FIGHTING IN PACIFIC Island Hopping - U.S. military used a strategy of capturing some Japanese-held islands but going around others. First- American ships would bombard the island Next- Soldiers would wade ashore under heavy gunfire 1 in 3 made it ashore Last- Soldiers would fight hand-to-hand against Japanese soldiers. amphtrac – amphibious tractor “Alligator”

FIGHTING IN THE PACIFIC Navajo Code Talkers- Navajo soldiers were used to communicate. Spoke in native language so Japanese could not translate messages. No written alphabet. Code words that stood for military terms using their own language. Saved time. 800 msgs in 48 hours! Jay-sho = buzzard = bomber Lo-tso = whale = battleship Ni-ma-si = potatoes = grenades

FALL OF THE PHILIPPINES Hours after Pearl Harbor – Japan attacks US airfields in the Philippines. 2 days later – Japan lands troops MacArthur retreats to Bataan Peninsula for its rugged terrain and holds out for 3 months Poor and Desperate conditions cavalry horses get eaten, malaria, dysentery, scurvy, primitive nursing (patients sleep outside) Roosevelt orders MacArthur to Australia –”I shall return” April – US and Filipino’s surrender – 78,000 POW’s forced to march 65 miles to Japanese Prison camps. Roughly 10,000 died - Bataan Death March

DOOLITTLE RAID Roosevelt wants to bomb Tokyo but Japanese ships prevented US aircraft carriers from getting near Japan. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle had a crane load 16 B-25s long range bombers onto an aircraft carrier. Bombs fell on Japan for the first time – April 18 th. Helped raise morale of the American people Japanese fear the air raids could have killed Emperor Hirohito and convince them to change strategies

Japanese plan 2 attacks thinking they are secret US Navajo Code talkers already broke the code and know of attack on New Guinea Nimitz sends two carriers to stop the Japanese in the Coral Sea Both sides launch all-out airstrikes Japanese sink the Lexington and damage the Yorktown Americans prevent Japanese from landing on New Guinea and keep supply lines to Australia open. CORAL SEA

June 4, 1942 Navajo Code Talkers first learned of planned attack. Nimitz orders carriers to Midway to ambush Japanese Japanese run into antiaircraft fire – 38 Japanese plans shot down American planes then attack 4 Japanese carriers with fuel & bombs – reducing them to burning wrecks! Yamamoto orders remaining ships to retreat TURNING POINT – stops Japanese advance 362 Americans / 3,057 Japanese are killed BATTLE OF MIDWAY

BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF This was the last, largest, and most decisive naval engagement in the Pacific. Battle was a disaster for the Japanese – 80,000 Japanese killed, less than 1,000 surrendered. After this battle, the Japanese Navy would no longer seriously threaten the Allies MacArthur – “I have returned” 1 st use of Kamikaze

KAMIKAZE Japanese leaders taught an ancient code known as bushido, or way of the warrior. Emphasized loyalty, honor, and sacrifice…Never surrender! Kamikazes- Japanese pilots, would fly directly into U.S. ships and sacrifice themselves for the cause.

BATTLE OF IWO JIMA Halfway between Marianas islands and Japan Japanese had built a network of concrete bunkers connected by miles of tunnels 2/19/45 – 60,000 US Marines land and are hit with Japanese artillery US attacks with flamethrowers and explosives 6,800 Marines are killed 1 st Japanese homeland captured 4 days to capture Mount Suribachi – 31 days later the island was secured

Napalm – jellied gasoline B-29’s loaded with firebombs dropped on Tokyo to destroy war production Strong winds created firestorms Killed 80,000 people and destroyed 250,000 buildings By June, Japan’s 6 key industrial cities had been firebombed By the end of the war 67 Japanese cities were firebombed FIREBOMBING OF JAPAN

Few signs in spring of ’45 that Japan was ready to surrender US needed a base near Japan to stockpile troops and supplies 350 miles from mainland Japan April 1, 1945 – Japanese position themselves in mountains US fight up steep slopes against machine gun & artillery fire 12,000 US soldiers died June 22, 1945 US finally takes control of the island BATTLE OF OKINAWA

TERMS OF SURRENDER US demands unconditional surrender a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. Japanese wanted Hirohito to remain emperor but Americans blamed him for the war and the attack on Pearl harbor and wanted him removed from power.

MANHATTAN PROJECT 1939 Leo Szilard a Jewish physicist fled Nazi persecution First scientist to suggest splitting the atom might release enormous energy Convinced Albert Einstein to sign a letter he drafted to Roosevelt about the powerful bombs Secret American program to build an atomic bomb – Manhattan Project World’s first nuclear reactor is built at the University of Chicago Physicist Robert Oppenheimer leads secret lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico 7/16/45 – first atomic bomb detonated in NM

ATTACK ON JAPAN U.S. was now ready to move on to the Japanese mainland. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin met at Potsdam, Germany. At this meeting they discussed dropping the Atomic bomb, the Potsdam Declaration. Japan did not realize the power the A-Bomb would have.

Multiple opinions on using the bomb Against – economic blockade & conventional bombing would convince Japan to surrender War the Japanese and let the emperor stay in power Drop the bomb without warning For - Massive casualties if we invaded Japan Truman – regarded it as a military weapon Industrial cities = target HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI Soviet Union declares war on Japan Hirohito orders surrender – 8/15/45 – V-J Day

HIROSHIMA TODAY