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VE Day and VJ Day
11.7 Students analyze America’s participation in World War II.
2. Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles of Midway,
Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the Bulge.
3. Identify the roles and sacrifices of individual American soldiers, as well as the
unique contributions of the special fighting forces (e.g., the Tuskegee Airmen, the
442nd Regimental Combat team, the Navajo Code Talkers).
7. Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision
(Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
Vocabulary
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V-E Day
Island Hopping
Kamikaze pilots
Manhattan Project
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Overall losses
• United States
– Men sent to WWII 16,112,566
– KIA 291,557
– Wounded 670,846
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004619.ht
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D Day
Dwight D Eisenhower plans an invasion on
the coast of France
Normandy, France
21 American divisions
26 British, Canadian and Polish
Goal: convince Germans that the Allied
attack come to Calais
June 6, 1944
• 11,000 planes prepared the way
• The attack allowed for a foothold to be
taken
• Next goal: capture Berlin
Battle of the Bulge
• German counter attack almost successful
• Germans caught Allies by surprise
• Battle of the Bulge instead crippled
Germany
VE Day
• Germany had a two front war
• Soviets made it to Berlin by January
• April 1945 Mussolini fled to Switzerland
– U.S forces closed in on the West side of
Berlin
– May 7, 1945 Germany surrendered
Island Hopping Casualties
• Battle of Midway
– USA: <1,000
• Iwo Jima, World War II (19 Feb.-9 April
1945) 28 000
• Gilbert, History of the Twentieth Century
– Japanese soldiers: 20,000
– US: 6,821 marines + 900 sailors
• Johnson, Modern Times
– US: 4,917 d.
– Japanese: >18,000 k.
Costs of Pacific Theater
Guadalcanal
• US: 1,592 fatalities
• Japanese: 25,000 lost
Okinawa
• US: 1,592 fatalities
• Japanese: 25,000 lost
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http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/battles.htm#Okinawa
War in Pacific continued
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Island hopping U.S. strategy
Japanese fought hard and bravely
New threat: kamikaze pilots
3,000 kamikaze pilots died
Fight for Iwo Jima the bloodiest
Manhattan Project
• Secret code name for
the development of
the atomic bomb in a
top secret site in Los
Alamos, New Mexico
• Project leader: Robert
Oppenheimer
• July 16, 1945 first test
of A bomb
Truman Decides
Harry Truman decided to use the bomb
What he knew:
– Ethical consequences of using the bomb on
civilians
– Axis nuclear scientists were working on a
similar bomb
– Military Advisors estimated 1,000,000
casualties if we kept Island Hopping
Hiroshima
• August 6, 1945
• In 2 minutes 60,000
civilians dead
Nagasaki Destruction
Nagasaki
• August 9, 1945
• Soviets declare war
on Japan
• Second A bomb
dropped
• 35,000 dead initially
VJ Day
• Emperor Hirohito
surrendered
• August 15, 1945
• Radio address: first
time people ever
heard his voice
• Official surrender
September 2