Download 1944 WW 2 Pacific Stage

Pacific Theatre in
World War II
General
Hiddeki Tojo
• Prime Minister of Japan during
World War II
• led country to war with the U.S.
Because of the
distraction of
fighting Germany
in Europe, the
Japanese viewed
British weakness
as an opportunity
for expansion into
Southeast Asia.
[Image source: http://www.library.vcu.edu/pdfgif/speccoll/sykes/sykes005.jpg]
The Japanese
biggest obstacle
to realizing their
dream of a
Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity
Sphere was the
United States of
America.
Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto
• Commander-in-Chief of the
Imperial Japanese Navy
• architect of the attack on Pearl
Harbor
“In the first twelve months of a war
with the United States and Great
Britain I will run wild and win
victory upon victory. But then, if
the war continues after that, I
have no expectation of success.”
- Admiral Yamamoto to a member
of the Cabinet in 1940
Britain gives Yamamoto the idea that a
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is possible.
“If all men are brothers, then why
do the wind and the waves rage?”
Haiku sent by Emperor Hirohito to the Cabinet
on the eve of war with the United States
Following a period
of prevarication,
Ambassador
Nomura was
directed by his
government to
deliver a formal
declaration of war to
the United States
minutes before the
attack on Pearl
Harbor.
As negotiations
progressed
supposedly aimed
at averting war,
Vice-Admiral
Nagumo had
already set-sail
with an armada
to attack Pearl
Harbor.
“Climb Mount Niitaka.”
Commander
Mitsuo Fuchida
trained and
commanded the
Pearl Harbor
strike force.
Pearl Harbor,
7th December 1941
“Tora, Tora, Tora!”
U. S. S. Arizona
1,104 men were killed when
a bomb blew up the forward
magazine.
U. S. S. West Virginia
The Japanese declaration of war arrived after
the attack on Pearl Harbor had begun.
America found itself embroiled in a new kind of
war requiring a new set of rules-of-engagement.
“We have awakened a
sleeping giant and instilled
in it a terrible resolve.”
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Many
Americans
viewed Japan’s
behaviour as
treacherous
and wanted
to extract
revenge.
“We have
awakened a
sleeping giant
and instilled
in it a terrible
resolve.”
- Admiral Isoroku
Yamamoto
Doolittle’s Raid provided a muchneeded boost to morale.
The United
States
suddenly
found itself
having to
mobilize for
war on a
global scale.
[Image source: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USNatWar/USN-King-1.html]
Japanese
treatment of
American POWs
only reinforced
stereotyping and
the vilification of
an entire people,
heightening the
desire for
revenge.
With the U.S. Navy neutralized, Japan quickly
conquered large portions of Asia and the Pacific.
The Battle of Midway was the
turning point of the Pacific War.
Midway
Island
At the battle of Midway, the
Japanese lost four of the six carriers
that had attacked Pearl Harbor.
The victory at Midway allowed the
United States to go on the offensive.
American forces fought in the
jungles of Guadalcanal, PapuaNew Guinea, and Burma.
Navajo Indians, known as “code-talkers”, often
operated as radiomen, their transmissions
confounding Japanese Intelligence.
American forces pursued a campaign of islandhopping through the central and southern Pacific.
Japan, like her
erstwhile-ally
Germany, had an
Achilles Heel:
a two-front war;
she had the bulk
of her army
committed to
conquering China.
Many peoples saw World War II as
more than a war to combat fascism.
Many of these pilots were
trained to fly kamikaze suicide
attacks on American warships.
As the war
progressed, out
of desperation,
the Japanese
were forced to
use younger and
younger pilots.
When the Marines
captured Iwo
Jima, the end of
the war was near.
The United States hastened the end of the
war when it dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
The resulting carnage convinced Japan
that continued resistance was futile.
The Japanese surrendered to General
Douglas MacArthur on board the U.S.S.
Missouri in Tokyo Bay.