Japan saw the US and others as a threat to its influence in Asia and in 1940 the Japanese began developing plans to destroy the US Navy in Hawaii On Dec 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor In May 1940, the main part of the US fleet was transferred to Pearl Harbor from the west coast
Dec 7, 1941 ◦ “a date which will live in infamy” Americans taken completely by surprise The first attack wave targeted airfields and battleships The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities
Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk Three light cruisers, three destroyers, three smaller vessels, and 188 aircraft were destroyed 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed 1,178 wounded ◦ 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona were killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.
Shortly after Pearl Harbor the Japanese made initial landings on Luzon, then made their main landings on Dec 22 On Dec 24, MacArthur ordered his forces to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula By Apr Bataan surrendered By early May Corregidor surrendered Douglas MacArthur in his headquarters tunnel at Corregidor in March 1942-Commander of Operations in the Pacific (ARMY)
President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to relinquish command to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and MacArthur escaped to Australia 25,000 Americans and Filipinos died on the Bataan Death March to captivity
Japanese attacked Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Wake, Guam…. Instead of halting, establishing a defense, and pressuring the US to sue for peace (the prewar plan), the Japanese decided to extend their control over the Pacific planning operations in New Guinea near Port Moresby and against Midway (1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu) US achieved a moral victory with Doolittle’s Raid on the Japanese home islands on April 18, 1942 ◦ Minimal damage but humiliated Japanese high command and led them to advance the date for their attack on Midway (American Retaliation for attacks on Pearl Harbor)
US had been able to intercept Japanese radio traffic in an operation called “Magic” Magic intercepts allowed Admiral Nimitz to position two carriers off the eastern tip of New Guinea Both sides suffered heavy losses but the Japanese were forced to call off their amphibious attack on Port Moresby Battle waged exclusively via air strikes ◦ Opposing surface ships never made direct contact Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief Pacific and Pacific Ocean Areas (NAVY)
Japanese planned a diversionary attack on the Aleutian Islands while the main force attacked Midway to destroy the American fleet Thanks to Magic intercepts, US didn’t fall for the Alaska feint and reinforced Midway Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers and most of their flight crews Japanese advance was checked and initiative in the Pacific began to turn to the Americans
The invasion of the Philippines brought MacArthur and Nimitz’s twin drives together On Oct 20, 1944, MacArthur attacked Leyte
From Feb 19 to Mar 11, 1945 the Marines captured Iwo Jima From Apr to June Americans captured Okinawa ◦ Total American battle casualties were 49,151, of which 12,520 were killed or missing and 36,631 wounded ◦ Approximately 110,000 Japanese were killed and 7,400 more were taken prisoners ◦ Okinawa showed how costly an invasion of the Japanese home islands would be Raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
US planned to invade Japan with eleven Army and Marine divisions (650,000 troops) Casualty estimates for the operation were as high as 1,400,000 Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to avoid such losses Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo
FDR passed away April 12, 1945 Ware against eh Japanese was still going Had been working on a “Bomb” with mass destruction Vice President Harry S. Truman Takes over as President in the middle of War with the Japanese Makes ultimate decision to drop Atomic Bomb on the Japanese
In the early 1940s, America had started an atomic weapons development program code named the “Manhattan Project” A successful test was conducted at Alamogordo in New Mexico in July 1945 J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves at the Trinity Site soon after the test
Scientists Robert Oppenheimer Enrico Fermi Albert Einstein
A huge undertaking like no other. Production of ample amounts of "enriched" uranium to sustain a chain reaction.
Complete and Test the Bomb The two bombs. "Little Boy" is seen on the left, and "Fat Man" is seen on the right
Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945 ◦ 90,000 killed On Aug 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria the next day Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945 ◦ 35,000 killed Okinawa had been much more costly than Hiroshima and Nagasaki Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima
From the creation of the Manhattan Engineer District in 1941, time was more important than any other metric July 16, At 5:29:45 a.m. the first atom bomb, Gadget, is exploded at Los Alamos August 6, 1945 Little Boy is dropped over Hiroshima August 9, 1945 Fat Man is dropped over Nagasaki September 2, 1945 Japan surrenders
Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri
Changed the very nature of war ◦ Presented the possibility of annihilation of humankind US came to place great strategic reliance on atomic bomb ◦ War plans emphasized sudden atomic attack against USSR to allow time for conventional mobilization 15 megaton thermonuclear device test on Bikini Atoll in 1954
US held an atomic monopoly until 1949 ◦ Huge US-USSR arms race followed ◦ Eventually led to Mutually Assured Destruction (1967) Massive retaliation strategy (1954) meant US was prepared to respond to Soviet aggression with a massive nuclear strike
Nuclear weapons prove to not be a reasonable option in limited wars We’ll see this in the Korean War (50s) and the Vietnam War (60s/70s) The US considered, but did not use, atomic bombs in support of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954
Cold War