Poster, 'Great Britain will pursue'

On 7 December 1941, Japan launched a series of attacks on British and American territories in Asia and the Pacific. The attacks shocked the world, although fears about Japan's imperialist aims had in fact been growing for decades.

The Fall of Singapore sent shockwaves around the British Empire. More than 130,000 troops laid down their arms when the Allies surrendered in Singapore on 15 February, 1942, and Winston Churchill later described it as 'the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history'. Two years later, his words declare British resolve to 'pursue the War Against Japan to the very end'.