Transcript World War II in the Pacific

World War II: Pacific Theater
Lsn 27
The Pacific Theater
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
attacked the
Philippines,
• On Dec 24,
MacArthur
ordered his forces
to withdraw to the
Bataan Peninsula
• By April Bataan
surrendered
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, Hong Kong….
• 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
• Aircraft carrier duel (Battle
waged exclusively via air
strikes U.S. is able to stop
Japanese threat to Australia
• Both sides suffered heavy
losses but the Japanese were
forced to call off their
amphibious attack on Port
Moresby
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
• Midway was strategically vital to American
communications and defense of Hawaii
• Thanks to Magic intercepts, US learned when
Japan would attack
• Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers and
most of their flight crews
• Japanese given a devastating blow
Final Campaigns
• U.S plan to strangle the
Japanese import based
economy and retake
strategic islands closer to
the homeland.
• Led by General Douglas
in in the Southwest and
General Chester Nimitiz
in the central Pacific they
engaged in a strategy
known as “island
Hopping”
Raising the flag
on Mt. Suribachi,
Iwo Jima
Okinawa and Iwo Jima
• Mar 11, 1945 the Marines captured Iwo Jima
• Invasion of Okinawa showed how costly an invasion of
the Japanese home islands would be
• Invasion began on Easter Sunday April 1, 1945 was the
largest operation by Americans in the Pacific war
• Troops were met by Japanese Kamikazes
• Killed more than 200,000 people
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
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
• Helps generate support
for the creation of Israel
as a Jewish state
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 an 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 prove
to not be a
reasonable
option in limited
wars
• We’ll see this
in Lesson 30
(Korea) and
Lesson 32-34
(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