1. World War II: Pacific Theater
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2. The Pacific Theater

3. Broader Results
In spite of the tactical success, the attack on Pearl Harbor was an operational and strategic failure for the Japanese
The attack failed to destroy the American aircraft carriers, fleet repair facilities, or fuel reserves
The “sneak attack” galvanized American support for entry into the war

4. Fall of the Philippines
Shortly after Pearl Harbor the Japanese attacked the Philippines,
On Dec 24, MacArthur ordered his forces to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula
By April Bataan surrendered
Douglas MacArthur in his headquarters tunnel at Corregidor in March 1942

5. Bataan Death March
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

6. Centrifugal Advance
Japanese attacked Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Wake, Guam, Hong Kong….
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

8. Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942)
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
Aircraft carrier duel (Battle waged exclusively via air strikes U.S. is able to stop Japanese threat to Australia
Both sides suffered heavy losses but the Japanese were forced to call off their amphibious attack on Port Moresby
Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief Pacific and Pacific Ocean Areas

9. Midway (June 3-6, 1942)
Japanese planned a diversionary attack on the Aleutian Islands while the main force attacked Midway to destroy the American fleet
Midway was strategically vital to American communications and defense of Hawaii
Thanks to Magic intercepts, US learned when Japan would attack
Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers and most of their flight crews
Japanese given a devastating blow

10. Raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
Final Campaigns
U.S plan to strangle the Japanese import based economy and retake strategic islands closer to the homeland.
Led by General Douglas in in the Southwest and General Chester Nimitiz in the central Pacific they engaged in a strategy known as “island Hopping”
Raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima

11. Okinawa and Iwo Jima Mar 11, 1945 the Marines captured Iwo Jima
Invasion of Okinawa showed how costly an invasion of the Japanese home islands would be
Invasion began on Easter Sunday April 1, 1945 was the largest operation by Americans in the Pacific war
Troops were met by Japanese Kamikazes
Killed more than 200,000 people

12. Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo
Plan to Invade Japan
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

13. The Atomic Bomb
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

14. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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

15. Hiroshima, vicinity of ground zero

16. Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri

17. Growth of Total War
Total war describes a war in which nations use all of their resources to destroy another nation's ability to engage in war.
Conscription
Military-industrial complex to include women workers
Unconditional surrender
Civilian targets to include the Holocaust
Rationing, price controls, and other impacts on the homefront
More destructive weapons to include the atomic bomb

18. Holocaust
Jews were the primary targets of Hitler’s racially motivated genocidal policies, but Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, communists, and others suffered as well
Sometime during 1941, the Nazi leadership committed to “the final solution” of “the Jewish problem”
At the Wansee Conference on Jan 20, 1942, experts gathered to discuss and coordinate the implementation of the plan to kill all the Jews living in Europe

19. Holocaust Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps
The largest was Auschwitz where at least a million Jews died
The process was organized and technologically sophisticated
Gassing was the preferred method of killing, but electrocution, phenol injections, flamethrowers, hand grenades, and machine guns were also used

20. Roll Call at Auschwitz

21. Holocaust
Victims were subjected to industrial work, starvation, medical experimentation, and extermination
Large crematories were used to hide the evidence
Approximately 5.7 million Jews perished in the Holocaust
Helps generate support for the creation of Israel as a Jewish state
Auschwitz crematory

22. Mass Grave at Bergen-Belsen

23. Children Subjected to Medical Experiments in Auschwitz

24. Survivors of Ampfing Subcamp of Dachau

25. Prisoners liberated at Auschwitz

26. Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
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

27. Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
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

28. Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
Nuclear weapons prove to not be a reasonable option in limited wars
We’ll see this in Lesson 30 (Korea) and Lesson (Vietnam)
The US considered, but did not use, atomic bombs in support of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954

29. Expanded Roles for Women
The emergencies of war greatly expanded the roles of women
Some served in the military
Others replaced men on factory assembly lines
Women whose husbands went overseas acted as heads of households

30. Expanded Roles for Women
From 1940 to 1944 over 6 million women joined the workforce filling jobs that had been exclusively male
After the war, women were expected to return home and resume their traditional roles as wives and mothers
Woman's Day, Oct 1950.
The picture asks, "What more needs to be said about a woman's day?"

31. Next
Early Cold War