Transcript seppuku

Japan in the Pacific
During the Interwar Period, Japan faced
overcrowding and shortages of raw materials
Japanese military leaders began a program of
empire building and foreign expansion
(1931) Japanese troops took over
Manchuria
(1937) and northern China
United States govt. sent aid to China
(1941) Japanese take over French
Indochina (present-day Vietnam)
Roosevelt cuts off oil shipments to Japan
Hideki Tojo – Prime Minister of Japan from
October, 1941 – July, 1944
Militaristic leader
appointed by Emperor
Hirohito
He favored war with
the United States
Isoroku Yamamoto – Japanese admiral who
commanded the navy
Attended Harvard and
trained in the U.S.
Planned the attack on
Pearl Harbor
Did not want war, but…
He argued that U.S. naval fleet in Hawaii was “a
dagger pointed at our throat”
(Dec 7, 1941) Japan launches surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor
• More than 2,400 Americans killed
• Over 1,000 wounded
• 18 U.S. ships, nearly the entire fleet,
destroyed
• Aircraft carriers were at sea training
• President Franklin Roosevelt described
December 7 as “a date which will live in infamy.”
• The next day, Congress declared war on Japan
After bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan seized
Guam and other islands in the Pacific
They attacked the American territory of the
Philippines only 9 hours later
Seized Hong Kong from the British
By 1942, Japan had conquered over 1
million sq. miles of new land and over 150
million people
(1942) U.S. wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor and
sent 16 B25 bombers to Tokyo and other
Japanese cities
Did little damage, but proved Japan could be
attacked at home.
By 1942, Japan had a vast empire that was
difficult to control.
U.S. and Japanese naval forces clashed in many
significant and novel battles
(May, 1942) Battle of the Coral Sea
– Airplanes did all the fighting
– U.S. and Australian forces prevented
Japanese invasion of Australia
(June, 1942) Battle of Midway
Island west of Hawaii, key American airfield
Largest naval fleet ever assembled,
including world’s largest battleship
Japan hoped to seize Midway island and
finish off U.S. Pacific fleet
Outnumbered U.S. forces prevailed,
symbolic turning point in Pacific War
Midway Atoll
Japanese Now on Defense, but War is Far From Over
• Japanese troops dug in on hundreds of
islands across Pacific
• U.S. General Douglas MacArthur used
strategy called “island-hopping”
• U.S. seized islands that were not well
defended and moved closer to Japan
On the home front, Japanese Americans
Imprisoned
After Pearl Harbor, wave of prejudice spread
across the U.S. against Japanese Americans
(127,000)
(Feb, 1942) Roosevelt set up a program to create
internment camps for Japanese
Military rounded up Japanese and sent them to
camps (2/3 of them were native-born American
citizens, Nisei)
Intern, as a verb:
• To confine or impound, especially during a
war
• In U.S. documents, camps are referred to
as “relocation camps”
• Some have likened camps to Nazi
“concentration camps.”
– What do you think?
Internment Camp
Japanese Internment Camps
Between 1941 and 1946, over 110,000
Japanese Americans were rounded up
and imprisoned
• Back in the Pacific, Japan was losing
territory to the Allies
• By June of 1945, the Allies conquered
Okinawa Island, only 350 miles from
Tokyo
As Japanese defenses were weakened, they
resorted to more desperate tactics, including the
use of the Kamikaze.
The Kamikaze were Japanese suicide pilots who
would sink Allied ships by crash-diving into
them in bomb-filled planes
Most Kamikaze pilots were between the ages of 17
and 22
USS Columbia, January 1945
1. How did the Japanese military leaders
plan to overcome shortages in raw
materials?
2. After what event did Congress declare
war on the Japanese?
3. What major battle was the symbolic
turning point of the war in the Pacific
against the Japanese?
In April of 1945, President Roosevelt died
Harry Truman was sworn in as president
President Truman’s advisers had informed him
that an invasion of Japan might cost the Allies
half a million lives
Truman did not know of the atom bomb’s
existence until he be became president
On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was
given to Japan ( by U.S., Britain, China)
It outlined the terms of surrender for Japan
– Militarism in Japan must end
– Japanese army would be completely
disarmed
– Japan would be permitted to maintain a viable
industrial economy
– War criminals would be punished
– Japan would be occupied following the war
until these objectives were met
The Potsdam Declaration stated that if Japan
did not surrender, it would face "prompt and
utter destruction
Japan did not respond to the declaration…
August 6, 1945
Hiroshima
Pop: 250,000
August 9
Nagasaki
Pop: 230,000
Effects of the Hiroshima bombing:
Ground temperatures
Winds
Energy released
Buildings destroyed
Killed immediately
Dead by the end of 1945
7,000 F
980 mph
20,000 tons TNT
62,000
70,000-100,000
around 150,000
What your textbook says:
Hiroshima: 73,000 dead
Nagasaki: 37,500
“Radiation killed many more.”
Atomic bomb victims…
Woman with
flash burns
14 year old girl
Radiation
affects
civilians long
after the
bombing
1 hr later from 80 km away