Transcript Total War

America
and WWII
Pacific Theater
14.2 The Early Battles
(Appleby 494-496)
14.3 Japanese American
Relocation (Appleby 504)
14.4 Driving Japan Back
(Appleby 513-515)
14.5 Japan is Defeated
(Appleby 520-524)
Today’s Agenda
• Total War Slide Show
• Homework
• Unit Test on WWII Tuesday next week
Describe the fall of the Philippines.
• Japan invaded 2 days after
Pearl Harbor
• American troops held out for 3
months under Douglas
MacArthur
• Soldiers suffered from hunger,
disease, insects
• FDR ordered MacArthur to
evacuate himself
• “I shall return.”
• 78 thousand Americans
surrendered in April 1942
What was the Bataan Death March?
• 60 mile week-long forced
march by Japanese
soldiers on American and
Filipino soldiers
• Characterized by extreme
cruelty by Japanese
soldiers
– Beheading, shooting,
stabbing by bayonet,
rape, disembowelment,
rifle-butt beating, and
deliberate starvation
– Falling down may mean
a death sentence
– Nearly 25 thousand
died during 60 mile
march to prison camp
What was the Doolittle Raid?
• FDR wanted to raise US
morale by hitting Japan
back
• US navy placed long range
bombers on the aircraft
carrier, Hornet
• James Doolittle led raid
• Successfully bombed
Japan
• Did little damage
• Changed psyche of the war
– Made Japanese feel
vulnerable
Click for
Clip 2:30
-9
The Doolittle Raid
What was the Battle of Midway?
• Yamamoto planned
– to lure US fleet into battle & destroy it
– Invade New Guinea & cut off supply
lines
• US code breakers had broken Japanese
coded messages
• US carriers Lexington and Yorktown
intercepted Japanese fleet & prevented
invasion of New Guinea
• Admiral Nimitz ambushed Japanese at
Midway Island
• US planes caught Japanese aircraft
carriers with fuel, bombs on deck
• 4 carriers destroyed
• Turning point of Pacific War
Click for Clip
Describe the attitude Americans had toward the
Japanese after Pearl Harbor & Bataan.
• Viewed as “A Fifth
Column”
– Disloyal group
who
clandestinely
aids the enemy
by infiltrating a
group or nation
• Backstabbers
• “A Jap's a Jap.
The only good one
is a dead one!”
Click for Bugs Bunny Cartoon
What was Executive Order 9066?
• Presidential order to
remove & relocate
any person
considered
dangerous from living
near military bases
– 100 miles from W.
coast
• Allowed them to
relocated 120
thousand JapaneseAmericans into
Internment Camps
Describe the Internment Camps
• Army placed them in
“assembly centers” or War
Relocation Centers
• Usually in remote areas
• Manned by armed guards
• Sites lacked basic
sanitation
• tar paper-covered barracks
without plumbing or
cooking facilities
• Some only allotted $.45 for
food per person, per day
Describe the Korematsu v. US case.
• Frederick Korematsu
– Japanese-American was
arrested & convicted for
evading Executive Order
9066
– Appealed decision to
Supreme Court
• Supreme Court
– ruled 6-3 that the
Executive Order was
constitutional
– held that need to protect
against espionage
outweighed Korematsu's
individual rights
What was “island hopping”?
• Technique of US navy
to defeat Japan by
taking one island at a
time
• Secured island could
be used as base to
land bombing raids of
Japan’s main islands
• Characterized by
increasingly intense
fighting as US drew
See The Century 1941-45 minute 37closer to Japan
39
Describe the Battle of Iwo Jima.
• B-29 Bombers had difficulty
reaching Tokyo
• Iwo Jima
– Small volcanic island
perfect for air base
– Rugged terrain, numerous
caves
– 60 thousand marines
invaded in Feb. 1945
– Nearly 7 thousand
marines died in brutal
fighting but were
victorious
– Now US could bomb
Japan at will
Describe Japanese willingness to fight to the Death.
• Believed emperor was a
god
– students taught to die
for emperor
• propaganda claimed
Americans killed babies,
murdered civilians
– Civilians of Saipan
committed suicide by
hundreds
• Japanese soldiers would
not surrender at Iwo Jima
or Okinawa (over 80
thousand killed)
Play
Century
Civilians at
War from
40-50
2:14-2:20
Saipan
Describe the fire bombing of Tokyo (March 1945).
