government did Chiang Kai-shek lead?
answers: text: Nationalist government
context: Japan sponsored several puppet governments, one of which was headed by Wang Jingwei. However, its policies of brutality toward the Chinese population, of not yielding any real power to these regimes, and of supporting several rival governments failed to make any of them a viable alternative to the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek. Conflicts between Chinese communist and nationalist forces vying for territory control behind enemy lines culminated in a major armed clash in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.

qas: question: Which Japanese Admiral felt it was necessary to go to war with the U.S.?
answers: text: Sankichi Takahashi

question: Why was the Dutch East Indies important to Japan?
answers: text: oil reserves

question: In what year did the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere expand?
answers: text: 1940

question: What was the importance of the Dutch East Indies to Japan?
answers: text: oil reserves

question: Who said a showdown between Japan and the United States would be necessary?
answers: text: Admiral Sankichi Takahashi

question: By what year did Japanese strategists expand their concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere?
answers: text: 1940
context: From as early as 1935 Japanese military strategists had concluded the Dutch East Indies were, because of their oil reserves, of considerable importance to Japan. By 1940 they had expanded this to include Indo-China, Malaya, and the Philippines within their concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japanese troop build ups in Hainan, Taiwan, and Haiphong were noted, Japanese Army officers were openly talking about an inevitable war, and Admiral Sankichi Takahashi was reported as saying a showdown with the United States was necessary.

qas: question: What did The West do to disuade Japan in China and French Indochina?
answers: text: stopped selling oil, iron ore, and steel to Japan

question: Why was denying supplies important to the western countries?
answers: text: denying it the raw materials needed to continue its activities

question: What were these embargoes called by the Japanese media?
answers: text: "ABCD ("American-British-Chinese-Dutch")

question: Why did Western powers stop selling resources to Japan?
answers: text: to discourage Japanese militarism

question: How did Japan view Western embargos?
answers: text: as acts of aggression

question: What percent of oil made up Japan's domestic consumption?
answers: text: about 80%

question: What did the Japanese media refer to the embargoes as?
answers: text: "ABCD line"
context: In an effort to discourage Japanese militarism, Western powers including Australia, the United States, Britain, and the Dutch government in exile, which controlled the petroleum-rich Dutch East Indies, stopped selling oil, iron ore, and steel to Japan, denying it the raw materials needed to continue its activities in China and French Indochina. In Japan, the government and nationalists viewed these embargos as acts of aggression; imported oil made up about 80% of domestic consumption, without which Japan's economy, let alone its military, would grind to a halt. The Japanese media, influenced by military propagandists,[nb 10] began to refer to the embargoes as the "ABCD ("American-British-Chinese-Dutch") encirclement" or "ABCD line".

qas: question: What would Japan accomplish by peace after their early victories?
answers: text: recognize Japanese hegemony in Asia.

question: What was Japan's strategic goal in attacking America?
answers: text: defeated by reaching limited military objectives, not by total conquest

question: Did The Japanese believe they could defeate the U.S.?
answers: text: impossible

question: What did the Japanese military leadership think the chances were of complete military victory ove the United States?
answers: text: impossible

question: What did Japan want recognised in planned peace negotiations after their initial victories?
answers: text: Japanese hegemony in Asia

question: If acceptable negotiations btween Japan and the United States were reached, what would be done regarding the attacks?
answers: text: canceled

question: What was the conduct of the war against the United States based on?
answers: text: historical experiences
context: The Japanese leadership was aware that a total military victory in a traditional sense against the USA was impossible; the alternative would be negotiating for peace after their initial victories, which would recognize Japanese hegemony in Asia. In fact, the Imperial GHQ noted, should acceptable negotiations be reached with the Americans, the attacks were to be canceled—even if the order to attack had already been given. The Japanese leadership looked to base the conduct of the war against America on the historical experiences of the successful wars against China (1894–95) and Russia (1904–05), in both of which a strong continental power was defeated by reaching limited military objectives, not by total conquest.

qas: question: How many U.S. battleships were incapacitated in the Pearl Harbor attacks?
answers: text: eight

question: How many Americans died in the Pearl Harbor attacks?
answers: text: 2,403

question: Was America at war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor?
answers: text: not officially at war

question: Why did Japan attack America?
answers: text: allow Japan free rein in Asia

question: What were the most vital American ships at the time of the attack?
answers: text: aircraft carriers

question: When did Japan launch the aattack on Pearl Harbor?
answers: text: 7 December

question: How many American battleships were put out of action in the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan?
answers: text: eight

question: How many US citizens were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan?
answers: text: 2,403

question: How many aircraft did the United States lose in the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan?
answers: text: 188

question: Where were the American aircraft carriers during the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan?
answers: text: at sea
context: In the early hours of 7 December (Hawaiian time), Japan launched a major surprise carrier-based air strike on Pearl Harbor without explicit warning, which crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet, leaving eight American battleships out of action, 188 American aircraft destroyed, and 2,403 American citizens dead. At the time of the attack, the U.S. was not officially at war anywhere in the world, which means that the people killed or property destroyed at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese attack had a non-combatant status.[nb 11] The Japanese had gambled that the United States, when faced with such a sudden and massive blow, would agree to a negotiated settlement and allow Japan free rein in Asia. This gamble did not pay off. American losses were less serious than initially thought: The American aircraft carriers, which would prove to be more important than battleships, were at sea, and vital naval infrastructure (fuel oil tanks, shipyard facilities, and a power station), submarine base, and signals intelligence units were unscathed. Japan's fallback strategy, relying on a war of attrition to make the U.S. come to terms, was beyond the IJN's capabilities.

qas: question: What program allowed America to sell military supplies to Britain and the Soviet Union?
answers: text: Lend-Lease

question: On what day did the U.S. and its allies declar war on Japan?
answers: text: 8 December

question: How long after the Pearl Harbor attacks did Germany and Italy declare war?
answers: text: Four days

question: Was Germany's declaration of war with the U.S. considered to be sound strategy?
answers: text: strategic blunder

question: how many members did the America First Committee have?
answers: text: 800,000

question: What group was opposed to American involvement in the war in Europe?
answers: text: America First Committee

question: When did the United States declare war on Japan?
answers: text: 8 December

question: How many days after the attack on Pearl Harbor did Germany wait to declare war on the United States?
answers: text: Four

question: Who predicted Germany's declaration of war against the United States months before?
answers: text: Commander Arthur McCollum
context: Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the 800,000-member America First Committee vehemently opposed any American intervention in the European conflict, even as America sold military aid to Britain and the Soviet Union through the Lend-Lease program. Opposition to war in the U.S. vanished after the attack. On 8 December, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands declared war on Japan, followed by China and Australia the next day. Four days after Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States, drawing the country into a two-theater war. This is widely agreed to be a grand strategic blunder, as it abrogated the benefit Germany gained by Japan's distraction of the U.S. (predicted months before in a memo by Commander Arthur McCollum)[nb 12] and the reduction in aid to Britain, which both Congress and Hitler had managed to avoid during over a year of mutual provocation, which would otherwise have resulted.

qas: question: What date was the first official use of the term United Nations?
answers: text: 1 January 1942

question: Who was appointed to command the Allied forces in Southeast Asia in 1942?
answers: text: General Sir Archibald Wavell

question: When did General Wavell assume control of the Southheast Asia Allied forces?
answers: text: 15 January

question: How spread out were the Allied forces in Southeastern Asia?
answers: text: thinly

question: Where did General Wavell command the Allied forces from?
answers: text: Bandung
context: Following the Declaration by United Nations (the first official use of the term United Nations) on 1 January 1942, the Allied governments appointed the British General Sir Archibald Wavell to the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), a supreme command for Allied forces in Southeast Asia. This gave Wavell nominal control of a huge force, albeit thinly spread over an area from Burma to the Philippines to northern Australia. Other areas, including India, Hawaii, and the rest of Australia remained under separate local commands. On 15 January Wavell moved to Bandung in Java to assume control of ABDACOM.

qas: question: What islands did Japan invade?
answers: text: Solomon Islands

question: When did Allied forces surrender Singapore to the Japanese?
answers: text: 15 February 1942

question: How many Allied prisoners did Japan take after the Battle of Singapore?
answers: text: about 130,000

question: When did General Wavell resign as commander of the Allied forces of Southeastern Asia?
answers: text: 25 February

question: After Wavell resigned from ABDACOM, What post did he return to?
answers: text: Commander-in-Chief, India
context: In January, Japan invaded Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and captured Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Rabaul. After being driven out of Malaya, Allied forces in Singapore attempted to resist the Japanese during the Battle of Singapore but surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942; about 130,000 Indian, British, Australian and Dutch personnel became prisoners of war. The pace of conquest was rapid: Bali and Timor also fell in February. The rapid collapse of Allied resistance had left the "ABDA area" split in two. Wavell resigned from ABDACOM on 25 February, handing control of the ABDA Area to local commanders and returning to the post of Commander-in-Chief, India.

