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Section 3: War in the Pacific
Remember – while we’re fighting Hitler in Europe,
there was also fighting going on in the Pacific.
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There were many famous
battles in the Pacific. The
one that was the turning
point of the war was the
Battle of Midway.
The Allies realized they
couldn’t attack every
little Pacific island the
Japanese were on – so
they used a plan called
“island hopping” – they
only attacked the major
islands
(Iwo Jima was one of these islands)
The Japanese were fearless fighters
though – they would never give up.
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They used some fighters
called Kamikazes –
who’d actually going on
suicide plane missions
and intentionally fly their
plane into U.S. targets.
Some Japanese fighters
from some of these
islands were found years
later – and never knew
the war had ended.
Eventually the United States got close
enough to Japan to attack their main islands
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President Truman (FDR
had died) thought if the
U.S. invaded Japan it may
cost as many as 200,000
American soldiers lives.
And at the same time
some scientists were
working on a new type of
bomb.
There was actually a race in many countries
to be the first to develop an atomic bomb.
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In the United States
this work was called
“the Manhattan
Project.”
After successfully
testing the bomb –
Truman told Japan
about it.
But they refused to
give in and…
On August 6th, 1945 the Enola Gay
dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima
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70,000 people died.
The Japanese still did
not give up.
3 days later the U.S.
dropped a second bomb
on Nagasaki
By August 14th, Japan
had surrendered