Download WWII Pacific - United States History

JAPANESE
EXPANSION
•Dec. 7, 1941,
Japan attacks
Pearl Harbor
•US declares war
on Japan.
•(Doolittle Raids)
1942
•Philippines
•Bataan Death
March
•Guam
•Malaya
•New Guinea
•Threatening
Australia and
Hawaii
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TURNING
POINT
BATTLES
1942
•Midway
•Midway
virtually
destroyed
Japanese
Navy.
1943
•Continued
“island
hopping”
strategy
The Battle of Midway

Code-breakers heard the plan.

At the Battle of Coral Sea, the
Yorktown and the Lexington fended off
a Japanese attack on New Guinea and
preserved Australia.

Code-breakers learned of plan to
attack Midway

Admiral Nimitz used this as an
opportunity to ambush the Japanese
fleet.

At MIDWAY: Japanese planes were hit
with antiaircraft fire, shooting down 38
planes.

Japan lost 100 pilots which hurt their
Air War.

American planes caught carriers by
surprise—their fuel, bombs, and
aircraft were exposed.

Four Japanese carriers were sunk,
destroying the heart of the navy.

This hit the Japanese hard—it halted
Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
Fighting at the Battle of
Midway
Badly damaged
Yorktown
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General Douglas
MacArthur
Bataan Death March: April, 1942
•Approximately 80,000 US and Filipino troops [12,000
Americans] surrendered to the Japanese and were forced to
march 60 miles to Camp O’Donnell.
•Several thousand died along the way from atrocities
committed by the Japanese soldiers.
•1944 Supreme
Court case,
Korematsu vs.
U.S., affirmed the
constitutionality
of this act.
•40 years later
the U.S. admitted
fault and began to
make $20,000
reparations to
camp survivors
Executive 9066
Gen. MacArthur “Returns” to
the Philippines! [1944]
Japanese Kamikaze Planes:
The Scourge of the South Pacific
Kamikaze Pilots
The last 2 years of the war, the Japanese resorted to
“suicidal bombers” or Kamikaze bombers to destroy the
American Navy.
Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy
ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and
wounded over 4,800.
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TURNING
POINT
BATTLES
1944
•Battle of Leyete
Gulf, recaptured
the Philippines
1945
•Iwo Jima and
Okinawa
•Put the US 500
miles from
mainland Japan
•Began bombing
mainland Japan
US Marines on Mt. Surbachi,
Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]
IWO JIMA
•
•
•
•
•
LOCATION
Iwo Jima was Japanese home soil, part of Japan, only 650 miles
from Tokyo. No foreign army in Japan's 5000 year history had
successfully trod on Japanese soil.
To the US, Iwo Jima's importance lay in its location, midway
between Japan and American bomber bases in the Marianas.
Japanese home islands had been reeling from strikes by the new,
long range B-29's
Many bombers fell prey to Japanese fighter-interceptor attacks
three airfields
Ideal sanctuary for crippled bombers
IWO JIMA
• The Japanese strategy was unique for three reasons:
1. The Japanese didn't fight above ground. They
fought the battle entirely from beneath the ground.
They dug 1,500 rooms into the rock. These were
connected with 16 miles of tunnels.
2. Japanese strategy called for "no Japanese
survivors." They planned not to survive.
3. Japanese strategy was for each soldier to kill 10
Americans before they themselves are killed.
"You must not expect my survival," General Kuribayashi wrote to his wife long
before the invasion came.
General Kuribayashi's command center had 5 ft. thick walls, a 10 ft. thick roof. This
cement capsule was under 75 ft. of solid rock.
IWO JIMA
• longest sustained aerial offensive of the war by
the US to little effect
• "No other island received as much preliminary
pounding as did Iwo Jima." …Admiral Nimitz
• US sent 110,000 Marines in 880 Ships
• Feb. 19th land forces invade under heavy fire
• Mt. Suribachi, the 550-foot volcanic cone at
the islands southern tip, dominates both
possible landing beaches where Japanese
gunners had virtually every Marine in range
IWO JIMA
•
It was Sergeant Mike Strank who got the order to climb Mt. Suribachi. Mike picked
his "boys" and led them safely to the top. Mike explained to the boys that the
larger flag had to be raised so that "every Marine on this cruddy island can see it."
Mike died on March 1, 1945. He was hit by a mortar as he was diagramming a plan
in the sand for his boys. Mike is buried in Arlington National Cemetery
•
“Easy Company started with 310 men. We suffered 75% casualties. Only 50 men
boarded the ship after the battle. Seven officers went into the battle with me. Only
one--me--walked off Iwo." . . . Captain Dave Severance, Commander (the Flag
Raising Company)
potsdam
Big Three
•Churchill, Truman and Stalin meet in
Potsdam, Germany in July 1945.
•Truman informed of successful test of bomb.
•Demanded unconditional surrender from
Japanese or a new weapon would be used.
A joint Allied Project consisting of
Canadian, British and U.S. scientists to
build an atomic bomb.
Started in 1940…..
By July 1945, 3 bombs had been built.
1 bomb = 20,000 tons of TNT
One would be set off in New Mexico
successfully.
Arguments for use
Arguments opposed
• Japanese refused to
surrender.
• Atomic bombs were
untested and their
destruction unknown
• Estimated an invasion
similar to D-Day was needed
to end war.
• Estimated Japan’s empire
would last 2 years.
• Estimated Allied casualties
at 1 million or more men
with huge Japanese losses.
• Japanese leadership was
told of the destructive
power of the bomb
• Offered a period to
surrender but declined.
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
were not major military
targets.
• Those killed in the attacks
would be Japanese civilians.
• Radiation poisoning would
have negative effects on the
population.
• Nuclear weapons would set
a precedent that using
weapons of mass
destruction was allowable in
war
Sample of Japanese leaflet dropped by US warning the Japanese
people the destructive power the bomb and to evacuate the cities.
Sample of Japanese leaflet dropped by US warning the Japanese
people the bomb and the translation in English
which
the Japanese
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Col. Paul Tibbets & the A-Bomb
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
 70,000 killed
immediately
 48,000 buildings.
destroyed.
 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning &
cancer later.
•My fellow Americans, the
British, Chinese and United
States governments have
given the Japanese people
adequate warning of what is
in store for them.
•The world will note that the
first atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima, a
military base. If Japan does
not surrender, bombs will
have to be dropped on her
war industries and
unfortunately thousands of
civilian lives will be lost.
President Harry
Truman
•I urge Japanese civilians to
leave industrial cities
immediately and save
themselves.
Japanese A-Bomb Survivors
The Beginning of the
Atomic Age
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
 40,000 killed
immediately
 60,000 injured.
 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning
& cancer later.
After the Nagasaki
bombing, Emperor
Hirohito surrendered to
the Allies to end WWII in
Japan.
“The time has come to
bear the unbearable”.
Japan surrenders on Aug
14, 1945.
Emperor
Horhito
Official surrender
ceremonies were held on
Sept. 2, 1945 aboard the
USS Missouri near Tokyo
Bay.
dictators
Jap surrender
Japan surrenders on Aug. 14, 1945……Official
surrender ceremonies were held on Sept. 2, 1945
V-J Day response
by Americans in
New York City