1. Essential Question:
What role did the United States play in fighting in Asia during World War II?
Warm-Up Question:
What was the significance of :
The Battle of the Atlantic?
Stalingrad?
Operation Overlord (D-Day)?
The Battle of the Bulge?

2. Fighting in the Pacific

3. Pearl Harbor

4. While American forces fought in North Africa in 1942, the U. S
While American forces fought in North Africa in 1942, the U.S. Navy began fighting Japan
In the months following Pearl Harbor :
Japan captured the U.S. outposts of Guam and Wake Island and the British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore.
In the Philippine Islands, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific General Douglas Macarthur, was ordered to flee from a Japanese invasion .

5. American spirits were lifted in April 1942
American spirits were lifted in April Colonel James Doolittle led a successful bombing run on Tokyo in a move designed to strike fear into the very heart of the Japanese.
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway was a major turning point in the war with Japan.

6. General MacArthur devised the strategy of Island Hopping to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. The U.S. would “island hop” past Japan’s heavily defended islands and seize the more easily-defeated outposts. There, the United States could build landing strips and employ air power to cut Japan's supply lines.

7. After the crushing defeat (at Leyte Gulf) the desperate Japanese began using the “divine wind” - kamikaze attacks. ,But the “divine wind” failed to stop the Allied advance on Japan.
Okinawa

9. The Japanese refused to surrender even in the face of defeat
By 1944, Americans gained supremacy of the air & ran daily fire bombings on Japanese cities
In addition, Japanese soldiers resorted to horrific acts of barbarity on the battlefield
The Japanese refused to surrender even in the face of defeat

10. As the U.S. marched across the sea toward Japan, daily raids by American B-29 bombers were destroying Japanese cities and killing thousands of civilians. For Japan, defeat was inevitable, but the island nation refused to surrender.

11. Whether to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Critical Thinking Decision A

12. The Manhattan Project
Based on scientific research, FDR created the Manhattan Project, the code name for developing an atomic bomb:
Robert Oppenheimer was put in charge of developing the bomb
From , a number of secret labs across the country developed & built the bomb

13. The bomb was constructed in a secret city in Oak Ridge, TN
In July 1945, the bomb was successfully tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico during Project Trinity
The bomb was constructed in a secret city in Oak Ridge, TN
Physicist Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago developed the nuclear reaction
Nuclear plant in Hanford, WA developed the plutonium 1 2

14. Whether to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Critical Thinking Decision B

15. Shortly after becoming President, Harry Truman learned of "The Manhattan Project" a code name for the best-kept secret of World War II. A nuclear weapon powerful enough to destroy an entire city.

16. Dropping the Atomic Bomb
Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan: surrender or face prompt & utter destruction

17. Dropping the Atomic Bomb
When Japan refused to surrender Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
At 2:45 am on August 6th 1945 a B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay headed out over the Pacific towards the Japanese military center of Hiroshima.

18. Dropping the Atomic Bomb
After 3 days, the Japanese gov’t did not respond to the bombing
The U.S. dropped a 2nd atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki
This bomb levels half the city and kills more than 60,000. By the end of the year the death toll had reached more than 200,000.

19. Whether to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Critical Thinking Decision C

20. Hiroshima
Nagasaki 1

21. On September 2, 1945 Japan formally surrendered
On September 2, 1945 Japan formally surrendered. The war was finally over.

22. A- bomb range

25. Dropping the Atomic Bomb
Effect of the atomic bomb:
Saved hundreds of thousands of lives because it prevented a U.S. land invasion of Japan
Revenge for Pearl Harbor
Showed the USSR that the USA had the ultimate weapon (began the Cold War nuclear arms race)

26. WW2 Timeline (Allies, Axis, USSR)