World War 2 entered 75 years ago today with Japan's surrender. Whilst much of the credit goes to the Americans in terms of the Western response to Japanese aggression, they were far from only nation fighting Imperial Japan. I want to acknowledge the other major contributors. 1/

Britain had major bases in India, Singapore, Malaysia and Burma. Its two battleships in the Pacific were sunk by Japan shortly after Pearl Harbor. Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Burma all fell in five months. The British retreated into India and the Japanese followed. 2/

In 1944 Japan was finally stopped at Imphal. From there they were slowly pushed back into Burma, reaching Mandalay in early 1945. There were British plans to invade Malaysia when the war ended.

Supporting the Biritsh on this front were numerous Indian units, including Gurkha. 3/

What many people do not know is that India mobilized 2 million soldiers for World War 2 and Indian forces made up a significant part of the British response in South Asia. 4/

Another significant contributor - albeit very late in the war - was the Soviet Union. When the Yalta Conference happened in February 1945, the Soviets said they would declare war on Japan 90 days after Germany surrendered (so they could move their forces from Europe to China). 5/

On 09 August 1945 just hours before a plutonium device exploded over Nagasaki, 1 million Soviet troops poured across the border into China. They were starting to land on Japanese islands in the Kuriles when Emperor Hirohito said Japan must "endure the unendurable". 6/

The last but by no means the least of the countries that supported the war against Japan is China. In fact I am dedicating four tweets in this thread to the Chinese. China's war against Japan started before a shot had been fired in Europe or Africa. And it was horrific. 7/

Their resistance in Nanjing so angered the Japanese that they bombed the city simply out of retribution. The Japanese then committed the "Rape of Nanking", in which 250,000 females of all ages were raped and murdered. This was the first of many horrible Japanese war crimes. 8/