What was the greatest Japanese victory in WW2

ive been to a few sites they're all in rough agreement http://www.globeatwar.com/blog-entry/april-9-1942-battle-bataan-ends
I could consult my personal library but my guess it will say the same....

 

Nanking.

 

I think their biggest victory was world wide recognition and respect in terms of a major super power. Something they didn't really have before WW2
That might have been more important for the last century than any victory during the war...

 

I don't know what Japan's greatest victory of WWII was, but its greatest defeat of WWII - which was the greatest defeat in its history - came at the hands of the British.

 

[video=youtube;BHeZzx7qpi4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHeZzx7qpi4[/video]

Prime Minister Winston Churchill received a phone call at his bedside from Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord. “Pound: Prime Minister, I have to report to you that the Prince of Wales and the Repulse have both been sunk by the Japanese – we think by aircraft. Tom Phillips is drowned. Churchill: Are you sure it's true? Pound: There is no doubt at all. Churchill hangs up. In all the war, I never received a more direct shock... As I turned over and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor, who were hastening back to California. Over all this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked.[53]" Churchill delivered news of the sinking to the House of Commons before noon on 11 December, which was followed by a full review of the situation in Malaya the next day.[53] Singapore had essentially been reduced to a land base after both capital ships were lost. The Eastern Fleet would spend the remainder of the invasion withdrawing their vessels to Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies.[2] They were not reinforced by battleships until March 1942, with the arrival of HMS Warspite and four Revenge-class battleships.[54] Although all five battleships survived the Indian Ocean raid, their service in the Pacific was uneventful and they were later withdrawn to East Africa and the Mediterranean.[55] The Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first capital ships actively defending themselves to be sunk solely by air power while steaming in the open sea. Both of them were relatively fast ships compared to the slower U.S. battleships that were caught at anchor at Pearl Harbor. Furthermore Prince of Wales was a new battleship with passive and active anti-aircraft defences against contemporary aircraft, being equipped with the advanced High Angle Control System although it was largely inoperable during the battle.[10][18][19]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_Prince_of_Wales_and _Repulse