Download Ch: 16-2: Japan’s Pacific Campaign States to join WWII?

Ch: 16-2: Japan’s Pacific Campaign
Essential Question: What caused the United
States to join WWII?
Review
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Aug. 1939: FDR urged Hitler to settle his differences
with Poland peacefully
Sept. 1st: Hitler invades Poland
Sept. 3rd: France and Great Britain declare war on Germany
Sept. 8th: FDR announced that he was calling a special
session of Congress to revise the Neutrality Acts
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Asked for a “cash-and-carry” provision
Permit nations to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash & carried the
goods home in their own ships
FDR believed providing arms to Britain & France would be the best way
to keep the U.S. out of war
After 6 weeks of heated debate, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of
1939
Review
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1941: Lend-Lease Act
Britain had no more cash to spend
 FDR suggested replacing cash-and-carry with a new plan that
called lend-lease
 Would lend or lease arms and other supplies to any country
whose defense was vital to the U.S.
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Sept. 4, 1941: A German U-boat fired 2 torpedoes at a
U.S. destroyer
FDR ordered U.S. Navy to fire on German ships on sight
 U.S. was in an undeclared naval war with Hitler
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2 weeks later a U.S. merchant ship was sunk off
Greenland
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Mid-October, two other U.S. destroyers were torpedoed near
Iceland
America Moves Toward War
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If the U.S. were to declare war on any one of the Axis
powers, it would face a two ocean war, fighting in both
the Atlantic & the Pacific
After years of isolationism, the U.S. was militarily weak
 18 countries had larger armies
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FDR asked Congress to increase spending for national
defense
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Congress boosted defense spending & passed the nations first
peacetime military draft
Hoping to avoid a war on 2 fronts, FDR provided the
British with all aid except war
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Sent 500,000 rifles & 80,000 machine guns
Japan seeks a Pacific Empire
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Japanese expansion began in 1931 when troops
took over Manchuria and six years later armies
swept through the heartland of China
When the Japanese overran French Indochina in
July 1941, the United States cut off oil shipments to
Japan.
Japan seeks a Pacific Empire
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On December 7, 1941, Japanese Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto led a surprise attack on
the US naval base in Pearl Harbor.
 Japanese
dive-bomber swooped low over
the U.S. Naval base in the Pacific
 Followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes
launched from six aircraft carriers
 For an hour and a half, the Japanese planes
were barely disturbed by U.S. antiaircraft
guns & blasted target after target
 It was over at 9:30 a.m.
America Moves Toward War
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Attack was a stunning victory for Japan
Japanese navy all but crippled the entire U.S. Pacific
Fleet in one blow
Japan’s casualties
 29
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planes
U.S. casualties:
 Sunk
or badly damaged 19 ships
 350 planes destroyed or severely damaged
 2,400 people died
 1,178 people wounded
 More damage than the U.S. Navy suffered in all of WWI
The Next day President Roosevelt
addressed Congress
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“Yesterday, December 7,
1941, a date which will
live in infamy,” he said,
“…the Japanese launched
an unprovoked &
dastardly attack on
American soil.”
He asked for a declaration of war
against Japan, which Congress quickly
approved.
Note: Three days later, Dec. 11, 1941
Germany & Italy declare war on the United States.
Causes of U.S. entering WWII
Military
Support of
Allies
German Sub
Attacks
US Enters WWII
December 8, 1941
Japanese
Imperialism
Pearl
Harbor
Japan seeks a Pacific Empire
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After Pearl Harbor the Japanese had planned a series
of strikes at the United States in the Pacific.
They seized Guam and Wake Island
in the western pacific, then launched
an attack on the Philippines. By
January of 1942 they were marching
in Manila.
Japanese also hit the British, seizing Hong Kong,
invading Malaya and reaching Singapore.
By the time Burma fell, the Japanese had conquered
more than a million square miles with about 150 million
people.
Native people or prisoners often received brutal
treatment, such as the Bataan Death March.
The Allies Strike Back
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Seeking revenge for Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Colonel
James Doolittle leads a bombing raid to Tokyo, which
despite little damage, showed the Japanese were
vulnerable.
In the Battle of the Coral Sea featured a new kind of
sea warfare where the opposing ships did not fire a
single shot against each other, rather aircraft taking
off from huge carriers did all the fighting. While the
Allies didn’t win, they showed Japan could be
stopped.
The Allies Strike Back
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By June of 1942, the allies had broken the Japanese
codes.
Admiral Nimitz prepared an ambush for the largest
fleet ever assembled (150 Japanese ships) at Midway
Island.
American carrier planes swooped in to attack the
Japanese fleet, destroying all 4 aircraft carriers, one
support ship and 332 planes.
In the Battle of Midway the Americans had avenged
Pearl harbor and turned the tide of the war.
War in the Pacific
Midway Island
The Allies Strike Back
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The Allies took the offensive with the morale high after
Midway
General Douglas MacArthur led the allies in a policy
of island hopping past Japanese strong points.
The Allies had to strike quickly at the island of
Guadalcanal after learning the Japanese planned to
build a huge air base.
After 6 months of fierce fighting, the Battle of
Guadalcanal finally ended with an allied victory and
23,000 out of 36,000 Japanese troops dead.