War in the Pacific Goal 10

Japanese Victories After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, the US was unable to respond with suitable force for 6 months. After the attack, Japan’s emperor Hideki Tojo asked how long the US would be hurt and unable to respond. The response was 6 months and after that they did not know. They also said “I believe we have awakened a sleeping giant.”

Japanese Victories For the first six months Japan had a tremendous amount of success. They were hurting US forces badly in the Philippines. FDR ordered MacArthur to leave the area. He did and uttered “I shall return.” MacArthur’s troops surrendered to Japans and were forces on a long walk called the Bataan Death March = 78,000 POW’s marched sick, exhausted, and starving 65 miles to their prison camp. 1,000’s died on this march.

America Recovers US wanted to bomb Tokyo. However, US planes could not reach Tokyo because the Japanese would not allow the aircraft close enough to their shore for US planes to fly off the air craft carrier. James Doolittle = placed in charge of Tokyo raid. They came up with the idea to use B-25 bombers because of they were long range bombers. They could take off from the carriers but they could not land on them. They would have to land in China.

America Recovers On April 18, the B-25’s dropped bombs on Tokyo. Japan wants to conquer all the land between them and Australia. The Battle of Coral Sea = US had broken the secret code of the Japanese. This become the first battle fought exclusively from aircraft carriers. Battle of Midway = US once again broke Japanese codes. They ambushed the Japanese at Midway. They shot down 38 planes and sank 4 aircraft carriers. This battle marked the turning point of the war and was revenge for Pearl Harbor US lost 362 men and Japan lost 3,057. Japan is never able to rebuild its Navy.

Coral Sea

Coral Sea

Coral Sea

Coral Sea

Island Hopping US strategy for fighting Japanese in the Pacific was called “island hopping”. They would hop from island to island and take the weaker one for airfields. Guadalcanal – US forces land here. They inflict serious damage to Japanese here. In Saipan, located in the Mariana's. This is the place of the “suicide cliffs”

Island Hopping MacArthur returns to the Philippines and manages to drive out Japanese troops there. In Japan, round the clock bombing began in 1944. The Japanese were desperate and began using kamikazes to fight the war. These were suicide bombers who crashed their planes into US warships.

High Costs Iwo Jima – 1945. US needed an island closer to Japan to launch an attack from. They chose Iwo Jima. It was an island that had difficult terrain and was covered with ash from a dormant volcano. As soon as the marines landed on Feb. 19, 1945, 60,000 marines sank into ash ankle deep. They were met with gunfire. 6,800 marines died before the island was captured. Eventually the island was captured.

High Costs US starts to drop napalm – a jellied gasoline on Japan. If they missed their target, it was ok because the fire would likely get it. By June 1945 80,000 people had been killed and 250,000 building destroyed in 6 of Japan’s most important cities.

High Costs Japan was still not ready to surrender. US needed a island closer to Japan to launch an attack on Japan. They decided to attack Okinawa. The Japanese held a position high in the rugged mountains. 12,000 Americans died while capturing the island.

Manhattan project A code name for building the atomic bomb. First nuclear reactor was built at University of Chicago. They organized a lab in Los Alamos, NM. The program was led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. They detonated the first bomb on July 16, 1945 in the desert in New Mexico.

Dropping the Bomb Pres. FDR died while vacationing. The US asked Japan for an unconditional surrender. Pres. Truman warned Japan of utter destruction if they did not surrender. On August 6, 1945 a B-29 bomber named the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on code-named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. 76,000 buildings were destroyed. 80,000 – 120,000 people died instantly.

Dropping the Bomb The US asked Japan again to surrender. They refused. On August 9, 1945, another B-29 bomber flew over Japan and dropped another bomb called “Fat Man” on Nagasaki killing 35,000 and 79,000 people. Japan was ready to surrender. On August 15, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender of Japan onboard the USS Missouri. V-J day, Victory over Japan, had arrived.

Military and Civilian Deaths in WW II COUNTRY MILITARY CIVILIAN USSR 13,600,000 7,700,000 Germany 3,250,000 3,810,000 Japan 1,506,000 300,000 China 1,324,000 10,000,000 Poland 850,000 6,000,000 United States 405,000 2,000 Great Britain 326,000 62,000 Italy 295,000 93,000 France 210,700 173,300