qas: question: When did the Chinese attack Burma?
answers: text: March 1942

question: How many British soldiers were rescued by the Chinese 38th Division on April 16??
answers: text: 7,000

question: Who led the rescue of British forces during the Battle of Yenangyaung?
answers: text: Sun Li-jen

question: How many of Chiang Kai-Shek's troops were controlled by warlords?
answers: text: 550,000

question: What was Chiang Kai-Shek's strongest army?
answers: text: Szechuan army
context: In Burma the British, under intense pressure, made a fighting retreat from Rangoon to the Indo-Burmese border. This cut the Burma Road which was the western Allies' supply line to the Chinese Nationalists. In March 1942, Chinese Expeditionary Force started to attack Japanese forces in northern Burma. On 16 April, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division led by Sun Li-jen. Cooperation between the Chinese Nationalists and the Communists had waned from its zenith at the Battle of Wuhan, and the relationship between the two had gone sour as both attempted to expand their area of operations in occupied territories. Most of the Nationalist guerrilla areas were eventually overtaken by the Communists. On the other hand, some Nationalist units were deployed to blockade the Communists and not the Japanese. Furthermore, many of the forces of the Chinese Nationalists were warlords allied to Chiang Kai-Shek, but not directly under his command. "Of the 1,200,000 troops under Chiang's control, only 650,000 were directly controlled by his generals, and another 550,000 controlled by warlords who claimed loyalty to his government; the strongest force was the Szechuan army of 320,000 men. The defeat of this army would do much to end Chiang's power." The Japanese exploited this lack of unity to press ahead in their offensives.

qas: question: How many Australian divisions steamed from the Mid-East for Singapore?
answers: text: Two

question: Where did Churchill want the Australian divisions bound for Singapore to be diverted to?
answers: text: Burma

question: What Japanese group opposed an invasion of Australia?
answers: text: Japanese Army

question: What was the capital of Papua?
answers: text: Port Moresby

question: What country did Japan isolate Australia from with a blockade?
answers: text: United States
context: Two battle-hardened Australian divisions were steaming from the Mid-East for Singapore. Churchill wanted them diverted to Burma, but Curtin insisted on a return to Australia. In early 1942 elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy proposed an invasion of Australia. The Japanese Army opposed the plan and it was rejected in favour of a policy of isolating Australia from the United States via blockade by advancing through the South Pacific. The Japanese decided upon a seaborne invasion of Port Moresby, capital of the Australian Territory of Papua which would put Northern Australia within range of Japanese bomber aircraft.

qas: question: Who ordered General MacArthur to make a defense plan with Australia?
answers: text: President Franklin Roosevelt

question: When was General MacArthur ordered to make a defense plan with Australia?
answers: text: March 1942

question: Who was the Supreme Commander of the South West Allied forces?
answers: text: MacArthur

question: Where was MacArthur's headquarters moved to in March of 1942?
answers: text: Melbourne

question: How many Japanese submarines shelled Sydney on June 8, 1942?
answers: text: two
context: President Franklin Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines to formulate a Pacific defence plan with Australia in March 1942. Curtin agreed to place Australian forces under the command of MacArthur who became Supreme Commander, South West Pacific. MacArthur moved his headquarters to Melbourne in March 1942 and American troops began massing in Australia. Enemy naval activity reached Sydney in late May 1942, when Japanese midget submarines launched a daring raid on Sydney Harbour. On 8 June 1942, two Japanese submarines briefly shelled Sydney's eastern suburbs and the city of Newcastle.

qas: question: When was the Pacific War Council formed in Washingto D.C.?
answers: text: 1 April 1942

question: What American president was a member of the Pacific War Council?
answers: text: President Franklin D. Roosevelt

question: Who was President Roosevelt's key advisor?
answers: text: Harry Hopkins

question: Where was the U.S.-UK Combined Chiefs of Staff located?
answers: text: Washington

question: Where was the Australian and Dutch guerilla campaign led?
answers: text: Portuguese Timor
context: In early 1942, the governments of smaller powers began to push for an inter-governmental Asia-Pacific war council, based in Washington, D.C.. A council was established in London, with a subsidiary body in Washington. However, the smaller powers continued to push for an American-based body. The Pacific War Council was formed in Washington, on 1 April 1942, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his key advisor Harry Hopkins, and representatives from Britain, China, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Canada. Representatives from India and the Philippines were later added. The council never had any direct operational control, and any decisions it made were referred to the U.S.-UK Combined Chiefs of Staff, which was also in Washington. Allied resistance, at first symbolic, gradually began to stiffen. Australian and Dutch forces led civilians in a prolonged guerilla campaign in Portuguese Timor.

qas: question: What American carrier joined the USS Yorktown to stop the Japanese attack on Port Moresby in 1942?
answers: text: USS Lexington

question: What admiral was the USS Lexington under?
answers: text: Admiral Fletcher

question: When was the Battle of the Coral Sea fought?
answers: text: May 1942

question: What American carrier was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea?
answers: text: Lexington

question: What Japanese carrier was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea?
answers: text: Shōhō
context: By mid-1942, the Japanese found themselves holding a vast area from the Indian Ocean to the Central Pacific, even though they lacked the resources to defend or sustain it. Moreover, Combined Fleet doctrine was inadequate to execute the proposed "barrier" defence. Instead, Japan decided on additional attacks in both the south and central Pacific. While she had the element of surprise at Pearl Harbor, Allied codebreakers had now turned the tables. They discovered an attack was planned against Port Moresby; if it fell, Japan would control the seas to the north and west of Australia and could isolate the country. The carrier USS Lexington under Admiral Fletcher joined USS Yorktown and an American-Australian task force to stop the Japanese advance. The resulting Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in May 1942, was the first naval battle in which ships involved never sighted each other and only aircraft were used to attack opposing forces. Although Lexington was sunk and Yorktown seriously damaged, the Japanese lost the carrier Shōhō, and suffered extensive damage to Shōkaku and heavy losses to the air wing of Zuikaku, both of which missed the operation against Midway the following month. Although Allied losses were heavier than Japanese, the attack on Port Moresby was thwarted and the Japanese invasion force turned back, a strategic victory for the Allies. The Japanese were forced to abandon their attempts to isolate Australia. Moreover, Japan lacked the capacity to replace losses in ships, planes and trained pilots.

qas: question: In Yamamoto's plan, what northern islands were to be attacked?
answers: text: Aleutian Islands

question: What was the second stage objective of Yamaoto's plan?
answers: text: capture of Midway

question: How many planes did Nagumo have for the Midway invasion?
answers: text: 272

question: How many planes did the United States have in the Battle of Midway?
answers: text: 348

question: How many U.S. planes were land-based?
answers: text: 115
context: A Japanese force was sent north to attack the Aleutian Islands. The next stage of the plan called for the capture of Midway, which would give him an opportunity to destroy Nimitz's remaining carriers. In May, Allied codebreakers discovered his intentions. Nagumo was again in tactical command but was focused on the invasion of Midway; Yamamoto's complex plan had no provision for intervention by Nimitz before the Japanese expected him. Planned surveillance of the U.S. fleet by long range seaplane did not happen (as a result of an abortive identical operation in March), so Fletcher's carriers were able to proceed to a flanking position without being detected. Nagumo had 272 planes operating from his four carriers, the U.S. 348 (115 land-based).

qas: question: When did the Japanese fleet arrive off Midway?
answers: text: 4 June

question: How many TBD Devastator torpedo bombers were lauched from the Hornet?
answers: text: 15

question: How many carriers did Nagumo have at the Battle of Midway?
answers: text: four

question: How many times did Nagumo change orders for arming his aircraft?
answers: text: twice

question: What were on the decks of the Japanese aircraft carriers when the American dive bobers attacked?
answers: text: munitions
context: As anticipated by Nimitz, the Japanese fleet arrived off Midway on 4 June and was spotted by PBY patrol aircraft. Nagumo executed a first strike against Midway, while Fletcher launched his aircraft, bound for Nagumo's carriers. At 09:20 the first U.S. carrier aircraft arrived, TBD Devastator torpedo bombers from Hornet, but their attacks were poorly coordinated and ineffectual; thanks in part to faulty aerial torpedoes, they failed to score a single hit and all 15 were wiped out by defending Zero fighters. At 09:35, 15 additional TBDs from Enterprise attacked in which 14 were lost, again with no hits. Thus far, Fletcher's attacks had been disorganized and seemingly ineffectual, but they succeeded in drawing Nagumo's defensive fighters down to sea level where they expended much of their fuel and ammunition repulsing the two waves of torpedo bombers. As a result, when U.S. dive bombers arrived at high altitude, the Zeros were poorly positioned to defend. To make matters worse, Nagumo's four carriers had drifted out of formation in their efforts to avoid torpedoes, reducing the concentration of their anti-aircraft fire. Nagumo's indecision had also created confusion aboard his carriers. Alerted to the need of a second strike on Midway, but also wary of the need to deal with the American carriers that he now knew were in the vicinity, Nagumo twice changed the arming orders for his aircraft. As a result, the American dive bombers found the Japanese carriers with their decks cluttered with munitions as the crews worked hastily to properly re-arm their air groups.

