1. AIM: What role did the US play in winning the war in the Pacific, and how did it affect future foreign relations?
Lesson Plan for Thursday, February 19, 2009: Warm-Up Q, WW2 Notes

2. Japanese internment
In the entire course of the war, 10 people were convicted of spying for Japan, all of whom were Caucasian.
Roosevelt interned 120,000 Japanese
2/3 were American citizens and had never shown disloyalty
KOREMATSU V. UNITED STATES

3. Korematsu v. United States > What did you find out from your homework?
Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland, CA to parents that immigrated from Japan
Ordered to report on May 9, 1942 to soon be moved to an internment camp
He refused to go, was arrested a few weeks later
Sent to a camp in Utah
His case went to the Supreme Court
Korematsu received a lawyer from the ACLU

4. The Supreme Court decision
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court declared the camps constitutional
All 6 judges who favored were appointed by FDR
In your opinion, did the Court make the right decision?
Effects of the Case
In times of war and crisis, personal liberties decrease
Also seen where? (SYNTHESIS)
Alien and Sedition Acts – Quasi War – John Adams
The Civil War – Lincoln suspends habeas corpus
World War I – Schenck v. US
Cold War – 2nd “Red Scare

5. War in the Pacific
1942: Major US victory at Midway Island US takes out Japanese aircraft carriers
Strategy of Island Hopping:
bypass some islands controlled by Japanese and attack specific islands;
obtain air bases in an effort to bomb Japan more efficiently and to build up forces in an effort to invade Japan.

6. Next, “Island-hopping” allowed the Allies to win strategic islands without investing precious time, resources, & American lives
In the Pacific, U.S. victory at Midway (1942) gave the Allies naval supremacy

7. The Japanese refused to play according to the Geneva Convention “rules” of war

8. The German surrender in May 1945, allowed the U. S
The German surrender in May 1945, allowed the U.S. to turn its full attention towards Japan
Victories at Saipan in 1944 & Iwo Jima & Okinawa in 1945 allowed for bombings on Japan

9. The Decision to Drop the A-Bomb
But with no definitive end it sight, how would the Allies defeat Japan?
The Japanese refused to surrender & were arming civilians for an Allied invasion…
At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, Truman gave the order to use the atomic bomb

10. Albert Einstein’s Letter
In the course of the last four months it has been made probable - through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America - that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.
This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable - though much less certain - that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air...
Yours very truly,
(Albert Einstein)
Einstein sent a letter to F.D.R. on August 1939 regarding the construction of an atomic bomb. The letter helped start the American atomic bomb project, but the United States did not immediately begin a crash program to build nuclear weapons. Leo Szilard was a Germany refugee physicist who discovered the nuclear chain reaction as a means of liberating atomic energy and creating an atomic bomb. Szilard worked for the Manhattan Project's Chicago laboratory. Einstein’s letter was taken seriously and America prepared itself for a top secret nuclear program.
PRIMARY SOURCE FROM -

11. Letter to Harry Truman April 24, 1945 Dear Mr. President,
I think it is very important that I should have a talk with you as soon as possible on a highly secret matter.
I mentioned it to you shortly after you took office but have not urged it since on account of the pressure you have been under. It, however, has such a bearing on our present foreign relations and has such an important effect upon all my thinking in this field that I think you ought to know about it without much further delay.
Faithfully yours, Henry Stimson Secretary of War
In this letter from Secretary of War Harry Stimson to President Harry Truman, Stimson hints at the top-secret atomic bomb. Stimson expresses urgency in his tone. The Manhattan Project is currently coming to an end, and the bomb is near its completion. Truman, as well as most of his administration were unaware of the full details of the Manhattan Project to ensure top security.

12. When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.
The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.
- Robert Oppenheimer
To disguise this ultra-secret Manhattan Project, the Corps created a Manhattan Engineer District, with a headquarters initially based in New York City.
Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago (physicist who developed the nuclear reactor)

13. What are the pro’s and con’s of using atomic warfare during WWII?
World War II was coming to an end. In the Pacific, Japan was in retreat. It had lost most of the lands it had conquered. The fighting became harder as the Americans came closer to Japan because many Japanese soldiers would rather die fighting than surrender. The Emperor they revered told them soldiers who died in battle would have a glorious afterlife. Japanese suicide pilots called “kamikazes” sank American ships by crashing their planes into them. It looked as though the Japanese would have to be subdued by a massive invasion. It would be difficult to attack Japan, an island country. An American invasion of Japan was planned for the fall of The invasion force would consist of some six million men. It was estimated that perhaps one million would be killed or wounded in the fighting that would take at least a year. Millions more Japanese are likely to die as well.
In July, President Harry Truman was told that a secret atomic bomb had been successfully tested. There were only two bombs ready, and those bombs were quickly shipped to the Pacific. Truman wanted to end the war as quickly as possible. He faced the decision of whether to use the atomic bombs and, if he did use them, where to drop them.
What should Truman do?
What are the pro’s and con’s of using atomic warfare during WWII?
In your packet, read “The Decision to Drop the Bomb.” Do you agree with Truman’s decision?

14. Nagasaki “Fat Man” Hiroshima “Little Boy”
After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Truman said “This is the greatest thing in history” and “Nobody is more disturbed over the use of atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war.”

15. Triumph & Tragedy in the Pacific
August 1945: USA forced Japan to surrender by dropping 2 atomic bombs
Effect of the atomic bombs:
Saved hundreds of thousands of American (& Japanese) lives
Revenge for Pearl Harbor
Showed the USSR that the USA had the ultimate weapon (began the Cold War nuclear arms race)
TAKE A PIC!

16. Make a prediction
How do you think dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was going to affect our relations worldwide?

17. By August 1945, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had deteriorated badly. The Potsdam Conference between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima.
The meeting was marked by allegations and suspicion between the Americans and Soviets. Russian armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe.
Truman and many of his advisers hoped that the U.S. atomic monopoly might offer diplomatic leverage with the Soviets. In this fashion, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan can be seen as the first shot of the Cold War.

19. Its Finally Over!

20. EXIT Assessment
Was the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan a smart decision for the US short term and long term? Just the short term? Neither?