The United States honors the millions of men and women who served during World War II in a struggle for freedom that demanded lasting sacrifice. During the 1930s and early 1940s, the United States remained neutral while Germany, Italy, and Japan expanded their aggression across Europe, North Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, though it sold and later loaned ships and war materials to the Allies. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the nation fully committed itself to defeating the Axis powers, rebuilt much of the attacked fleet, expanded military service, and mobilized its economy and civilian life around production, defense, rationing, and other home front efforts. In the European, African, and Middle East theater, American forces joined the invasion of North Africa in 1942, took part in the campaigns in Sicily and Italy, supported air strikes against Germany, helped send supplies to Russia through the Middle East, and then joined the great assault on France on June 6, 1944, under U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, before advancing through battles that ended with victory in Europe by April 1945. In China, Burma, and India, Japan’s advance was slowed by terrain and resistance, while American engineers built roads, pilots flew dangerous supply missions over the Himalayas, the Flying Tigers fought in the skies over China, and American ground forces served alongside British and Chinese troops until success was achieved by the spring of 1945. In the Pacific, Japan’s vast conquests were met by a two-front American strategy under General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz, with major fighting in the Coral Sea, at Midway, on Guadalcanal, at Iwo Jima, and on Okinawa; after Japan’s military power was greatly reduced and the Allies feared immense losses from an invasion, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.