qas: question: At what altitude did the American dive bombers commence their attck on the Japanese carriers?
answers: text: 10,000 feet

question: Which Japanese carrier survived the first wave of American dive bombers in the Battle of Midway.
answers: text: Hiryū

question: Who won the Battle of Midway?
answers: text: Allies

question: How many fleet carriers were lost by the Japanese in the Battle of Midway?
answers: text: four
context: With the Japanese CAP out of position and the carriers at their most vulnerable, SBD Dauntlesses from Enterprise and Yorktown appeared at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and commenced their attack, quickly dealing fatal blows to three fleet carriers: Sōryū, Kaga, and Akagi. Within minutes, all three were ablaze and had to be abandoned with great loss of life. Hiryū managed to survive the wave of dive bombers and launched a counter-attack against the American carriers which caused severe damage to Yorktown (which was later finished off by a Japanese submarine). However, a second attack from the U.S. carriers a few hours later found and destroyed Hiryū, the last remaining fleet carrier available to Nagumo. With his carriers lost and the Americans withdrawn out of range of his powerful battleships, Yamamoto was forced to call off the operation, leaving Midway in American hands. The battle proved to be a decisive victory for the Allies. For the second time, Japanese expansion had been checked and its formidable Combined Fleet was significantly weakened by the loss of four fleet carriers and many highly trained, virtually irreplaceable, personnel. Japan would be largely on the defensive for the rest of the war.

qas: question: What mountains did the Australian battalions fight a rearguard action over on the Kokoda Track?
answers: text: Owen Stanley Ranges

question: What forces releived the worn Australian reserve battalions? 
answers: text: Second Australian Imperial Force

question: In 1942, what Australian Air Force base was attacked by Japanese marines?
answers: text: Milne Bay

question: Where was Milne Bay located in New Guinea?
answers: text: eastern tip

question: What theater did the Second Australian Imperial Force come from before they relieved the reserve battalions in New Guinea?
answers: text: Mediterranean
context: Japanese land forces continued to advance in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. From July 1942, a few Australian reserve battalions, many of them very young and untrained, fought a stubborn rearguard action in New Guinea, against a Japanese advance along the Kokoda Track, towards Port Moresby, over the rugged Owen Stanley Ranges. The militia, worn out and severely depleted by casualties, were relieved in late August by regular troops from the Second Australian Imperial Force, returning from action in the Mediterranean theater. In early September 1942 Japanese marines attacked a strategic Royal Australian Air Force base at Milne Bay, near the eastern tip of New Guinea. They were beaten back by Allied (primarily Australian Army) forces.

qas: question: Where were most of the Japanese aircraft in the South Pacific redeployed to defend?
answers: text: Guadalcanal

question: Where did Japanese ground attack repeatedly?forces 
answers: text: Henderson Field

question: What did the Allies call the Japanese convoys supplying the ground forces attacking Henderson Field?
answers: text: "Tokyo Express"

question: What was the reason for the name "Ironbottom Sound" of the water stretches new Guadalcanal?
answers: text: the multitude of ships sunk

question: When did the Japanese give up trying to recapture Henderson Field?
answers: text: February 1943
context: With Japanese and Allied forces occupying various parts of the island, over the following six months both sides poured resources into an escalating battle of attrition on land, at sea, and in the sky. Most of the Japanese aircraft based in the South Pacific were redeployed to the defense of Guadalcanal. Many were lost in numerous engagements with the Allied air forces based at Henderson Field as well as carrier based aircraft. Meanwhile, Japanese ground forces launched repeated attacks on heavily defended US positions around Henderson Field, in which they suffered appalling casualties. To sustain these offensives, resupply was carried out by Japanese convoys, termed the "Tokyo Express" by the Allies. The convoys often faced night battles with enemy naval forces in which they expended destroyers that the IJN could ill-afford to lose. Later fleet battles involving heavier ships and even daytime carrier battles resulted in a stretch of water near Guadalcanal becoming known as "Ironbottom Sound" from the multitude of ships sunk on both sides. However, the Allies were much better able to replace these losses. Finally recognizing that the campaign to recapture Henderson Field and secure Guadalcanal had simply become too costly to continue, the Japanese evacuated the island and withdrew in February 1943. In the sixth month war of attrition, the Japanese had lost as a result of failing to commit enough forces in sufficient time.

qas: question: Where were the 40th, 3rd, and 6th divisions massed at in China?
answers: text: Yueyang

question: What is the first river that the 40th, 3rd, and 6th Japanese divisions crossed while advancing southward?
answers: text: Xinqiang River

question: What is the river that the 40th, 3rd, and 6th Japanese divisions tried crossing to reach Changsha?
answers: text: Miluo River

question: How many Chinese civilians were estimated to have died during the Japanese Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign?
answers: text: 250,000

question: Who commanded the Imperial Japanese 11th Army on November, 1943?
answers: text: Isamu Yokoyama
context: In mainland China, the Japanese 3rd, 6th, and 40th Divisions massed at Yueyang and advanced southward in three columns and crossed the Xinqiang River, and tried again to cross the Miluo River to reach Changsha. In January 1942, Chinese forces got a victory at Changsha which was the first Allied success against Japan.
After the Doolittle Raid, the Japanese army conducted a massive sweep through Zhejiang and Jiangxi of China, now known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, with the goal of searching out the surviving American airmen, applying retribution on the Chinese who aided them and destroying air bases. This operation started on 15 May 1942 with 40 infantry battalions and 15–16 artillery battalions but was repelled by Chinese forces in September. During this campaign, The Imperial Japanese Army left behind a trail of devastation and had also spread cholera, typhoid, plague and dysentery pathogens. Chinese estimates put the death toll at 250,000 civilians. Around 1,700 Japanese troops died out of a total 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with disease when their own biological weapons attack rebounded on their own forces.
On 2 November 1943, Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the Imperial Japanese 11th Army, deployed the 39th, 58th, 13th, 3rd, 116th and 68th divisions, a grand total of around 100,000 troops, to attack Changde of China. During the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition. Although the Japanese army initially successfully captured the city, the Chinese 57th division was able to pin them down long enough for reinforcements to arrive and encircle the Japanese. The Chinese army then cut off the Japanese supply lines, forcing them into retreat, whereupon the Chinese pursued their enemy. During the battle, in an act of desperation, Japan used chemical weapons.
In the aftermath of the Japanese conquest of Burma, there was widespread disorder in eastern India, and a disastrous famine in Bengal, which ultimately caused up to 3 million deaths. In spite of these, and inadequate lines of communication, British and Indian forces attempted limited counter-attacks in Burma in early 1943. An offensive in Arakan failed, while a long distance raid mounted by the Chindits under Brigadier Orde Wingate suffered heavy losses, but was publicized to bolster Allied morale. It also provoked the Japanese to mount major offensives themselves the following year.

qas: question: What Allied command replaced the British India Command in August, 1943?
answers: text: South East Asia Command

question: Who was appointed Supreme Commander of the SEAC in October, 1943?
answers: text: Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten

question: Who was deputy commander to Mountbatten?
answers: text: General Joseph Stilwell

question: What was the name of the new link between India and China by land?
answers: text: Ledo Road

question: The British and Indian Fourteenth Army was formed to take on what force?
answers: text: Japanese in Burma
context: In August 1943 the Allies formed a new South East Asia Command (SEAC) to take over strategic responsibilities for Burma and India from the British India Command, under Wavell. In October 1943 Winston Churchill appointed Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten as its Supreme Commander. The British and Indian Fourteenth Army was formed to face the Japanese in Burma. Under Lieutenant General William Slim, its training, morale and health greatly improved. The American General Joseph Stilwell, who also was deputy commander to Mountbatten and commanded U.S. forces in the China Burma India Theater, directed aid to China and prepared to construct the Ledo Road to link India and China by land.

qas: question: What did the United States turn it's industry to in the two years folloing the Battle of Midway?
answers: text: increased numbers of ships, planes, and trained aircrew

question: How were the bypassed Japanese strongholds neutralized?
answers: text: air attack

question: What blockade against Japan  was to be improved on?
answers: text: submarine blockade
context: Midway proved to be the last great naval battle for two years. The United States used the ensuing period to turn its vast industrial potential into increased numbers of ships, planes, and trained aircrew. At the same time, Japan, lacking an adequate industrial base or technological strategy, a good aircrew training program, or adequate naval resources and commerce defense, fell further and further behind. In strategic terms the Allies began a long movement across the Pacific, seizing one island base after another. Not every Japanese stronghold had to be captured; some, like Truk, Rabaul, and Formosa, were neutralized by air attack and bypassed. The goal was to get close to Japan itself, then launch massive strategic air attacks, improve the submarine blockade, and finally (only if necessary) execute an invasion.

