Atomic bomb

Pandora’s box

U.S. soldiers raise the American flag after capturing Iwo Jima The Pacific War, 1944–1945 With the war over in Europe, the Allies looked to quickly end the fighting in the Pacific. By the fall of 1944, Allied forces had Japan in retreat. Led by General Douglas MacArthur, the Allies took back control of the Philippines in the spring of 1945. As the war continued to go against them, the Japanese took to extreme measures to try to slow the Allied advance. One such measure involved the use of “kamikaze” aircraft, or flying suicide missions in which planes loaded with explosives were flown directly into U.S. ships. It is estimated that as many as 5000 kamikaze fighters killed themselves by dive-bombing into Allied aircraft (carriers and battleships) and more than 5000 Allied navel personnel died as a result. Ultimately, however, the kamikaze missions could not stop the Allies from moving closer and closer to Japan. In the spring of 1945, U.S. Marines gained control of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In the pivotal battle over Iwo Jima, more than 100,000 U.S. troops fought to take the island from a heavily entrenched and fortified Japanese force of 25,000. Though the Americans suffered almost 25,000 casualties, nearly all the Japanese soldiers died. Okinawa, which lay less than 400 miles from Japan, involved even more combatants: nearly 100,000 Japanese defended the island against some 180,000 U.S. troops. After three months, the U.S. finally took Okinawa at the cost of almost 50,000 casualties; the Japanese suffered staggering losses, with only 7000 or so soldiers remaining to surrender to the Americans. The Allies now could use Okinawa as a staging ground for a land invasion of Japan. U.S. soldiers raise the American flag after capturing Iwo Jima

Birth of the Atomic Bomb The battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa demonstrated Japan’s “fight-to-the-death” attitude and unwillingness to surrender, no matter the costs. The Allies knew that using ground troops to subdue Japan would be difficult and result in a huge number of casualties: some estimated that nearly a million Allied soldiers would die in the operation. Yet, there was an alternative. Prior to the beginning of the war, President Roosevelt had approved a program called the “Manhattan Project” that had the goal of building an atomic bomb. Top scientists from around the world—including refugees from Germany—worked to complete the bomb before the Germans could. On June 16, 1945, the first successful test of an atomic bomb took place in the New Mexico desert. Truman chose to use the weapon against the Japanese in order to bring a quick end to the war and avoid the casualties the U.S. would suffer in a ground assault. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. On August 9th, a second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Preparing the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima

Kamikaze Pilots

Enola Gay

Hiroshima (8/6/45) The picture in this slide shows the city of Hiroshima after the dropping of the bomb. It destroyed 90 percent of the city. When the bomb exploded, the temperature at ground zero rose to 7000 degrees Fahrenheit. The blast killed 70,000 people instantly; an additional 70,000 were dead by the new year from burns, radiation, or other injuries. Nearly all the victims were civilians.

Little Boy (Atomic Bomb)

Nagasaki (Aug 9, 1945)

Fat Man (Atomic Bomb)

Japan Surrenders The atomic bombs finally forced Japan to capitulate. On September 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri. Within two weeks of the Japanese emperor’s surrender, U.S. troops under the command of General MacArthur had occupied the country. World War II was officially over.