Transcript World War II: The Pacific

World War II:
The Pacific and the War’s Legacy
Theme: Allied victory and other impacts of
the war
Lesson 21
Imperial Japan
(Where we left off on Lesson 17)
• Japan continued to see
the US and others as a
threat to its influence in
Asia and in 1940 the
Japanese began
developing plans to
destroy the US Navy in
Hawaii
• On Dec 7, 1941, the
Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor
– We’ll discuss this in
Lesson 21
In May 1940, the main part of the
US fleet was transferred to Pearl
Harbor from the west coast
Pearl Harbor
• Dec 7, 1941
– “a date which will live
in infamy”
• Americans taken
completely by
surprise
• The first attack wave
targeted airfields and
battleships
• The second wave
targeted other ships
and shipyard facilities
Tactical Damage
• Eight battleships were
damaged, with five sunk
• Three light cruisers, three
destroyers, three smaller
vessels, and 188 aircraft
were destroyed
• 2,335 servicemen and 68
civilians killed
• 1,178 wounded
– 1,104 men aboard the
battleship USS Arizona were
killed after a 1,760-pound air
bomb penetrated into the
forward magazine causing
catastrophic explosions.
Broader Results
• In spite of the tactical
success, the attack on
Pearl Harbor was an
operational and strategic
failure for the Japanese
– The attack failed to destroy
the American aircraft
carriers, fleet repair
facilities, or fuel reserves
– The “sneak attack”
galvanized American
support for entry into the
war
Fall of the Philippines
• Shortly after Pearl
Harbor the Japanese
made initial landings
on Luzon, then made
their main landings
on Dec 22
• On Dec 24,
MacArthur ordered
his forces to
withdraw to the
Bataan Peninsula
• By April, Bataan
surrendered
• By early May
Corregidor
surrendered
General Douglas MacArthur in his
headquarters tunnel at Corregidor
in March 1942
Bataan Death March
• President Roosevelt
ordered MacArthur to
relinquish command
to Lieutenant
General Jonathan
Wainwright and
MacArthur escaped
to Australia
• 25,000 Americans
and Filipinos died on
the Bataan Death
March to captivity
Centrifugal Advance
• Japanese attacked Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch
East Indies, Wake, Guam….
• Instead of halting, establishing a defense, and
pressuring the US to sue for peace (the prewar plan), the
Japanese decided to extend their control over the Pacific
planning operations in New Guinea near Port Moresby
and against Midway (1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu)
• US achieved a moral victory with Doolittle’s Raid on the
Japanese home islands on April 18, 1942
– Minimal damage but humiliated Japanese high
command and led them to advance the date for their
attack on Midway
Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942)
• US had been able to intercept
Japanese radio traffic in an
operation called “Magic”
• Magic intercepts allowed
Admiral Nimitz to position two
carriers off the eastern tip of
New Guinea
• Both sides suffered heavy
losses but the Japanese were
forced to call off their
amphibious attack on Port
Moresby
• Battle was waged exclusively
via air strikes
– Opposing surface ships
never made direct contact
Admiral Chester Nimitz,
Commander in Chief Pacific
and Pacific Ocean Areas
Midway (June 3-6, 1942)
• Japanese planned a diversionary
attack on the Aleutian Islands
while the main force attacked
Midway to destroy the American
fleet
• Thanks to Magic intercepts, US
didn’t fall for the Alaska feint and
reinforced Midway
• Americans destroyed four
Japanese carriers and most of
their flight crews
• Japanese advance was checked
and initiative in the Pacific began
to turn to the Americans
Midway Atoll
Greatest Extent of Greater East
Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
Twin Drives
• Chief of Naval Operations Admiral
Ernest King favored a drive across
the central Pacific moving toward
Japan over the coral atolls scattered
across the Pacific
– Take advantage of ability to leap
across vast distances
• MacArthur favored an advance
across the South Pacific via New
Guinea and the Philippines
– Meet obligations to Filipinos
– Maintain pressure against the
retreating Japanese
– Protect against a renewed threat
against Australia
Admiral Ernest King
Compromise
• King’s planned drive
would move first against
the Gilbert Islands and
then toward the
Philippines
• MacArthur would
likewise advance toward
the Philippines
– Joint Chiefs gave no
clear priority to either
drive
– “Mutual supporting” or
“mutually competing?”
Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief
Pacific and Pacific Ocean Areas and
William Halsey, Commander, South
Pacific Area and South Pacific Force
Isolation of Rabaul
Operation Cartwheel
• Became the model for Pacific commanders
throughout the rest of the war
– don’t move island to island; advance by great
bounds using air superiority
– bypass major strongpoints and leave them
reduced to strategic and tactical impotence
– hit Japanese weak spots; avoid frontal assaults;
use deception and surprise
– seize existing airfields and ports and use these
newly acquired bases to support the next leap
forward
Retaking the Philippines
• The invasion of
the Philippines
brought
MacArthur and
Nimitz’s twin
drives together
• On Oct 20, 1944,
MacArthur
attacked Leyte
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• The American and
Japanese surface fleets
made contact the night of
October 24-25 in the San
Bernardino Strait
• Two Japanese task
forces entered the strait,
Halsey did the classic
naval maneuver of
crossing the “T” and sank
all but one enemy
destroyer
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• However, Halsey was
surprised shortly after
dawn when Japanese
heavy cruisers and
battleships passed
unopposed through the
San Bernardino Straits
and threatened the
invasion fleet
• American aircraft turned
back the already
weakened Japanese
• Still the Japanese did
not give up, delivering
their first wave of
kamikaze attacks
Escort carrier St. Lo
sunk by kamikaze attack
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• The Battle of Leyte Gulf
secured the beachheads
of the U.S. Sixth Army
attack on Leyte and
destroyed Japanese
naval power
• By the end of December
1944, the Allies controlled
Leyte and MacArthur was
in position to attack
Luzon, the heart of the
Philippines
Walter Krueger,
commander of
Sixth Army
“I shall return”
Final Campaigns
• From Feb 19 to Mar 11, 1945
the Marines captured Iwo Jima
• From Apr to June Americans
captured Okinawa
– Total American battle
casualties were 49,151, of
which 12,520 were killed or
missing and 36,631
wounded
– Approximately 110,000
Japanese were killed and
7,400 more were taken
prisoners
– Okinawa showed how
costly an invasion of the
Japanese home islands
would be
Raising the flag
on Mt. Suribachi,
Iwo Jima
Plan to Invade Japan
• US planned to invade
Japan with eleven
Army and Marine
divisions (650,000
troops)
• Casualty estimates
for the operation were
as high as 1,400,000
• Truman decided to
use the atomic bomb
to avoid such losses
Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo
The Atomic Bomb
• In the early 1940s,
America had started
an atomic weapons
development program
code named the
“Manhattan Project”
• A successful test was
conducted at
Alamogordo in New
Mexico in July 1945
J. Robert Oppenheimer and
General Leslie Groves at the Trinity
Site soon after the test
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945
– 90,000 killed
• On Aug 8, the USSR
declared war on Japan
and invaded Manchuria
the next day
• Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945
– 35,000 killed
• Okinawa had been much
more costly than
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the
plane that dropped the bomb on
Hiroshima
Hiroshima, vicinity of ground zero
Surrender
Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri
Beyond World War II
•
•
•
•
•
Growth of Total War
Holocaust
Post-war impact of the atomic bomb
Expanded roles of women
Cold War (Lesson 23)
Growth of Total War
• Total war describes a war in which nations use
all of their resources to destroy another nation’s
ability to engage in war.
–
–
–
–
–
Conscription
Military-industrial complex to include women workers
Unconditional surrender
Civilian targets to include the Holocaust
Rationing, price controls, and other impacts on the
homefront
– More destructive weapons to include the atomic bomb
Holocaust
• Jews were the primary targets of Hitler’s racially
motivated genocidal policies, but Slavs, Gypsies,
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
communists, and others suffered as well
• Sometime during 1941, the Nazi leadership
committed to “the final solution” of “the Jewish
problem”
– At the Wansee Conference on Jan 20, 1942, experts
gathered to discuss and coordinate the
implementation of the plan to kill all the Jews living in
Europe
Holocaust
• Jews were rounded up and sent to
concentration camps
– The largest was Auschwitz where at least a
million Jews died
• The process was organized and
technologically sophisticated
– Gassing was the preferred method of killing,
but electrocution, phenol injections,
flamethrowers, hand grenades, and machine
guns were also used
Roll Call at Auschwitz
Holocaust
• Victims were subjected
to industrial work,
starvation, medical
experimentation, and
extermination
• Large crematories
were used to hide the
evidence
• Approximately 5.7
million Jews perished
in the Holocaust
Auschwitz crematory
Mass Grave at Bergen-Belsen
Children Subjected to Medical
Experiments in Auschwitz
Survivors of
Ampfing Subcamp of Dachau
Prisoners liberated at Auschwitz
Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
• Changed the very nature
of war
– Presented the possibility of
annihilation of humankind
• US came to place great
strategic reliance on
atomic bomb
– War plans emphasized
sudden atomic attack
against USSR to allow time
for conventional
mobilization
15 megaton thermonuclear
device test on Bikini Atoll in
1954
Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
• US held atomic
monopoly until 1949
– Huge US-USSR arms
race followed
– Eventually led to
Mutually Assured
Destruction (1967)
• Massive retaliation
strategy (1954) meant
US was prepared to
respond to Soviet
aggression with a
massive nuclear strike
Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
• Nuclear
weapons
proved to not
be a
reasonable
option in limited
wars
• We’ll see this in
Lesson 24
(Korea) and
Lesson 25
(Vietnam)
The US considered, but did not use, atomic
bombs in support of the French at Dien Bien
Phu in 1954
Expanded Roles for Women
• The emergencies of war
greatly expanded the
roles of women
• Some served in the
military
• Others replaced men on
factory assembly lines
• Women whose husbands
went overseas acted as
heads of households
Expanded Roles for Women
• From 1940 to 1944
over 6 million women
joined the workforce
filling jobs that had
been exclusively male
• After the war, women
were expected to
return home and
resume their
traditional roles as
wives and mothers
Woman's Day, Oct 1950.
The picture asks, "What more
needs to be said about a woman's
day?"
Next
• Early Cold War