Transcript The War in the Pacific - Clayton Valley Charter High School

The War in the Pacific
Chapter 17
Section 3
Pages 578-587
Bataan, Philippines
April 1942
 General Douglas MacArthur, “I shall return”
 Surrender of 80,000 American and Filipino
troops
 Death March of 100 miles
 Approx. 10,000 perish due to beatings,
bayoneting, beheadings, and sun torture

Doolittle’s Raid

April 1942
 Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle
 U.S.S. Hornet
 16 B-25s with 5 man crews
 Crews fly to China
 3 of the 8 captured crew members are
executed
 Leads Japanese to set their sights on
Midway
 Boosts America’s spirits
The Battle of the Coral Sea
 May
1942
 The first of the Pacific War's six fights
between opposing aircraft carrier
forces
 Although a Japanese victory on
"points", it was an operational and
strategic defeat
The Battle of Midway

June 4-7, 1942
 Japanese Fleet commander Admiral
Yamamoto
 Yamamoto's intended surprise was thwarted
 Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific
Fleet commander, established an ambush
 Cost Japan four irreplaceable fleet carriers, a
cruiser and 250 airplanes
 Only one U.S. carriers was lost
 War’s turning point
Admiral Yamamoto
Naval War College and
Harvard University
 Naval Attache to U.S.
 Planned attack on Pearl
Harbor
 Killed by aerial ambush
in 1943

Guadalcanal
 August
1942 – February 1943
 Solomon Islands
 24,000 Japanese casualties to 6,000
American
 Island of Death
 1st land defeat for Japanese
 Considered the turning point for the
Japanese Army
Battle of Leyte Gulf
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Philippine Islands in October 1944
This would be the last major naval action during the
war
Kamikaze (divine wind) attacks sink 16 ships and
damage 80
Largest naval battle ever to take place
The U.S. submarine blockade of Japan
MacArthur fulfills his promise and returns to the
Philippines
Frees the Bataan POWs
A Japanese Zero about to hit the USS Missouri
"Gen. Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines, October 20, 1944."Wide World Photos, From: Buchanan,
between pp. 412-413, photo # 18
Iwo Jima
February – March 1945
 "No other island received as much preliminary
pounding as did Iwo Jima."
. . . Admiral Nimitz, CINPAC
 Incredibly, this ferocious bombardment had
little effect
 22,000 defenders were burrowed in the
volcanic rock
 200 Japanese survived

It was the largest armada invasion up to that time in the Pacific
War. 70,000 Marines; 7,000 died; and 19,000 casualties
Mt. Suribachi, the 550-foot volcanic cone at the islands southern tip, dominates
both possible landing beaches. From here, Japanese gunners zeroed in on every
inch of the landing beach. Blockhouses and pillboxes flanked the landing areas.
The original photograph by Joe Rosenthal. The pole weighed over 100 lbs.
Four of the Flag Raisers (Bradley, Hayes, Sousley & Strank) appear with their jubilant buddies.
Strank, Sousley and many of these boys would soon be dead. The battle for the island raged on
for another four weeks.
Battle for Okinawa

April 1945
 1,900 kamikaze attacks sinking 30 ships, damaging
300 more, and killing 5,000 seamen
 7,600 Americans die taking the island
 110,000 Japanese die
 150,000 Okinawans perish, 1/3 of the population
 Second only to Stalingrad in loss of life
 Foreshadowed the cost of invading Japan
 Churchill predicted 1 million American and 500,00
British lives
A Marine dashes across a draw nicknamed 'Death Valley‘ During heavy fighting in May; in 8 hrs the
Marines took 125 Casualties here (National Archives Photo)
The Manhattan Project
"Little Boy" (uranium bomb) is seen on the left, and
"Fat Man" (plutonium) is seen on the right.

The Atomic Bomb Ends the
War
Robert Oppenheimer was
lead scientist
 600,000 Americans
worked on pieces of the
project
 Very few knew the
projects intent
 1st test is on July 16, 1945
in Alamogordo, NM
Truman’s Decision
Warns Japan that it faced
“prompt and utter
destruction” unless it
surrendered at once
 Japan refuses
 “Let there be no mistake
about it. I regarded the
bomb as a military weapon
and never had any doubt
that it should be used”

Hiroshima
 Enola
Gay takes off August 6, 1945
 “Little Boy” kills 70,000 on impact
 Another 70,000 will die from injuries
within the next 5 years
 90% of the cities buildings are
destroyed
 3 days later “Fat Man” is dropped
Hiroshima
The hypocenter
seen from the sky.
With Aioi Bridge
between them, the
Hiroshima Chamber
of Commerce and
Industry (A-bomb
Dome) and
Honkawa
Elementary school
remain standing in
ruin. (Photo by US
Army)
The A-Bomb Dome Today in Hiroshima
at Peace Memorial Park
Nagasaki
August 9, 1945
 Population 240,000
 Only 40% of the city is
destroyed thanks to its
geography
 39,000 killed
 25,000 injured
 Ruins of a Roman
Catholic Cathedral

Aftermath
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The two bombings killed an estimated 110,000
Japanese citizens and injured another 130,000.
By 1950, another 230,000 Japanese had died from
injuries or radiation.
Though the two cities were nominally military targets,
the overwhelming majority of the casualties were
civilian.
Both cities have become centers for peace movements
supporting the ban on nuclear weapons.
Douglas MacArthur
Prickly and arrogant
Brilliant strategist
10 Japanese killed for every
American
He took more territory with less loss
of life
Rebuilds Japan after the war
Adapts Japanese traditions to western
political and economic systems
Fails to receive Republican
nomination for president
Rebuilding Begins

The Yalta Conference, February 1945
– Ailing FDR, Churchill and Stalin (Big Three) meet on
the Black Sea in the Soviet Union to discuss the future of
Germany and the postwar world
– Stalin wanted Germany divided into occupation zones
– FDR makes concessions for two reasons:
 Wants the Soviets to enter the war against Japan (the
atom bomb is still 5 months from completion)
 Wants Stalin to support and join the United Nations
Rebuilding Begins
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Series of compromises between the Big Three
– Four zones of occupation
– FDR and Churchill assumed this was to be
temporary
– Stalin promises “free and unfettered elections” in
Poland and other Soviet-occupied Eastern
European countries
– Stalin agrees to fight Japan
– Lastly, Stalin agrees to participate in the April
1945 meeting in San Francisco
The Nuremberg War Trials
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24 surviving Nazis on trial for crimes against
humanity, crimes against peace, and war
crimes (defined on page 586)
12 of the 24 will be executed
Lesser trials to follow will convict 200 more
Unfortunately, many go unpunished
Established the principle that individuals are
responsible for their actions is now firmly
entrenched in international law
The Occupation of Japan

Gen. Douglas MacArthur
 1,100 Japanese will be tried including Prime
Minister Hideki Tojo
 7 are sentenced to death
 7 year occupation MacArthur reshapes
Japanese economy by introducing freemarket practices
 Transforms their government with a new
constitution, still known today as the
MacArthur Constitution