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Several of these aviators were among the top Japanese aces, including: Saburo Sakai (middle row, second from left), Toshio Ota (far left, second row) and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (standing, first on left).<br/><br/> The Tainan Air Group was formed in October 1941 in Japanese-occupied Formosa (Taiwan) and was one of the best known and most successful air groups of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.
On December 7–8, 1941, Japanese forces carried out surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, attacks on British forces in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong and declared war, bringing the US and the UK into World War II in the Pacific.<br/><br/> After the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender on August 15. The war cost Japan and the rest of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere millions of lives and left much of the nation's industry and infrastructure destroyed.
The Bougainville Campaign (Operation Cherry Blossom) was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied grand strategy in the South Pacific.<br/><br/> The campaign took place in the Northern Solomons in two phases: the first phase, in which American troops invaded and held the Perimeter around the beachhead, lasted from November 1943 through November 1944; the second phase, in which British Commonwealth troops attempted to mop up pockets of starving, isolated but still-determined Japanese, lasted from November 1944 until August 1945, when the last Japanese on the island surrendered.
A highly decorative map of the East Indies from the Mercator-Hondius Atlas.<br/><br/> It extends from the Philippines to Timor and Sumatra to New Guinea, detailing the Spice Islands, a region of great importance to seventeenth century Europe, but one about which little was known at the time. Hondius based his map on portolan charts by Portuguese cartographer Bartolomeu Lasso. Of particular note is the comment Huc Franciscus Dra. Appulit, which appears by the unknown southern coast of Java, representing Drake's landing during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-80.<br/><br/> Of considerable contemporary relevance, the map also shows a highly stylised diagram of the Spratly Islands and perhaps the Paracels in the South China Sea, indicating ownership lying with Vietnam and Indochina, not - as vociferously claimed by the People's Republic - with China.<br/><br/> This map follows very shortly the extension of Dutch control over the islands. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was formed, and within a couple decades the company came to control the region. Includes three strapwork cartouches, and European ships shown in the midst of battle. Other decorative features include two compass roses, rhumb lines and sea monster.
China: Greater Bird-of-paradise. Watercolour painting from a gouache album of various Chinese birds, 19th century.<br/><br/> The greater bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea apoda) is a bird-of-paradise found in the lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Indonesia's Aru Islands. It has the most glamorous display in the bird world, with sexually dimorphic plumage, the females being quite plain compared to the males.
China: Greater Bird-of-paradise. Watercolour painting from a gouache album of various Chinese birds, 19th century.<br/><br/> The greater bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea apoda) is a bird-of-paradise found in the lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Indonesia's Aru Islands. It has the most glamorous display in the bird world, with sexually dimorphic plumage, the females being quite plain compared to the males.
Jean-François de Galoup, Comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741-1788) was a French explorer and naval officer. In 1785, the King of France commissioned La Perouse to head an expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean, to investigate whaling and fur prospects, and to establish French claims in this area. La Pérouse had admired the explorer James Cook, and wanted to continue his work.<br/><br/> La Perouse was assigned two 500-ton ships called the Astrolabe and the Boussole. His crew of 114 included sailors, scientists, a physicist, three draftsmen, three naturalists, clergymen, and a mathematician. They left France in August, 1785.<br/><br/> La Perouse mapped the west coast of North America in 1786, and visited Easter Island and Hawaii. His ships reached the west coast of Alaska in 1786 and did extensive mapping of the North American west coast from Alaska to Monterey, California.<br/><br/> Next La Pérouse landed at Botany Bay (Port Jackson), Australia, before heading for the Solomon Islands. La Pérouse took the opportunity to send his journals, some charts and also some letters back to Europe with a British naval ship. He wrote that he expected to be back in France by June 1789, however neither he, nor any of his men, were seen again. Fortunately the valuable written documents that he dispatched with the Sirius from the in-progress expedition were returned to Paris, where they were published posthumously.<br/><br/> Both of La Perouse's ships were lost in a storm close to the Solomons in 1788. No survivors were ever found.
Jean-François de Galoup, Comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741-1788) was a French explorer and naval officer. In 1785, the King of France commissioned La Perouse to head an expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean, to investigate whaling and fur prospects, and to establish French claims in this area. La Pérouse had admired the explorer James Cook, and wanted to continue his work.<br/><br/> La Perouse was assigned two 500-ton ships called the Astrolabe and the Boussole. His crew of 114 included sailors, scientists, a physicist, three draftsmen, three naturalists, clergymen, and a mathematician. They left France in August, 1785.<br/><br/> La Perouse mapped the west coast of North America in 1786, and visited Easter Island and Hawaii. His ships reached the west coast of Alaska in 1786 and did extensive mapping of the North American west coast from Alaska to Monterey, California.<br/><br/> Next La Pérouse landed at Botany Bay (Port Jackson), Australia, before heading for the Solomon Islands. La Pérouse took the opportunity to send his journals, some charts and also some letters back to Europe with a British naval ship. He wrote that he expected to be back in France by June 1789, however neither he, nor any of his men, were seen again. Fortunately the valuable written documents that he dispatched with the Sirius from the in-progress expedition were returned to Paris, where they were published posthumously.<br/><br/> Both of La Perouse's ships were lost in a storm close to the Solomons in 1788. No survivors were ever found.
Jean-François de Galoup, Comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741-1788) was a French explorer and naval officer. In 1785, the King of France commissioned La Perouse to head an expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean, to investigate whaling and fur prospects, and to establish French claims in this area. La Pérouse had admired the explorer James Cook, and wanted to continue his work.<br/><br/> La Perouse was assigned two 500-ton ships called the Astrolabe and the Boussole. His crew of 114 included sailors, scientists, a physicist, three draftsmen, three naturalists, clergymen, and a mathematician. They left France in August, 1785.<br/><br/> La Perouse mapped the west coast of North America in 1786, and visited Easter Island and Hawaii. His ships reached the west coast of Alaska in 1786 and did extensive mapping of the North American west coast from Alaska to Monterey, California.<br/><br/> Next La Pérouse landed at Botany Bay (Port Jackson), Australia, before heading for the Solomon Islands. La Pérouse took the opportunity to send his journals, some charts and also some letters back to Europe with a British naval ship. He wrote that he expected to be back in France by June 1789, however neither he, nor any of his men, were seen again. Fortunately the valuable written documents that he dispatched with the Sirius from the in-progress expedition were returned to Paris, where they were published posthumously.<br/><br/> Both of La Perouse's ships were lost in a storm close to the Solomons in 1788. No survivors were ever found.
Asia is the Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and comprises 30% of its land area. With approximately 4.3 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.<br/><br/> The boundaries of Asia are culturally determined, as there is no clear geographical separation between it and Europe, which together form one continuous landmass called Eurasia. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the Suez Canal, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or the Kuma–Manych Depression) and the Caspian and Black Seas.It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean.
Map of mainland Southeast Asia including Burma / Myanmar, Lan Na (now Northern Thailand), Siam (Thailand), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Champa, Malaya, Indonesia and the Philippines.<br/><br/> Pulau Pinang / Penang Island is shown as being British (1786), and the Paracels Islands (Vt. Hoàng Sa, Ch. Xi Sha) are clearly shown as being Vietnamese.