Transcript 18.4 WWII in the Pacific

18.4 WWII in the Pacific
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Identify U.S. Battles
in the Pacific.
Assess U.S. And
Japanese attitudes
towards each other.
Discuss the decision
to drop the atom
bomb on Japan.
The Pacific Front in 1942
U.S. Generals during W.W.II
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Douglas McArthur
Chester Nimitz
The Pacific War, 1941-1942.
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U.S. Navy bloodied but
not beaten after Pearl
Harbor.
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Most ships repaired
by 1943.
Japan invades most of
Pacific after Pearl
Harbor
First Battles of the Pacific
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(May 4th, 1942)Battle of Coral
Sea
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First battle with carrierbased aircraft
(June 4th, 1942) Battle of
Midway
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Major Japanese defeat.
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Japan couldn't make up
losses from battle.
Wartime Propaganda
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Both U.S. and Japan engaged in racist
stereotyping.
U.S. Campaigns in the Pacific
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Island-Hopping Campaign (1942-1944)
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Took over strategic islands.
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Ignored others, U.S. Navy blockaded them.
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Aimed towards Japan.
U.S. Campaigns in the Pacific
- Liberation of the Philippines
(Oct. 1944)
- Lost to Japan in 1942.
- McArthur wanted it back!
- Battle of Leyte Gulf (Oct.
23rd, 1944)
- Largest naval battle in history.
- Japanese Navy destroyed.
- Kamikazes
Last Pacific Battles
- Iwo Jima (Feb 1945)
- Okinawa
- 6,800 U.S. casualties,
21,000 Japanese
casualties.
- 83,000 U.S., 100,000
Japanese casualties.
- Many Americans
thought cost was too
high.
- Many civilians told by
Japanese army to
commit suicide.
Invasion of Japan
- U.S. hesitant for two reasons.
- U.S. casualties (500,000
predicted)
- Japanese civilian casualties,
mass suicide
- The Atom Bomb exists.
- Created in the Manhattan
Project.
- To drop or not to drop?
Dropping the Atom Bomb
- (April, 1945) F.D.R.
dies, Harry Truman is
now President!
- Truman decides to drop
bomb.
- Argues he does it to save
American lives.
Bombing Japan
- Hiroshima
- Nagasaki
- 80,000 killed, 70,000
wounded
- 35,000 killed, 60,000
wounded
Costs of WWII
- Most deadly conflict in human history!
- 60-70 million dead from war.
- 40+ million civilians.
- War cost $1 trillion+ dollars total.
- U.S. Economy = half of world’s economy.