Victory in The PACIFIC

The TURNING POINT: midway Six months after Pearl Harbour, Japan would lose its first decisive battle of World War Two Japanese commanders had planned to attack the American base Midway by surprise American Intelligence, however, had become aware of Japanese plans The Americans had a large number of aircraft carriers waiting and managed to severely damage the Japanese Navy The Japanese lost Four Fleet Carriers 332 Aircraft Over 5000 sailors Most importantly, due to their impressive victory at Midway, the Americans were now on the offensive

Crumbling of the Japanese empire While the Battle of Midway had severely damaged the Japanese Navy, the Battle of the Leyte Gulf (October 1944) would make it virtually defeated The United States would become the major Naval power of the Pacific and the Allies rapidly approached Japan In January 1944, the Allies began liberating the Philippines and fighting would continue until the end of the war Allied Casualties: 62,000 Japanese Casualties: 400,000 Despite heavy losses, Japanese soldiers had a “Death Before Surrender” policy and refused to surrender.

Death before surrender In 1941 General Tojo issued the following statement : “Do not live in shame as a prisoner. Die, and leave no ignominious crime behind you.” The dishonour in surrender extended to civilians. During the Battle of Saipan, Allied soldiers were horrified to see Japanese women jumping off of cliffs with their babies In the same battle, virtually all 30,000 Japanese soldiers died and 2 out of 3 civilians committed suicide One soldier, Hiroo Onoda, continued to hide in a jungle in the Phillipines until March 1974. Only after his former Commanding Officer reversed his orders did he surrender

Kamikaze and bonzai Kamikaze (“Divine Wind”) Bonzai Beginning in October 1944, American sailors began to witness Japanese Kamikaze attacks In these attacks, Japanese pilots would fly specialised planes into boats causing both the plane and ship to explode Whereas pilots would not live through the attack, only 19% of ships were actually hit Bonzai Banzai’s were suicidal charges by groups of Japanese infantry carried out on Allied forces

Battle of Okinawa By April 1945, the War in Europe was over but the deadliest battle of the Pacific was just beginning The Allies planned to invade the island of Okinawa, only 350 miles away from Japan Okinawa, once captured, would be used as base in which to invade Japan from The Allied invasion began on April 1, 1945

BATTLE OF OKINAWA Okinawa saw 82 days of brutal warfare in horrific conditions The Japanese had a sophisticated system of underground defence and fought ruthlessly Despite these challenges, the Allied forces would secure the island by June 22, 1945 Losses on both sides were extremely heavy: Allied Casualties: 48,000 Japanese Casualties: 70,000 Civilian Casualties: 100,000-150,000

The atomic bombs Since 1942, over 100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on creating the atomic bomb Scientists worked in isolation away from one another not knowing the scope of the project they were working on On July 16, 1945, President Harry Truman dropped the first successful test bomb in New Mexico Although many military experts warned Truman not to, Truman felt dropping a bomb on Japan was necessary as: Countless Americans were dying in Japan and an invasion of the Island would cost many American lives Japanese were prepared to fight to the last man, if the Atomic bomb forced their surrender, many Japanese would be spared

The atomic bombs On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, the second atomic bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki Estimates of how many people died in the two cities range from 129,000 to over 250,000 Over 100,000 people died following the bombings due to radiation poisoning, a slow and painful process As a result of the bomb, 90% of Hiroshima was completely destroyed

Japan surrenders At noon on August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s intent to surrender by a radio broadcast In his announcement, Emperor Hirohito claimed the reason for his surrender was partly due to the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb” On September 2, 1945, Japan had officially surrendered to the Allies and World War Two was over