qas: question: What type of vessels were part of a major role in defeating Japan?
answers: text: submarines

question: What percent did submarines make up in the US Navy fighting Japan?
answers: text: two percent

question: What did submarines sinking Japanese ships do?
answers: text: strangled Japan

question: What happened to the Japanese fleet when nearly all oil imports were cut off?
answers: text: virtually stranded
context: U.S. submarines, as well as some British and Dutch vessels, operating from bases at Cavite in the Philippines (1941–42); Fremantle and Brisbane, Australia; Pearl Harbor; Trincomalee, Ceylon; Midway; and later Guam, played a major role in defeating Japan, even though submarines made up a small proportion of the Allied navies—less than two percent in the case of the US Navy. Submarines strangled Japan by sinking its merchant fleet, intercepting many troop transports, and cutting off nearly all the oil imports essential to weapons production and military operations. By early 1945 Japanese oil supplies were so limited that its fleet was virtually stranded.

qas: question: What percentage of Japanese merchantmen were sunk by U.S. submarines?
answers: text: 56%

question: What percentage of Japanese warships were sunk by U.S. submarines?
answers: text: 28%

question: What future U.S. president was rescued by a submarine?
answers: text: George H.W. Bush

question: What was one of the important roles submarine played in the war?
answers: text: reconnaissance roles
context: U.S. submarines accounted for 56% of the Japanese merchantmen sunk; mines or aircraft destroyed most of the rest. US submariners also claimed 28% of Japanese warships destroyed. Furthermore, they played important reconnaissance roles, as at the battles of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) and Leyte Gulf (October 1944) (and, coincidentally,[clarification needed] at Midway in June 1942), when they gave accurate and timely warning of the approach of the Japanese fleet. Submarines also rescued hundreds of downed fliers, including future U.S. president George H.W. Bush.

qas: question: What doctrine did Roosevelt give for submarines against Japan?
answers: text: unrestricted submarine warfare

question: Who was the Dutch Admiral in charge of the East Indies?
answers: text: Conrad Helfrich

question: What was the nickname given to the Dutch Admiral in charge of the East Indies?
answers: text: "Ship-a-day Helfrich"

question: What was the first Japanese warship to be sunk by submarine?
answers: text: Sagiri

question: When was the first Japanese warship sunk by a submarine?
answers: text: 24 December 1941
context: Allied submarines did not adopt a defensive posture and wait for the enemy to attack. Within hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, in retribution against Japan, Roosevelt promulgated a new doctrine: unrestricted submarine warfare against Japan. This meant sinking any warship, commercial vessel, or passenger ship in Axis-controlled waters, without warning and without help to survivors.[nb 13] At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific the Dutch Admiral in charge of the naval defense of the East Indies, Conrad Helfrich, gave instructions to wage war aggressively. His small force of submarines sank more Japanese ships in the first weeks of the war than the entire British and US navies together, an exploit which earned him the nickname "Ship-a-day Helfrich". The Dutch force were in fact the first to sink an enemy warship; On 24 December 1941, HNLMS K XVI torpedoed and sank the Japanese destroyer Sagiri.

qas: question: What doctrine stated that only fleet battles could win naval campaigns?
answers: text: Imperial Japanese Navy

question: What was commerce raiding refered to as?
answers: text: guerre de course

question: What was the primary use of Japanese submarines?
answers: text: long-range reconnaissance

question: When was the Japanese submarine offensive against Australia?
answers: text: 1942 and 1943

question: What did the Japanese submarine offensive against Austrailia achieve?
answers: text: little
context: While Japan had a large number of submarines, they did not make a significant impact on the war. In 1942, the Japanese fleet subs performed well, knocking out or damaging many Allied warships. However, Imperial Japanese Navy (and pre-war U.S.) doctrine stipulated that only fleet battles, not guerre de course (commerce raiding) could win naval campaigns. So, while the US had an unusually long supply line between its west coast and frontline areas, leaving it vulnerable to submarine attack, Japan used its submarines primarily for long-range reconnaissance and only occasionally attacked U.S. supply lines. The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia in 1942 and 1943 also achieved little.

qas: question: What did the US Navy rely on?
answers: text: commerce raiding

question: What led to guerrilla submarine missions in early 1942?
answers: text: Allied forces surrounded in the Philippines

question: What did Admiral Nimitze rely on submarines for?
answers: text: close surveillance of enemy bases

question: When were the defective torpedo problems of the US Navy corrected?
answers: text: September 1943

question: What was the "maru code"?
answers: text: Japanese merchant marine code
context: The U.S. Navy, by contrast, relied on commerce raiding from the outset. However, the problem of Allied forces surrounded in the Philippines, during the early part of 1942, led to diversion of boats to "guerrilla submarine" missions. As well, basing in Australia placed boats under Japanese aerial threat while en route to patrol areas, reducing their effectiveness, and Nimitz relied on submarines for close surveillance of enemy bases. Furthermore, the standard-issue Mark 14 torpedo and its Mark VI exploder both proved defective, problems which were not corrected until September 1943. Worst of all, before the war, an uninformed US Customs officer had seized a copy of the Japanese merchant marine code (called the "maru code" in the USN), not knowing that the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) had broken it. The Japanese promptly changed it, and the new code was not broken again by OP-20G until 1943.

qas: question: When did the US Navy begin to use it's submarines to maximum effect?
answers: text: 1944

question: How many Japanese ships were sunk in 1942 by United States submarines?
answers: text: 180

question: How many Japanese merchant ships did Allied submarines sink during the war?
answers: text: 1,200

question: How many Japanese carriers were sunk during the war?
answers: text: eight

question: How many Japanese ships were sunk in 1944 by United States submarines?
answers: text: 603
context: Thus, only in 1944 did the U.S. Navy begin to use its 150 submarines to maximum effect: installing effective shipboard radar, replacing commanders deemed lacking in aggression, and fixing the faults in the torpedoes. Japanese commerce protection was "shiftless beyond description,"[nb 14] and convoys were poorly organized and defended compared to Allied ones, a product of flawed IJN doctrine and training – errors concealed by American faults as much as Japanese overconfidence. The number of U.S. submarines patrols (and sinkings) rose steeply: 350 patrols (180 ships sunk) in 1942, 350 (335) in 1943, and 520 (603) in 1944. By 1945, sinkings of Japanese vessels had decreased because so few targets dared to venture out on the high seas. In all, Allied submarines destroyed 1,200 merchant ships – about five million tons of shipping. Most were small cargo-carriers, but 124 were tankers bringing desperately needed oil from the East Indies. Another 320 were passenger ships and troop transports. At critical stages of the Guadalcanal, Saipan, and Leyte campaigns, thousands of Japanese troops were killed or diverted from where they were needed. Over 200 warships were sunk, ranging from many auxiliaries and destroyers to one battleship and no fewer than eight carriers.

qas: question: What was the code name for the mid-1944 offensive across China?
answers: text: Operation Ichi-Go

question: What was the largest Japanese offensive in World War II?
answers: text: Operation Ichi-Go

question: Where did the Chinese stop the Operation Ichi-Go incursion?
answers: text: Guangxi

question: Who was able to take advantage of the social confusion created by Operation Ichi-Go?
answers: text: Chinese Communist guerrillas

question: How many casualties did the Japanese suffer during Operation Ichi-Go?
answers: text: about 100,000
context: In mid-1944 Japan mobilized over 500,000 men  and launched a massive operation across China under the code name Operation Ichi-Go, their largest offensive of World War II, with the goal of connecting Japanese-controlled territory in China and French Indochina and capturing airbases in southeastern China where American bombers were based. During this time, many of the newest American-trained Chinese units and supplies were forcibly locked in the Burmese theater under Joseph Stilwell set by terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement. Though Japan suffered about 100,000 casualties, these attacks, the biggest in several years, gained much ground for Japan before Chinese forces stopped the incursions in Guangxi. Despite major tactical victories, the operation overall failed to provide Japan with any significant strategic gains. A great majority of the Chinese forces were able to retreat out of the area, and later come back to attack Japanese positions such as Battle of West Hunan. Japan was not any closer in defeating China after this operation, and the constant defeats the Japanese suffered in the Pacific meant that Japan never got the time and resources needed to achieve final victory over China. Operation Ichi-go created a great sense of social confusion in the areas of China that it affected. Chinese Communist guerrillas were able to exploit this confusion to gain influence and control of greater areas of the countryside in the aftermath of Ichi-go.

qas: question: What command prepared offensives into Burma after the Allied setbacks in 1943?
answers: text: South East Asia command

question: Who led Chinese and American troops for NCAC?
answers: text: Joseph Stilwell

question: What road did the NCAC extend into northern Burma?
answers: text: Ledo Road

question: Who advanced aling the Arakan Province coast?
answers: text: XV Corps

question: Who did aircraft drop supplies to isolated units until they could be relieved?
answers: text: XV Corps
context: After the Allied setbacks in 1943, the South East Asia command prepared to launch offensives into Burma on several fronts. In the first months of 1944, the Chinese and American troops of the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC), commanded by the American Joseph Stilwell, began extending the Ledo Road from India into northern Burma, while the XV Corps began an advance along the coast in the Arakan Province. In February 1944 the Japanese mounted a local counter-attack in the Arakan. After early Japanese success, this counter-attack was defeated when the Indian divisions of XV Corps stood firm, relying on aircraft to drop supplies to isolated forward units until reserve divisions could relieve them.