• General Curtis LeMay
– Armed B-29 with
napalm
• Meant to start fires
• started huge firestorms
– Most of the buildings
were made of wood,
fire spread very quickly
• Killed 80,000 civilians,
left over 100,000
homeless
• 66 other cities
firebombed
• Still Japan showed no
signs of surrender
"Everything combustible
would be consumed, …In
some cases the heat would
soften the asphalt in the
streets, so that fire
equipment mired down and
was lost to the flames. Water
sprayed on the fire would
simply vaporize; glass
panes would soften and drip
from metal window frames.
Here and there, incredibly,
concrete melted. No living
thing could survive in such
an atmosphere."
Tokyo after firebombing
10:30-14:00
Firebombing Tokyo
Capture: Tokyo firebombing
Describe the invasion of Okinawa.
• US need base from which to
launch invasion of main
islands of Japan
58:25-1:04
• Okinawa just 350 miles away
• US invaded April ‘45
• Japanese hid in rugged
mountains
• 12 thousand Americans killed
in invasion
– Kamikaze
• Planes, packed with
explosives, intentionally
crashed into
battleships, carriers
• Few Japanese soldiers
surrendered
By 1944, Japan was losing the war.
What is Total War?
• A war in which
Governments
– make any sacrifice in
order to achieve
victory
– Direct all resources
and economic
activity towards war
effort
– Place No distinction
between soldiers
and civilians
– specifically target
civilians as a way to
demoralize enemy
Victims in the Dresden Bombing
What is the Manhattan Project?
• Secret government operation to
develop 1st nuclear weapon
• Initiated after letter from Einstein
and Leo Szilard warned FDR of
Nazi initiatives
• Meant to be used on Nazi
Germany
I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
• Headed by Robert Oppenheimer "Now
(line from Hindu scripture quoted by Robert
Oppenheimer when he observed the test.) Photos are of
• Involved over 130 thousand
tower in New Mexico and experimental blast
scientists, physicists, engineers,
etc.
• Based in Los Alamos, NM
• Harry S. Truman
– Vice President had no
knowledge until he became
president in April ‘45
• Trinity- first successful detonation
Truman Becomes President
How does nuclear energy work?
• fission, or 'splitting' of
an atom
– Split atom strikes
other atoms and starts
chain reaction
– Results in release of
tremendous amounts
of energy
– Also results in Fallout
• Radioactive
particles lifted into
atmosphere
descend back to
earth
Trinitite. The bomb
melted the sand into this
greenish glass. It was
named trinitite after
Trinity.
Describe the bombing of Hiroshima.
• August 6, 1945
7-12
• Enola Gay dropped
atomic bomb on
Hiroshima
• Heat reached 3 thousand
degrees Fahrenheit
• Killed at least 75,000
people
• Over the years more died
from radiation
• When no surrender
came, Nagasaki bombed
Aug. 9 killing 50
thousand more
• Japan formally
surrendered Sept. 2 on
USS Missouri
Click pic for clip
Begin at 1 minute
2:21-
Hiroshima
“The homes of many of us have been destroyed, and the lives of
old and young have been taken. There's scarcely a household that
hasn't been struck to the heart. Why, in all conscience, should these
be the ones to suffer?.....Are these our soldiers? Are these our
fighters? Why should they be sacrificed? I shall tell you why.
Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform, it is a war of
the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield but in
the cities and in the villages, in the factories, and on the farms, in
the home and in the heart of every man, woman, and child who
loves freedom.
This is a peoples war, it is our war, we are the fighters, fight it,
then. Fight it with all that is in us. And may God defend the
right.”– Closing sermon of Mrs. Miniver
Nagasaki
The explosion created a supersonic shock wave which was
responsible for destroying most of the buildings in the blast
zone. Fully half of the bomb's released energy was released in the
form of this wind, which spread out at 440 meters per second (1600
km/hr or 1000 miles/hr; the speed of sound is 330 meters per
second). It not only knocked things down, it also filled the air with
debris. The section of concrete wall below has numerous glass
shards embedded in it, even though it was 2200 meters (one and a
half miles) from the hypocenter, and sheltered from the blast by a
low hill.
Nagasaki before Attack
Nagasaki after
Hiroshima (Before and After Aug. 6, 1945)
Seizo Yamada's
ground level photo
taken from
approximately 7 km
northeast of
Hiroshima.
The Survivors
Was Truman correct/justified in using
the atomic bomb?
play clip from minute 41
• Truman’s Options
– Invade Japan
– Wait for Soviet Help
– Compromise (allow Emperor Hirohitto to
remain)
– Drop Bomb