5 - Turning Points: 1944–1945

Summary

Events

The Course of the War

During the last year of the war, the power balance within China shifted decisively. The Guomindang (GMD) government and its armies were critically weakened, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its armed forces grew rapidly in strength. The United States, the GMD's main ally, had real doubts about its future capacity, while in the last week of the war the CCP acquired a potential international ally, its fraternal socialist brother, the USSR.

By late 1944, the tide of war in Europe had turned. The German armies were on the defensive, thrown back from the USSR and North Africa and losing ground against Britain and the United States in Western Europe after the Normandy landings in June. Italy was effectively out of the war. In Europe, towns and cities under German control were being subjected to tremendous Allied bombing. In the Pacific, US naval and air forces were winning victory after victory against Japanese forces. Japan's cities were coming under ferocious bombing. In the largest raid, in March 1945, a firestorm created by bombing almost destroyed Tokyo and killed nearly 90,000 people. The Americans seemed to be taking retribution for Pearl Harbor. The end of the war was very close.

In May 1945, Allied victory was proclaimed in Europe. Three months later, Japan surrendered unconditionally. The war that had convulsed the world ended sooner than had been expected, brought to an end in Asia by the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.