Transcript The War in the Pacific

The War in the Pacific
Japan
Iwo Jima
Okinawa
Midway
Leyte Gulf
Hawaii
Guadalcanal
Coral Sea
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7th, 1941
Review: Why attack the USA at Pearl Harbor?
Attack on the Philippines
• March, 1942 Philippines
– Japan attacks the
Philippines to try to rid
the US from the region.
• Bataan Death March
– 76,000 American
refugees taken
prisoner, forced to
march 60 miles to
prison camps without
food or water.
» 10,000 die
» 15,000 die in
prison camps
“I Shall Return”
The Doolittle Raid
• April, 1942 – Doolittle Raid
– Small scale bombing raid on Tokyo
• Does not cause much damage, but is a huge morale booster for U.S.
Battle of Coral Sea
• May 1942 – Coral Sea
– After fall of Dutch East
Indies (Indonesia) Japan is
looking to invade Australia
• Battle of Coral Sea
– Planes on both sides bombed
aircraft carriers.
– *First naval battle completely
between aircraft carriers that
weren’t within sight of eachother.
– Ended in a draw.
• But, it stops Japanese
expansion into Australia.
The Turning Point
• June 1942 - Midway
– Japan is looking to “finish off”
the US Pacific fleet.
• US suffers heavy losses at first,
but ultimately sinks all four
Japanese carriers.
– Allied victory - Go on offensive
• Aug 1942 – Feb 1943 –
Guadalcanal
– First Allied victory on Japaneseheld soil.
• Fierce jungle combat between
Marines and Japanese on
interior of island.
– 5 months!
• Island
Hopping
– US strategy
to attack
specific
crucial
islands.
– Cuts off
supplies.
Meanwhile, Carpet Bombing Japan
=Dropping many
bombs over a large
area to destroy an
entire region
•In one such raid on Tokyo in March of 1945, 279 US B-29 Bombers destroyed 267,000 buildings,
killing 100,000 people and destroying 25% of Tokyo.
Taking Back the Philippines
• Oct 1944 – Dec 1944 –
Leyte Gulf
– U.S. assault to take back
Philippines
• Largest air and naval
encounter in history
• Japanese utilize
Kamikazes
– U.S. victory.
• Do not officially take all
of Philippines until June
1945.
• Nearly destroy entire
Japanese navy
Iwo Jima
• Feb 1945 - Iwo Jima
– Fighting intensified as
US Troops got closer to
Japan.
• Iwo Jima is considered
Japanese soil.
Lasts 74 days
US drops 20,000 bombs
25,000 US casualties
22,000 Japanese
casualties
– Only 218 Japanese taken
prisoner
–
–
–
–
Okinawa
• March 1945 – June 1945
- Okinawa
– Last obstacle to an
invasion of the Japanese
mainland.
– 100,000 Japanese
defenders vow to fight to
death.
• 1,300 warships, 180,000
combat troops invade.
– 50,000 US casualties
– Only 7,200 Japanese
POWs
Invasion of Japan?
The Fears of Invading Japan
• Bushido (the warrior way) – this samurai
way influenced how the Japanese fought
until death
• Conventional bombing was not working
(100,000 civilians killed in Tokyo)
• Our losses were mounting as well as time
spent fighting was growing
Hiroshima
• August 6th, 1945 the Enola
Gay dropped the world’s
first atomic bomb on the
city of Hiroshima
• About 50,000 people were
instantly killed
• Within a month or two up to
100,000 more died of
radiation poisoning, burns,
or sickness
The Effects
• Before
After
Nagasaki
• August 9th, 1945, the Bockscar
dropped the second atomic bomb (a
fusion bomb)
• 35,000 people were instantly killed
with 35,000 more dying with a few
weeks!
• Two more bombings were planned
but the Japanese surrendered on
August 15th, 1945 (V-J Day) and
since then a nuclear bomb has not
been detonated in aggression
• The US made over 31,000 more by
1967 conducting over 1,000 test
detonations!