When France was occupied by Germany, Japan seized the opportunity to invade Vietnam. This strategic move resulted in Japanese forces taking control of Hanoi in 1940. A year later they moved further south, along the way awakening remaining elements of the Vietnamese resistance and spurring communists and nationalists to band together to form the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh. The Viet Minh destabilized the Japanese, and by 1945, Japan surrendered to Allied forces on the same day Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square.



Invasion to Independence
(early to mid-20th century)