Transcript File
End of WWII and Allied Victory Victory in Europe As the Allies advanced towards Germany many of the death camps were liberated The Soviets got to Berlin first and the Allies forced the Germans to unconditionally surrender Hitler and his mistress committed suicide and had their bodies soaked with gas and burned FDR dies on April 12, 1945 V-E Day was May 8, 1945 War in the Pacific “Hell was red furry spiders as big as your fist, giant lizards as long as your leg, leeches falling from trees to suck blood, armies of white ants with bites of fire, scurrying scorpions inflaming any flesh they touched, enormous rats and bats everywhere, and rivers with waiting crocodiles. Hell was the sour, foul smell of the squishy jungle, humidity that rotted a body within hours, . . . stinking wet heat of dripping rain forests that sapped the strength out of man.” The GI War After the Battle of Midway the Allies go on the offensive: August 1942 the Japanese lose their first land battle at Guadalcanal The battle took 6 months and many Americans called it the “Island of Death” Island Hopping: Major Battles in the Pacific Coral Sea – May 1942 Midway – June 1942 Guadalcanal – August 1942 Tarawa – November 1943 Marshall Islands – February 1944 Saipan – June-July 1944 Leyte Gulf – Oct. 1944 Iwo Jima – Feb.-March 1945 Okinawa – April-June 1945 Leyte Gulf The Japanese sent their entire navy fleet to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines The Japanese used a new tactic in WWII – Kamikaze 424 kamikaze pilots sank 16 US ships and damaged 80 more Leyte Gulf was a disaster for the Japanese They lost 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, and 500 planes Battle of Iwo Jima After defeating the Japanese in the Philippines, General MacArthur attacked the island of Iwo Jima US needed it for strategic value – they could bomb Japan from Iwo Jima More than 6,000 US Marines died and over 20,000 Japanese died defending the island Battle of Okinawa – Bloodiest battle of WWII The island of Okinawa was the last island before Japan was to be attacked The largest battle of the war for the U.S. and Japan Japan continued with 1,400 kamikaze attacks and fierce fighting on land Over 12,000 Americans died Over 110,000 Japanese died Japan lost over 7,000 airplanes and 16 ships This battle signaled that the Japanese were not ready to surrender and were willing to continue fighting hard Atomic Bombs and Unconditional Surrender Truman had to make a decision whether or not to invade Japan or use our new weapon – the A-Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets Hiroshima (“Little Boy”)– August 6, 1945 Nagasaki (“Fat Man”)– August 9, 1945 The bombs killed over 140,000 people in 1945 Japanese Emperor Hirohito then called for surrender Why did we drop the bombs? Did we need to drop the bombs?? Were there other options???