qas: question: What month did the Japanese launch an offensive into India?
answers: text: March

question: Who commanded the Japanese Fifteenth Army in Operation U-Go?
answers: text: Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi

question: Where had the Japanese advanced to?
answers: text: Kohima in Nagaland

question: What did the Japanese cut?
answers: text: main road to Imphal

question: What had the Japanese failed to capture?
answers: text: defences at Kohima
context: The Japanese responded to the Allied attacks by launching an offensive of their own into India in the middle of March, across the mountainous and densely forested frontier. This attack, codenamed Operation U-Go, was advocated by Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi, the recently promoted commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army; Imperial General Headquarters permitted it to proceed, despite misgivings at several intervening headquarters. Although several units of the British Fourteenth Army had to fight their way out of encirclement, by early April they had concentrated around Imphal in Manipur state. A Japanese division which had advanced to Kohima in Nagaland cut the main road to Imphal, but failed to capture the whole of the defences at Kohima. During April, the Japanese attacks against Imphal failed, while fresh Allied formations drove the Japanese from the positions they had captured at Kohima.

qas: question: What happened to Mutaguchi's troops?
answers: text: starved

question: When was the Japanese siege of Imphal broken?
answers: text: 22 June

question: How many troops had the Japanese lost?
answers: text: 50,000

question: What was the main cause of death of the Japanese troops?
answers: text: starvation and disease
context: As many Japanese had feared, Japan's supply arrangements could not maintain her forces. Once Mutaguchi's hopes for an early victory were thwarted, his troops, particularly those at Kohima, starved. During May, while Mutaguchi continued to order attacks, the Allies advanced southwards from Kohima and northwards from Imphal. The two Allied attacks met on 22 June, breaking the Japanese siege of Imphal. The Japanese finally broke off the operation on 3 July. They had lost over 50,000 troops, mainly to starvation and disease. This represented the worst defeat suffered by the Japanese Army to that date.[citation needed]

qas: question: What battle was the advance in the Arakan halted to release troops for?
answers: text: Battle of Imphal

question: Who aided the Americans and Chinese during the advance in northern Burma?
answers: text: Chindits

question: When did the Chinese invade northern Burma?
answers: text: middle of 1944

question: What fortified position was captured by the Chinese Expeditionary Force?
answers: text: Mount Song

question: What airfield was taken by the NCAC in August, 1944?
answers: text: Myitkyina
context: Although the advance in the Arakan had been halted to release troops and aircraft for the Battle of Imphal, the Americans and Chinese had continued to advance in northern Burma, aided by the Chindits operating against the Japanese lines of communication. In the middle of 1944 the Chinese Expeditionary Force invaded northern Burma from Yunnan province. They captured a fortified position at Mount Song. By the time campaigning ceased during the monsoon rains, the NCAC had secured a vital airfield at Myitkyina (August 1944), which eased the problems of air resupply from India to China over "The Hump".

qas: question: What was it imperative for the Japanese to hold?
answers: text: Saipan

question: How many fleet carriers did the U.S. Fifth Fleet have?
answers: text: 15

question: How many fleet planes did the U.S. Fifth Fleet have?
answers: text: 956

question: What was the search radius of U.S. Navy Hellcat fighters?
answers: text: 325-mile

question: How many carriers did Ozawa have?
answers: text: nine
context: It was imperative for Japanese commanders to hold Saipan. The only way to do this was to destroy the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which had 15 fleet carriers and 956 planes, 7 battleships, 28 submarines, and 69 destroyers, as well as several light and heavy cruisers. Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa attacked with nine-tenths of Japan's fighting fleet, which included nine carriers with 473 planes, 5 battleships, several cruisers, and 28 destroyers. Ozawa's pilots were outnumbered 2:1 and their aircraft were becoming or were already obsolete. The Japanese had considerable antiaircraft defenses but lacked proximity fuzes or good radar. With the odds against him, Ozawa devised an appropriate strategy. His planes had greater range because they were not weighed down with protective armor; they could attack at about 480 km (300 mi)[citation needed], and could search a radius of 900 km[citation needed] (560 mi). U.S. Navy Hellcat fighters could only attack within 200 miles (320 km) and only search within a 325-mile (523 km)[citation needed] radius. Ozawa planned to use this advantage by positioning his fleet 300 miles (480 km)[citation needed] out. The Japanese planes would hit the U.S. carriers, land at Guam to refuel, then hit the enemy again when returning to their carriers. Ozawa also counted on about 500 land-based planes at Guam and other islands.

qas: question: How many of Ozawa's submarines were sunk by American destroyers?
answers: text: 17

question: How many American warships were damaged during the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot?
answers: text: one

question: In what sequence did Japanese planes arrive at their targets?
answers: text: staggered

question: Where did the radio interception orders to U.S> Hellcat fighters come from?
answers: text: combat information centers

question: Who gave the directive for all carriers in the US Navy to have combat information centers?
answers: text: Nimitz
context: The forces converged in the largest sea battle of World War II up to that point. Over the previous month American destroyers had destroyed 17 of 25 submarines out of Ozawa's screening force. Repeated U.S. raids destroyed the Japanese land-based planes. Ozawa's main attack lacked coordination, with the Japanese planes arriving at their targets in a staggered sequence. Following a directive from Nimitz, the U.S. carriers all had combat information centers, which interpreted the flow of radar data and radioed interception orders to the Hellcats. The result was later dubbed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. The few attackers to reach the U.S. fleet encountered massive AA fire with proximity fuzes. Only one American warship was slightly damaged.

qas: question: On what day did U.S> planes located Ozawa's fleet?
answers: text: second

question: How many miles away was Ozawa's fleet located?
answers: text: 275

question: How many planes did the U.S. lose?
answers: text: 130

question: How many planes did Japan lose?
answers: text: 450

question: How many U.S. aircrews were lost?
answers: text: 76
context: On the second day, U.S. reconnaissance planes located Ozawa's fleet, 275 miles (443 km)[citation needed] away, and submarines sank two Japanese carriers. Mitscher launched 230 torpedo planes and dive bombers. He then discovered the enemy was actually another 60 miles (97 km)[citation needed] further off, out of aircraft range (based on a roundtrip flight). Mitscher decided this chance to destroy the Japanese fleet was worth the risk of aircraft losses due to running out of fuel on the return flight. Overall, the U.S. lost 130 planes and 76 aircrew; however, Japan lost 450 planes, three carriers, and 445 aircrew. The Imperial Japanese Navy's carrier force was effectively destroyed.

qas: question: What is argued to be the largest naval battle in history?
answers: text: Battle of Leyte Gulf

question: What was the largest naval battle in World War II?
answers: text: Battle of Leyte Gulf

question: When did the Battle of Leyte Gulf occur?
answers: text: 23 to 26 October 1944

question: When did Nimitz launch a carrier raid against Formosa?
answers: text: 12 October

question: What did Nimitz favor blockading?
answers: text: Philippines
context: The Battle of Leyte Gulf was arguably the largest naval battle in history and was the largest naval battle of World War II. It was a series of four distinct engagements fought off the Philippine island of Leyte from 23 to 26 October 1944. Leyte Gulf featured the largest battleships ever built, was the last time in history that battleships engaged each other, and was also notable as the first time that kamikaze aircraft were used. Allied victory in the Philippine Sea established Allied air and sea superiority in the western Pacific. Nimitz favored blockading the Philippines and landing on Formosa. This would give the Allies control of the sea routes to Japan from southern Asia, cutting off substantial Japanese garrisons. MacArthur favored an invasion of the Philippines, which also lay across the supply lines to Japan. Roosevelt adjudicated in favor of the Philippines. Meanwhile, Japanese Combined Fleet Chief Toyoda Soemu prepared four plans to cover all Allied offensive scenarios. On 12 October Nimitz launched a carrier raid against Formosa to make sure that planes based there could not intervene in the landings on Leyte. Toyoda put Plan Sho-2 into effect, launching a series of air attacks against the U.S. carriers. However the Japanese lost 600 planes in three days, leaving them without air cover.

