Table of Data Points

27 Japanese medium "Nell" bombers flown from bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Island group attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft belonging to Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-211 on the ground.

Eighteen days after the battle began, British colonial officials headed by the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered in person at the Japanese headquarters. This day is known in Hong Kong as "Black Christmas".

The Japanese assault on the Allied stronghold at Singapore, the "Gibraltar of the East". About 80,000 British, Australian and Indian troops became POWs. Churchill called the fall of Singapore the "worst disaster" in British history.

The Japanese Navy conducts a surprise attack on the US Navy based at Pearl Harbor, resulting in the United States becoming militarily involved in World War II. It was intended as a preventive action to detain the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Despite an accord between Japan and Vichy Indochina which granted basing and transit rights, fighting breaks out between Japanese troops and French Colonial troops defending Hanoi. Japanese forces take Hanoi and establish positions that blockade China.