The War in the Pacific

 Allies agree the defeating the Nazis was first priority but continued to fight Japan  Pearl Harbor attacks missed the Pacific Fleet’s submarine and the fleet’s aircraft carriers

 Japanese Advances  Conquered an empire that dwarfed the Third Reich  Asian Mainland: Hong Kong, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, and much of China  Pacific: Dutch East Indies, Guam, Wake Island, Solomon Islands, and numerous other islands  General Douglas MacArthur  In command of Allied forces at time of Pearl Harbor  80,00 Americans and Filipino troops battle Japanese for control in Philippines  Roosevelt orders him to leave and on March 11, 1942 he does  “I shall return”

DOOLITTLE’S RAIDBATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA  Spring 1942, Allies begin to turn tide on Japanese  April 18, 1942, Lieutenant James Doolittle led 16 bombers in a daring raid on Tokyo and other cities  “Tokyo Bombed! Doolittle Do’od It.”  Raises American spirits  Main forces in Pacific were American and Australian  May 1942, 5 day battle to stop Japanese drive towards Australia  Fighting was done completely by planes  First time since Pearl Harbor, a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back

 The Battle of Midway  Midway, strategic island that lies west of Hawaii  Americans break Japanese code and knew that Midway was their next target  Admiral Chester Nimitz moved to defend the island  June 3, 1942, his scout planes found the Japanese fleet. Americans then send torpedo planes and dive bombers to attack  Japanese planes were still on the carrier and the results were devastating  Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes  Turning point in Pacific War and Allies soon begin “island hopping” and winning territories back

 First Allies offensive began in August 1942  19,000 troops storm Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands  By the time Japanese abandon the island six months later, it is being called the “Island of Death”  Guadalcanal marked Japan’s first defeat on land  October 1944, 178,000 Allied troops and 738 ships converged on Leyte Island in the Philippines  MacArthur comes ashore and announces, “People of the Philippines: I have returned.”

 The Japanese Defense  Japanese throw entire fleet into the Battle of Leyte Gulf  Test new tactic, the kamikaze  In the Philippines, 424 kamikaze pilots embark on suicide missions, sinking 16 ships and damaging another 80  Battle was disaster for Japanese, in three days of battle they lost, 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers, and almost 500 planes  From this point on Imperial Navy plays minor role in Japanese defensive

 Iwo Jima  After taking much of the Philippines and liberating the American POW’s, Allies turn towards Iwo Jima  Critical to the U.S. as a base for heavily loaded bombers going to Japan  Heavily defended, 20,700 Japanese troops  6,000 American Marines died, greatest number in any battle in the Pacific to that point  Only 200 Japanese survived  Now only one obstacle between and Japan- the island of Okinawa

 The Battle of Okinawa  April 1945, U.S. Marines invade Okinawa  1,900 kamikaze attacks on Allies, sinking 30 ships, damaging 300 more, and killing almost 5,000 seamen  Fighting ends June 21, 1945, 7,600 Americans had died. Japanese have 110,000 casualties  Foretaste of what Allies imagine invasion of Japan island would be  Churchill predicts in Japan cost would be a million Americans and 500,000 British

 The Manhattan Project  President Truman only sees one way to avoid an invasion of Japan– the atomic bomb  Research directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer  Most ambitious scientific enterprise and best kept secret of the war, even Truman didn’t know its purpose until he became president  At peak, more than 600,000 Americans were involved in the project  July 16, 1945, first test of bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Visible from 180 miles away and a deafening roar

 The Manhattan Project  July 25, 1945, Truman orders the military to make final plans for dropping two atomic bombs  A day later, the U.S. warned Japan that it faced “prompt and utter destruction” unless it surrendered at once

 Hiroshima and Nagasaki  Hiroshima and Nagasaki  August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named “Enola Gay” release an atomic bomb (Little Boy), over Hiroshima  43 seconds later almost every building in the city collapsed into dust, ceasing to exist  Japanese still hesitated to surrender  August 9, 1945, a second bomb (Fat Man) was dropped on Nagasaki, leveling half the city  By end of 1945, estimated 200,000 people died from injuries and radiation poisoning  Emperor Hirohito, horrified by the destruction orders “to end the war”  September 2, 1945, formal surrender ceremonies take place on U.S.S. Missouri

 The Yalta Conference  February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin (Big Three) meet Black Sea resort city Yalta in the Soviet Union  For eight days the three leaders discussed the fate of postwar Germany  Stalin favored harsh punishment and dividing Germany into occupation zones but Churchill did not, Roosevelt acts as mediator  Roosevelt acts as mediator because he hopes Stalin will help in the Pacific Theater and he wanted his support for the world peace organization (United Nations)

 The Yalta Conference  Decide to divide Germany into four zones to be occupied by– British, Soviets, Americans, and French  Stalin agrees to “free and unfettered elections” in Poland and other Soviet-occupied Eastern European countries  Stalin agrees to join war in Japan and to participate in international conference in April 1945

 The Nuremberg War Trials  Discovery of Hitler’s death camps led the Allies to put 24 surviving Nazi leaders on trial for crimes against humanity, peace, and war crimes  Defendants included Hitler’s most trusted party officials, government ministers, military leaders, and powerful industrialists  12 of 24 defendants were sentenced to death and most of the rest were sent to prison  In lesser trials, nearly 200 Nazis were found guilty of war crimes  Many did escape and go free but trials set precedent that “individuals are responsible for their own actions, even in times of war”

 The Occupation of Japan  Japan was occupied by U.S. forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur  Early years of occupation 1,100 Japanese, from Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to prison guards are put on trial  7, including Tojo were sentenced to death  In the seven-year American occupation MacArthur reshapes Japan’s economy by introducing free market practices  Also reshapes their government calling for new constitution that would guarantee basic freedoms and women suffrage  To this day, their constitution is known as MacArthur Constitution