qas: question: What was the namee of the plan where Ozawa's force would lure the U.S. 3rd Fleet away from Leyte?
answers: text: Sho-1

question: Who would enter Leyte Gulf to attack the Allied landing forces?
answers: text: V. Adm. Takeo Kurita

question: How many Japanese forces were likely to be destroyed?
answers: text: one or more
context: Sho-1 called for V. Adm. Jisaburo Ozawa's force to use an apparently vulnerable carrier force to lure the U.S. 3rd Fleet away from Leyte and remove air cover from the Allied landing forces, which would then be attacked from the west by three Japanese forces: V. Adm. Takeo Kurita's force would enter Leyte Gulf and attack the landing forces; R. Adm. Shoji Nishimura's force and V. Adm. Kiyohide Shima's force would act as mobile strike forces. The plan was likely to result in the destruction of one or more of the Japanese forces, but Toyoda justified it by saying that there would be no sense in saving the fleet and losing the Philippines.

qas: question: How many battleships were in Kurita's "Center Force"?
answers: text: five

question: How many cruisers were in Kurita's "Center Force"?
answers: text: 12

question: How many destroyers were in Kurita's "Center Force"?
answers: text: 13

question: When did Kurita's force enter the Sibuyan Sea?
answers: text: 24 October
context: Kurita's "Center Force" consisted of five battleships, 12 cruisers and 13 destroyers. It included the two largest battleships ever built: Yamato and Musashi. As they passed Palawan Island after midnight on 23 October the force was spotted, and U.S. submarines sank two cruisers. On 24 October, as Kurita's force entered the Sibuyan Sea, USS Intrepid and USS Cabot launched 260 planes, which scored hits on several ships. A second wave of planes scored many direct hits on Musashi. A third wave, from USS Enterprise and USS Franklin hit Musashi with 11 bombs and eight torpedoes. Kurita retreated but in the evening turned around to head for San Bernardino Strait. Musashi sank at about 19:30.

qas: question: How many battleships were in Nishimura's force?
answers: text: two

question: Which Japanese admiral was a  rival of Nishimura?
answers: text: Shima

question: How many miles was Shima's fleet behind Nishimura?
answers: text: 22

question: Who set the trap for the Japanese forces as they sailed by Panaon Island?
answers: text: R. Adm. Jesse Oldendorf

question: How many battleships did the U.S.-Australian 7th Fleet have?
answers: text: six
context: Nishimura's force consisted of two battleships, one cruiser and four destroyers. Because they were observing radio silence, Nishimura was unable to synchronize with Shima and Kurita. Nishimura and Shima had failed to even coordinate their plans before the attacks – they were long-time rivals and neither wished to have anything to do with the other. When he entered the narrow Surigao Strait at about 02:00, Shima was 22 miles (40 km) behind him, and Kurita was still in the Sibuyan Sea, several hours from the beaches at Leyte. As they passed Panaon Island, Nishimura's force ran into a trap set for them by the U.S.-Australian 7th Fleet Support Force. R. Adm. Jesse Oldendorf had six battleships, four heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, 29 destroyers and 39 PT boats. To pass the strait and reach the landings, Nishimura had to run the gauntlet. At about 03:00 the Japanese battleship Fusō and three destroyers were hit by torpedoes and Fusō broke in two. At 03:50 the U.S. battleships opened fire. Radar fire control meant they could hit targets from a much greater distance than the Japanese. The battleship Yamashiro, a cruiser and a destroyer were crippled by 16-inch (406 mm) shells; Yamashiro sank at 04:19. Only one of Nishimura's force of seven ships survived the engagement. At 04:25 Shima's force of two cruisers and eight destroyers reached the battle. Seeing Fusō and believing her to be the wrecks of two battleships, Shima ordered a retreat, ending the last battleship-vs-battleship action in history.

qas: question: How many aircraft carriers were in Ozawa's "Northern Force"?
answers: text: four

question: When did the allies spot Ozawa's "Northern Force"?
answers: text: 16:40 on 24 October

question: How many planes were in the U.S. 3rd Fleet?
answers: text: 1,000

question: How many destroyers were in the U.S. Third Fleet?
answers: text: 63

question: How many cruisers were in the U.S. Third Fleet?
answers: text: 17
context: Ozawa's "Northern Force" had four aircraft carriers, two obsolete battleships partly converted to carriers, three cruisers and nine destroyers. The carriers had only 108 planes. The force was not spotted by the Allies until 16:40 on 24 October. At 20:00 Toyoda ordered all remaining Japanese forces to attack. Halsey saw an opportunity to destroy the remnants of the Japanese carrier force. The U.S. Third Fleet was formidable – nine large carriers, eight light carriers, six battleships, 17 cruisers, 63 destroyers and 1,000 planes – and completely outgunned Ozawa's force. Halsey's ships set out in pursuit of Ozawa just after midnight. U.S. commanders ignored reports that Kurita had turned back towards San Bernardino Strait. They had taken the bait set by Ozawa. On the morning of 25 October Ozawa launched 75 planes. Most were shot down by U.S. fighter patrols. By 08:00 U.S. fighters had destroyed the screen of Japanese fighters and were hitting ships. By evening, they had sunk the carriers Zuikaku, Zuihō, and Chiyoda, and a destroyer. The fourth carrier, Chitose, and a cruiser were disabled and later sank.

qas: question: When did Kurita pass through the San Bernardino Strait?
answers: text: 03:00 on 25 October

question: Where did Kurit head after passing through the San Bernardino Strait?
answers: text: along the coast of Samar

question: Admiral Kincaid commanded what three groups of the Seventh Fleet?
answers: text: Taffy 1, 2 and 3

question: What broke the Japanes formations under Kurita?
answers: text: Destroyer attacks

question: How many of Kurita's heavy cruisers were sunk?
answers: text: Three
context: Kurita passed through San Bernardino Strait at 03:00 on 25 October and headed along the coast of Samar. The only thing standing in his path were three groups (Taffy 1, 2 and 3) of the Seventh Fleet, commanded by Admiral Thomas Kinkaid. Each group had six escort carriers, with a total of more than 500 planes, and seven or eight destroyers or destroyer escorts (DE). Kinkaid still believed that Lee's force was guarding the north, so the Japanese had the element of surprise when they attacked Taffy 3 at 06:45. Kurita mistook the Taffy carriers for large fleet carriers and thought he had the whole Third Fleet in his sights. Since escort carriers stood little chance against a battleship, Adm. Clifton Sprague directed the carriers of Taffy 3 to turn and flee eastward, hoping that bad visibility would reduce the accuracy of Japanese gunfire, and used his destroyers to divert the Japanese battleships. The destroyers made harassing torpedo attacks against the Japanese. For ten minutes Yamato was caught up in evasive action. Two U.S. destroyers and a DE were sunk, but they had bought enough time for the Taffy groups to launch planes. Taffy 3 turned and fled south, with shells scoring hits on some of its carriers and sinking one of them. The superior speed of the Japanese force allowed it to draw closer and fire on the other two Taffy groups. However, at 09:20 Kurita suddenly turned and retreated north. Signals had disabused him of the notion that he was attacking the Third Fleet, and the longer Kurita continued to engage, the greater the risk of major air strikes. Destroyer attacks had broken the Japanese formations, shattering tactical control. Three of Kurita's heavy cruisers had been sunk and another was too damaged to continue the fight. The Japanese retreated through the San Bernardino Strait, under continuous air attack. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was over; and a large part of the Japanese surface fleet destroyed.

qas: question: What were the Leyte beachheads of the U.S. Sixth Army secured from?
answers: text: attack from the sea

question: When did Operation Ten-Go occur?
answers: text: April 1945

question: How many battleships did Kurita begin Operation Ten-Go with?
answers: text: five

question: What was the last battleship in history to engage in combat with another battleship?
answers: text: Yamashiro

question: Which battleship was still capable of combat when Kurita returned to Japan?
answers: text: Yamato
context: The battle secured the beachheads of the U.S. Sixth Army on Leyte against attack from the sea, broke the back of Japanese naval power and opened the way for an advance to the Ryukyu Islands in 1945. The only significant Japanese naval operation afterwards was the disastrous Operation Ten-Go in April 1945. Kurita's force had begun the battle with five battleships; when he returned to Japan, only Yamato was combat-worthy. Nishimura's sunken Yamashiro was the last battleship in history to engage another in combat.

qas: question: When did the U.S. Sixth Army land on the eastern shore of Leyte?
answers: text: 20 October 1944

question: Where did the Japanese rush reinforcments to on the western side of Leyte?
answers: text: Ormoc Bay area

question: What force devastated resupply attempts by the Japanese?
answers: text: U.S. Fifth Air Force

question: What was the neighboring island to the north of Leyte.
answers: text: Samar

question: Fighting continued on Leyte for how long?
answers: text: months
context: On 20 October 1944 the U.S. Sixth Army, supported by naval and air bombardment, landed on the favorable eastern shore of Leyte, north of Mindanao. The U.S. Sixth Army continued its advance from the east, as the Japanese rushed reinforcements to the Ormoc Bay area on the western side of the island. While the Sixth Army was reinforced successfully, the U.S. Fifth Air Force was able to devastate the Japanese attempts to resupply. In torrential rains and over difficult terrain, the advance continued across Leyte and the neighboring island of Samar to the north. On 7 December U.S. Army units landed at Ormoc Bay and, after a major land and air battle, cut off the Japanese ability to reinforce and supply Leyte. Although fierce fighting continued on Leyte for months, the U.S. Army was in control.

