On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, flattening the center of the city. After invading China, Japan struck southwards, invading and conquering British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ), in hopes of securing their resources, followed by an invasion of the 24px British Raj. In 1937, after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan declared war on China, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War in which Japan invaded and conquered much of eastern China, installing additional puppet regimes along the way, including Mengkukuo and the ' Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China '. Some consider that World War II actually began with the invasion of China by Japan, first by taking Manchuria and installing their puppet the Manchukuo regime. Japan (日本) was the leader of the Axis powers in the Pacific Theater.
