Contemporary+Eastern+Asia

Korean War

At the end of World War II the United States and the Soviet Union both occupied Korea. The UN attempted to hold elections in Korea to follow a democratic model, but North Korea resisted these elections and communist citizens of South Korea boycotted them. This created a great tension between the two areas and deepened the split between them. The seemingly small war between North and South, starting with North Korea's invasion of South Korea in 1950, was actually much greater than Korea itself. The Soviet Union supported North Korea because of their desire to spread communism to as many world countries as possible, and the United States supported South Korea and the stopping of world communism. China joined the war to gain a strong buffer between them and the United States. What started as a civil war eventually rose to become a pivotal war which increased tension between the Democratic United States and the Communist Soviet Union.  Vietnam

 World War II

Initially intending to be a small player in the war, Japan entered only to acquire resources from Southeast Asia and China to form a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". The success of this operation required as little interference as possible from the United States, so the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, HI in a surprise attack meant to neutralize the United States Pacific Naval fleet. This attack was successful, however, this only caused the United States to block off the entrance of resources to Japan.

The end of Japan's role in the war arose when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving an enormous wake of destruction. End of World War I