qas: question: Landings were made on the beaches of what island on December 15, 1944?
answers: text: Mindoro

question: Lingayen Gulf operations supported what landings?
answers: text: Luzon

question: Who led the Sixth Army?
answers: text: General Krueger

question: Clark field was how many miles northwest of Manila?
answers: text: 40
context: On 15 December 1944 landings against minimal resistance were made on the southern beaches of the island of Mindoro, a key location in the planned Lingayen Gulf operations, in support of major landings scheduled on Luzon. On 9 January 1945, on the south shore of Lingayen Gulf on the western coast of Luzon, General Krueger's Sixth Army landed his first units. Almost 175,000 men followed across the twenty-mile (32 km) beachhead within a few days. With heavy air support, Army units pushed inland, taking Clark Field, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manila, in the last week of January.

qas: question: What island was between Borneo and Mindoro?
answers: text: Palawan

question: What island was invaded by the Eighth Army on February 28?
answers: text: Palawan

question: Where did the Eighth Army land?
answers: text: Puerto Princesa

question: Who aided U.S. forces in finding Japanese holdouts in the Philippines?
answers: text: Filipino guerrillas

question: What is the western-most Philippine island?
answers: text: Palawan
context: Palawan Island, between Borneo and Mindoro, the fifth largest and western-most Philippine Island, was invaded on 28 February with landings of the Eighth Army at Puerto Princesa. The Japanese put up little direct defense of Palawan, but cleaning up pockets of Japanese resistance lasted until late April, as the Japanese used their common tactic of withdrawing into the mountain jungles, dispersed as small units. Throughout the Philippines, U.S. forces were aided by Filipino guerrillas to find and dispatch the holdouts.

qas: question: What was "Operation Detachment"?
answers: text: battle of Iwo Jima

question: When did "Operation Detachment" occur?
answers: text: February 1945

question: How many square miles is the island of Iwo Jima?
answers: text: 8

question: Iwo Jima is halfway between the Mariana Islands and what city?
answers: text: Tokyo

question: How many airfields were on Iwo Jima?
answers: text: three
context: The battle of Iwo Jima ("Operation Detachment") in February 1945 was one of the bloodiest battles fought by the Americans in the Pacific War. Iwo Jima was an 8 sq mile (21 km2) island situated halfway between Tokyo and the Mariana Islands. Holland Smith, the commander of the invasion force, aimed to capture the island, and utilize its three airfields as bases to carry out air attacks against the Home Islands. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the commander of the island's defense, knew that he could not win the battle, but he hoped to make the Americans suffer far more than they could endure.

qas: question: How many miles of hidden tunnel were on the island?
answers: text: 11

question: Who transformed the island into a fortress?
answers: text: Kuribayashi

question: What were the pillboxes and bunkers connected by?
answers: text: underground tunnels

question: Who did the network of fortifications on the island favor?
answers: text: the defender
context: From early 1944 until the days leading up to the invasion, Kuribayashi transformed the island into a massive network of bunkers, hidden guns, and 11 mi (18 km) of underground tunnels. The heavy American naval and air bombardment did little but drive the Japanese further underground, making their positions impervious to enemy fire. Their pillboxes and bunkers were all connected so that if one was knocked out, it could be reoccupied again. The network of bunkers and pillboxes greatly favored the defender.

qas: question: When did Iwo Jima come under bombardment?
answers: text: mid-June 1944

question: How many men landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945?
answers: text: some 30,000

question: What was the name of the mountain on Iwo Jima?
answers: text: Mount Suribachi

question: How many U.S. Marines were killed by the time thhey reached the west coast of the island?
answers: text: almost 2,000
context: Starting in mid-June 1944, Iwo Jima came under sustained aerial bombardment and naval artillery fire. However, Kuribayashi's hidden guns and defenses survived the constant bombardment virtually unscathed. On 19 February 1945, some 30,000 men of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions landed on the southeast coast of Iwo, just under Mount Suribachi; where most of the island's defenses were concentrated. For some time, they did not come under fire. This was part of Kuribayashi's plan to hold fire until the landing beaches were full. As soon as the Marines pushed inland to a line of enemy bunkers, they came under devastating machine gun and artillery fire which cut down many of the men. By the end of the day, the Marines reached the west coast of the island, but their losses were appalling; almost 2,000 men killed or wounded.

qas: question: What marine regiment reached the summit of Mount Suribachi?
answers: text: 28th

question: When was the summit of Mount Suribachi reached by U.S. marines?
answers: text: 23 February

question: Who said "there will be a Marine Corps for the next 500 years"?
answers: text: Navy Secretary James Forrestal

question: When was the island of Iwo Jima secured by the Americans?
answers: text: 26 March

question: How many Japanese prisoners were taken on Iwo Jima?
answers: text: 1,083
context: On 23 February, the 28th Marine Regiment reached the summit of Suribachi, prompting the now famous Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima picture. Navy Secretary James Forrestal, upon seeing the flag, remarked "there will be a Marine Corps for the next 500 years." The flag raising is often cited as the most reproduced photograph of all time and became the archetypal representation not only of that battle, but of the entire Pacific War. For the rest of February, the Americans pushed north, and by 1 March, had taken two-thirds of the island. But it was not until 26 March that the island was finally secured. The Japanese fought to the last man, killing 6,800 Marines and wounding nearly 20,000 more. The Japanese losses totaled well over 20,000 men killed, and only 1,083 prisoners were taken. Historians debate whether it was strategically worth the casualties sustained.

qas: question: What was the capital of Burma?
answers: text: Rangoon

question: What was the principle port of Burma?
answers: text: Rangoon

question: When was Operation Dracula launched?
answers: text: 1 May

question: What force was delayed by Japanese rearguards north of Rangoon?
answers: text: Fourteenth Army

question: What month was a delay caused by Japanese rearguards north of Rangoon?
answers: text: April
context: During April, Fourteenth Army advanced 300 miles (480 km) south towards Rangoon, the capital and principal port of Burma, but was delayed by Japanese rearguards 40 miles (64 km) north of Rangoon at the end of the month. Slim feared that the Japanese would defend Rangoon house-to-house during the monsoon, placing his army in a disastrous supply situation, and in March he had asked that a plan to capture Rangoon by an amphibious force, Operation Dracula, which had been abandoned earlier, be reinstated. Dracula was launched on 1 May, but Rangoon was found to have been abandoned. The troops which occupied Rangoon linked up with Fourteenth Army five days later, securing the Allies' lines of communication.

qas: question: How many British and Australian prisoners survived out of about 2500 around Sandakan?
answers: text: six

question: Sandakan was located in what providence?
answers: text: Borneo
context: Although the campaign was criticized in Australia at the time, and in subsequent years, as pointless or a "waste" of the lives of soldiers, it did achieve a number of objectives, such as increasing the isolation of significant Japanese forces occupying the main part of the Dutch East Indies, capturing major oil supplies and freeing Allied prisoners of war, who were being held in deteriorating conditions. At one of the very worst sites, around Sandakan in Borneo, only six of some 2,500 British and Australian prisoners survived.

qas: question: In 1945, how many years had Japan already been at war with China?
answers: text: seven

question: What battle did the Japanese Army begin to prepare for in March 1945?
answers: text: Battle of West Hunan

question: How many Japanese soldiers were mobilized to capture the Chinese airfields and railroads in West Hunan?
answers: text: 80,000

question: Who was the Chinese commander-in-chief of the 10th and 27th Army Groups?
answers: text: He Yingqin

question: When did Chinese forces retake Guangxi?
answers: text: August 1945
context: By April 1945, China had already been at war with Japan for more than seven years. Both nations were exhausted by years of battles, bombings and blockades. After Japanese victories in Operation Ichi-Go, Japan were losing the battle in Burma and facing constant attacks from Chinese Nationalists forces and Communist guerrillas in the country side. The Japanese army began preparations for the Battle of West Hunan in March 1945. Japanese mobilized 34th, 47th, 64th, 68th and 116th Divisions, as well as the 86th Independent Brigade, for a total of 80,000 men to seize Chinese airfields and secure railroads in West Hunan by early April. In response, the Chinese National Military Council dispatched the 4th Front Army and the 10th and 27th Army Groups with He Yingqin as commander-in-chief. At the same time, it airlifted the entire Chinese New 6th Corps, an American-equipped corps and veterans of the Burma Expeditionary Force, from Kunming to Zhijiang. Chinese forces totaled 110,000 men in 20 divisions. They were supported by about 400 aircraft from Chinese and American air forces. Chinese forces achieved a decisive victory and launched a large counterattack in this campaign. Concurrently, the Chinese managed to repel a Japanese offensive in Henan and Hubei. Afterwards, Chinese forces retook Hunan and Hubei provinces in South China. Chinese launched a counter offensive to retake Guangxi which was the last major Japanese stronghold in South China. In August 1945, Chinese forces successfully retook Guangxi.[citation needed]

qas: question: How many B-29 bombers were airbases need for in Okinawa?
answers: text: 3,000

question: How many squadrons of B=17 bombers were airbases need for in Okinawa?
answers: text: 240

question: How many Japanese troops were on Okinawa?
answers: text: 115,000

question: When did the United States land forces on Okinawa?
answers: text: 1 April 1945

question: How many U.S. ships were lost at Okinawa?
answers: text: 38
context: The largest and bloodiest American battle came at Okinawa, as the U.S. sought airbases for 3,000 B-29 bombers and 240 squadrons of B-17 bombers for the intense bombardment of Japan's home islands in preparation for a full-scale invasion in late 1945. The Japanese, with 115,000 troops augmented by thousands of civilians on the heavily populated island, did not resist on the beaches—their strategy was to maximize the number of soldier and Marine casualties, and naval losses from Kamikaze attacks. After an intense bombardment the Americans landed on 1 April 1945 and declared victory on 21 June. The supporting naval forces were the targets for 4,000 sorties, many by Kamikaze suicide planes. U.S. losses totaled 38 ships of all types sunk and 368 damaged with 4,900 sailors killed. The Americans suffered 75,000 casualties on the ground; 94% of the Japanese soldiers died along with many civilians.

