The War in the Pacific

Japan Okinawa Leyte Gulf Iwo Jima Midway Hawaii Guadalcanal Coral Sea

Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7

th

, 1941

Review: Why attack the USA at Pearl Harbor?

Attack on the Philippines

• March, 1942 Philippines – Japan attacks the Philippines to try to rid the US from the region.

• Bataan Death March – 76,000 American refugees taken prisoner, forced to march 60 miles to prison camps without food or water. » » 10,000 die 15,000 die in prison camps “I Shall Return”

The Doolittle Raid

• April, 1942 – Doolittle Raid – Small scale bombing raid on Tokyo • Does not cause much damage, but is a huge morale booster for U.S.

Battle of Coral Sea

• May 1942 – Coral Sea – After fall of Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) Japan is looking to invade Australia • Battle of Coral Sea – Planes on both sides bombed aircraft carriers.

– *First naval battle completely between aircraft carriers that weren’t within sight of each other.

– Ended in a draw.

• But, it stops Japanese expansion into Australia.

The Turning Point

• June 1942 - Midway – Japan is looking to “finish off” the US Pacific fleet.

• US suffers heavy losses at first, but ultimately sinks all four Japanese carriers.

– Allied victory - Go on offensive • Aug 1942 – Feb 1943 – Guadalcanal – First Allied victory on Japanese held soil.

• Fierce jungle combat between Marines and Japanese on interior of island.

– 5 months!

• Island Hopping – US strategy to attack specific crucial islands.

– Cuts off supplies.

Meanwhile, Carpet Bombing Japan

=Dropping many bombs over a large area to destroy an entire region • In one such raid on Tokyo in March of 1945, 279 US B-29 Bombers destroyed 267,000 buildings, killing 100,000 people and destroying 25% of Tokyo.

Taking Back the Philippines

• Oct 1944 – Dec 1944 – Leyte Gulf – U.S. assault to take back Philippines • Largest air and naval encounter in history • Japanese utilize Kamikazes – U.S. victory.

• Do not officially take all of Philippines until June 1945.

• Nearly destroy entire Japanese navy

Iwo Jima

• Feb 1945 - Iwo Jima – Fighting intensified as US Troops got closer to Japan.

• Iwo Jima is considered Japanese soil.

– – – – – Lasts 74 days US drops 20,000 bombs 25,000 US casualties 22,000 Japanese casualties Only 218 Japanese taken prisoner

Okinawa

• March 1945 – June 1945 - Okinawa – Last obstacle to an invasion of the Japanese mainland.

– 100,000 Japanese defenders vow to fight to death.

• 1,300 warships, 180,000 combat troops invade.

– – 50,000 US casualties Only 7,200 Japanese POWs

Invasion of Japan?

The Fears of Invading Japan

• Bushido (the warrior way) – this samurai way influenced how the Japanese fought until death • Conventional bombing was not working (100,000 civilians killed in Tokyo) • Our losses were mounting as well as time spent fighting was growing

Hiroshima

• August 6 th , 1945 the Enola Gay dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima • About 50,000 people were instantly killed • Within a month or two up to 100,000 more died of radiation poisoning, burns, or sickness

• Before

The Effects

After

Nagasaki

• August 9 th , 1945, the Bockscar dropped the second atomic bomb (a fusion bomb) • 35,000 people were instantly killed with 35,000 more dying with a few weeks!

• Two more bombings were planned but the Japanese surrendered on August 15 th , 1945 (V-J Day) and since then a nuclear bomb has not been detonated in aggression • The US made over 31,000 more by 1967 conducting over 1,000 test detonations!