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End of WWII and
Allied Victory
Victory in Europe
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As the Allies advanced
towards Germany many of
the death camps were
liberated
The Soviets got to Berlin first
and the Allies forced the
Germans to unconditionally
surrender
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Hitler and his mistress
committed suicide and had
their bodies soaked with gas
and burned
FDR dies on April 12, 1945
V-E Day was May 8, 1945
War in the Pacific
“Hell was red furry spiders as big as
your fist, giant lizards as long as
your leg, leeches falling from trees
to suck blood, armies of white ants
with bites of fire, scurrying
scorpions inflaming any flesh they
touched, enormous rats and bats
everywhere, and rivers with waiting
crocodiles. Hell was the sour, foul
smell of the squishy jungle,
humidity that rotted a body within
hours, . . . stinking wet heat of
dripping rain forests that sapped
the strength out of man.”
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The GI War
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After the Battle of Midway
the Allies go on the
offensive:
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August 1942 the Japanese lose
their first land battle at
Guadalcanal
The battle took 6 months and
many Americans called it the
“Island of Death”
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Island Hopping:
Major Battles in the Pacific
Coral Sea – May 1942
Midway – June 1942
Guadalcanal – August 1942
Tarawa – November 1943
Marshall Islands – February 1944
Saipan – June-July 1944
Leyte Gulf – Oct. 1944
Iwo Jima – Feb.-March 1945
Okinawa – April-June 1945
Leyte Gulf
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The Japanese sent their entire
navy fleet to Leyte Gulf in
the Philippines
The Japanese used a new
tactic in WWII – Kamikaze
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424 kamikaze pilots sank 16
US ships and damaged 80
more
Leyte Gulf was a disaster for
the Japanese
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They lost 3 battleships, 4
aircraft carriers, and 500 planes
Battle of Iwo Jima
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After defeating the Japanese
in the Philippines, General
MacArthur attacked the
island of Iwo Jima
US needed it for strategic
value – they could bomb
Japan from Iwo Jima
More than 6,000 US Marines
died and over 20,000
Japanese died defending the
island
Battle of Okinawa –
Bloodiest battle of WWII
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The island of Okinawa was the last
island before Japan was to be
attacked
The largest battle of the war for the
U.S. and Japan
Japan continued with 1,400
kamikaze attacks and fierce fighting
on land
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Over 12,000 Americans died
Over 110,000 Japanese died
Japan lost over 7,000 airplanes and
16 ships
This battle signaled that the
Japanese were not ready to
surrender and were willing to
continue fighting hard
Atomic Bombs and Unconditional
Surrender
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Truman had to make a
decision whether or not to
invade Japan or use our new
weapon – the A-Bomb
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
were chosen as targets
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Hiroshima (“Little Boy”)–
August 6, 1945
Nagasaki (“Fat Man”)– August
9, 1945
The bombs killed over
140,000 people in 1945
Japanese Emperor Hirohito
then called for surrender
Why did we drop the bombs?
Did we need to drop the bombs??
Were there other options???