qas: question: What percent of Japanese troops died on Okinawa?
answers: text: 94

question: Using a total blockade and air raids, what did the US Navy hope to force?
answers: text: Japanese surrender

question: How many Japanese troops defended Okinawa?
answers: text: 117,000

question: How did the Japanese attempt to cause high Allied casualties?
answers: text: kamikaze tactics
context: Hard-fought battles on the Japanese home islands of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and others resulted in horrific casualties on both sides but finally produced a Japanese defeat. Of the 117,000 Japanese troops defending Okinawa, 94 percent died. Faced with the loss of most of their experienced pilots, the Japanese increased their use of kamikaze tactics in an attempt to create unacceptably high casualties for the Allies. The U.S. Navy proposed to force a Japanese surrender through a total naval blockade and air raids.

qas: question: Who was over the new U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific command?
answers: text: General Curtis LeMay

question: How many people were killed in the incendry attack on Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945?
answers: text: 100,000

question: Who oversaw Operation Starvation?
answers: text: General Curtis LeMay

question: When was the Potsdam Declaration issued?
answers: text: 26 July 1945

question: What ultimatum stated that Japan would face "prompt and utter destruction" if it did not surrender?
answers: text: Potsdam Declaration
context: Towards the end of the war as the role of strategic bombing became more important, a new command for the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific was created to oversee all U.S. strategic bombing in the hemisphere, under United States Army Air Forces General Curtis LeMay. Japanese industrial production plunged as nearly half of the built-up areas of 67 cities were destroyed by B-29 firebombing raids. On 9–10 March 1945 alone, about 100,000 people were killed in a conflagration caused by an incendiary attack on Tokyo. LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation, in which the inland waterways of Japan were extensively mined by air, which disrupted the small amount of remaining Japanese coastal sea traffic. On 26 July 1945, the President of the United States Harry S. Truman, the President of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek and the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill issued the Potsdam Declaration, which outlined the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. This ultimatum stated that, if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction."

qas: question: America dropped what on August 6, 1945?
answers: text: atomic bomb

question: What was the forst Japenese city nuked by the United States?
answers: text: Hiroshima

question: When did American drop a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki?
answers: text: 9 August

question: What was the name of the blockade and bombing of Japan planed to make them surrender?
answers: text: Operation Downfall

question: Who wrote that a Soviet invasion of Japan was unlikely?
answers: text: Richard B. Frank
context: On 6 August 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in the first nuclear attack in history. In a press release issued after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Truman warned Japan to surrender or "...expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." Three days later, on 9 August, the U.S. dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the last nuclear attack in history. More than 140,000–240,000 people died as a direct result of these two bombings. The necessity of the atomic bombings has long been debated, with detractors claiming that a naval blockade and aerial bombing campaign had already made invasion, hence the atomic bomb, unnecessary. However, other scholars have argued that the bombings shocked the Japanese government into surrender, with Emperor finally indicating his wish to stop the war. Another argument in favor of the atomic bombs is that they helped avoid Operation Downfall, or a prolonged blockade and bombing campaign, any of which would have exacted much higher casualties among Japanese civilians. Historian Richard B. Frank wrote that a Soviet invasion of Japan was never likely because they had insufficient naval capability to mount an amphibious invasion of Hokkaidō.

qas: question: When did the soviet Union invade Manchukuo?
answers: text: 9 August 1945

question: What was the last campaign of World War II?
answers: text: Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation

question: What was the largest campaign of the Soviets against Japan?
answers: text: Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation

question: Who gained Manchukuo, Mengjiang, and northern Korea after the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Campaign?
answers: text: Soviet Union

question: When did hostilities between Japan and the Soviet Union resum after six years of peace?
answers: text: 9 August 1945
context: The Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation began on 9 August 1945, with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and was the last campaign of the Second World War and the largest of the 1945 Soviet–Japanese War which resumed hostilities between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace. Soviet gains on the continent were Manchukuo, Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia) and northern Korea. The rapid defeat of Japan's Kwantung Army has been argued to be a significant factor in the Japanese surrender and the end of World War II, as Japan realized the Soviets were willing and able to take the cost of invasion of its Home Islands, after their rapid conquest of Manchuria and Invasion of South Sakhalin island.

qas: question: How did the Japanese refer to the atomic bombings and the Soviet invasion?
answers: text: "Twin Shocks"

question: When did Japan surrender?
answers: text: 15 August

question: What was the one condition Japan wanted before accepting the Potsdam terms?
answers: text: "prerogative of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler"

question: What was the reply to Japan about the surrender condition?
answers: text: "authority" of the emperor "shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers"

question: What was it called when the Japanese Cabinet accepted the Potsdam terms?
answers: text: "sacred decision"
context: The effects of the "Twin Shocks"—the Soviet entry and the atomic bombing—were profound. On 10 August the "sacred decision" was made by Japanese Cabinet to accept the Potsdam terms on one condition: the "prerogative of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler". At noon on 15 August, after the American government's intentionally ambiguous reply, stating that the "authority" of the emperor "shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers", the Emperor broadcast to the nation and to the world at large the rescript of surrender, ending the Second World War.

qas: question: What date does Japan consider the end of the Pacific War?
answers: text: 14 August

question: What day is know in the United States as "V-J Day"?
answers: text: 15 August

question: When did Japan formally have signed the surrender?
answers: text: 2 September 1945

question: On what battleship was the surrender document signed by the Japanese delagation?
answers: text: USS Missouri

question: Who accepted the Japanese surrender?
answers: text: General Douglas MacArthur
context: In Japan, 14 August is considered to be the day that the Pacific War ended. However, as Imperial Japan actually surrendered on 15 August, this day became known in the English-speaking countries as "V-J Day" (Victory in Japan). The formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on 2 September 1945, on the battleship USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay. The surrender was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, with representatives of several Allied nations, from a Japanese delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu and Yoshijiro Umezu.

qas: question: How many women are believed to have been sexual slaves for the Japenese Army?
answers: text: 200,000

question: In 1948, how many Dutch women brought a case to the Batavia Military Tribunal?
answers: text: 35

question: In 2001 which Japanese Prime <Minister apologized for the brothels.
answers: text: Junichiro Koizumi

question: In 2007 which Japenese Prime Minister said there was no proof of coercion of women to be sexual slaves?
answers: text: Shinzō Abe

question: Where were the sexual slave women mostly from?
answers: text: Korea and China
context: A widely publicised example of institutionalised sexual slavery are "comfort women", a euphemism for the 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, who served in the Japanese army's camps during World War II. Some 35 Dutch comfort women brought a successful case before the Batavia Military Tribunal in 1948. In 1993, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono said that women were coerced into brothels run by Japan's wartime military. Other Japanese leaders have apologized, including former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2001. In 2007, then-Prime Minister Shinzō Abe claimed: "The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion."

qas: question: About how many Australians were taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore and British Malaya?
answers: text: 15,000

question: In what year did Japan establish a base in New Guinea?
answers: text: 1942

question: What date was the Australian mainland first attacked?
answers: text: 19 February

question: What mainland Australian city was attacked by the Japanese on February 19?
answers: text: Darwin

question: For how many months was Australia attacked from the air by Japan?
answers: text: 19
context: Australia had been shocked by the speedy collapse of British Malaya and Fall of Singapore in which around 15,000 Australian soldiers became prisoners of war. Curtin predicted that the "battle for Australia" would now follow. The Japanese established a major base in the Australian Territory of New Guinea in early 1942. On 19 February, Darwin suffered a devastating air raid, the first time the Australian mainland had been attacked. Over the following 19 months, Australia was attacked from the air almost 100 times.