Transcript The Allies Strike Back: Japan!

The Allies Strike Back: Japan!
Battle of Midway
• June 1942
• Japanese fleet planned to attack Midway
Island, a US base
• US had broken the final Japanese code
• US planes attacked, sank 4 aircraft
carriers
• Greatly weakened Japan’s offensive
capability
Battle of Guadalcanal
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Aug. 1942 – Feb. 1943
Japan was building an air base
US Marines and Navy attacked
“The Island of Death” – harsh jungle
conditions, fierce Japanese resistance
• US won – first victory over Japanese
ground troops
• The start of “island hopping”
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Oct. 1944
• Island hopping was working – the US was
closing in on Japan
• Japanese Navy and kamikazes attacked
the US fleet headed to the Philippines
• A last desperate attempt to stop US
advances
• US won and recaptured the Philippines
• Last Japanese offensive of the war
General MacArthur: “I have returned!”
Battle of Iwo Jima
• Feb. – Mar. 1945
• Island close to Japan (within bombing
range for US planes)
• Volcanic rock and ash
• Heavily defended by Japanese in caves
and tunnels
• US won
Battle of Okinawa
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Mar. – June 1945
Last island US attacked
Closest island to Japan
Largest battle of the Pacific War
Defended by hundreds of thousands of soldiers
and civilian reserves
• A “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Japan
• 100,000+ US troops, heavy casualties
• Made the US decide not to invade Japan
Quickwrite
Imagine you could save the lives of
hundreds of thousands of American
soldiers by killing millions of foreign
civilians.

How well does the benefit (saving our
soldiers) outweigh the cost (deaths of
foreign civilians)?
Discussion
If you had been President of the U.S.,
what would you have decided? Why?
How would you have felt knowing you
were responsible for the devastation
and deaths of so many civilians?
Strategic Bombing of Japan
• Late 1944 – Aug. 1945
• US B-29s bombed Japan’s factories and
cities
• Almost every major city was destroyed
• 100,000 people killed in Tokyo
• Japan’s industries were crippled
• Japan’s leaders still refused to surrender…
B-29 Bomber
The firebombing of Tokyo
Atomic Bombs
• Aug. 6, 1945 – Hiroshima.
140,000 killed
• Aug. 9, 1945 – Nagasaki.
80,000 killed
• Aug. 15, Japanese
request a cease fire
(“VJ Day”)
• Sept. 2, Japan officially
surrendered! The end
of WWII!
Hiroshima: Dropping the Bomb
Results of World War II
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Over 60 million people killed
Europe left in ruins
Germany divided into two countries
Japan occupied by the US
United Nations established to prevent wars
Israel established as a homeland for Jews
(Holocaust survivors)
• US and USSR became “superpowers”
• Led to The Cold War!