1. The War in the Pacific

2. Japanese Victories
-Pearl Harbor
Attack on U.S.
December 7, 1941
-General MacArthur retreats from the Philippines
“Bataan Death March”= 65 mile march of 78,000 US POWs that had finally surrendered to Japan due to starvation and disease
April 1942
-MacArthur pledges to return

3. America Recovers
-Bombing of Tokyo April 1942
“Doolittle Raids”
16 Bombers led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle
-Coral Sea Battle
Japan moves toward Australia
-Battle of Midway, 1942
Adm. Chester Nimitz (US Naval Commander)
*Turning point of Pacific Front
-Japan never recovered its naval power

5. Island Hopping
-as the U.S. built its naval and air advantage the Japanese fortified every island
-Often called “leap-frogging” or “island hopping”
-U.S. bypasses main island and takes weaker ones for airfields
-Guadalcanal, 1942
Japan’s first land defeat
Protects Australia
-Philippines, 1944 Leyte Islands- MacArthur returns!

7. -Japanese defending with every man
High Costs
-Japanese defending with every man
kamikaze attacks (suicide pilots)
-Iwo Jima, 1945
6,000 Marines die
-Roosevelt dies, Truman takes office
-Okinawa, 1945
higher death totals
82,000 total (14,000 Allies)
-warnings of what a mainland invasion of Japan would cost

8. -about 600,000 people worked in the project
Manhattan Project
-about 600,000 people worked in the project
Few actually knew what they were working on
-J. Robert Oppenheimer led the project at Los Alamos NM
“I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds.”
-some scientists urged the gov’t not to use the weapon
-Truman made the decision to use the weapon on Japan
Projected it would save over 1 million American lives

9. Ultimate Weapon
-August, 1945 the bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima
-another bomb dropped on Nagasaki
-Japanese surrender
-V-J Day (Victory over Japan)
-Before atomic weapon was used, airdrops of leaflets urged Japanese to surrender
-Japanese leaders refuse to unconditionally surrender

10. TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE:
"America asks that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet.”
"We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man.”
"Before using this bomb to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging this useless war, we ask that you now petition the Emperor to end the war.”
EVACUATE YOUR CITIES

16. Occupation of Japan -General Douglas MacArthur
Seven years of occupation!
Tokyo Trials- major military leaders tried for war crimes
-reformed Japan’s economy
free market economy
-established democratic government
-guaranteed basic freedoms
(Women’s suffrage, open elections)
Constitution still exists as Japan’s government (Known as the MacArthur Constitution)