1. WWII
War
Against
Japan

2. Military Strategy against the Japanese is ISLAND HOPPING:
capturing key islands to cut off Japanese supply lines and to use as bases for attack against the Japanese islands
U.S. Commanders in the Pacific:
General Douglas MacArthur
Admiral Chester Nimitz

3. FALL OF THE PHILIPPINES
National Archives
“Bataan Death March”
85 miles
1942
FALL OF THE PHILIPPINES
Japanese attacked just hours after Pearl Harbor
Gen. Douglas MacArthur retreated to Bataan Peninsula; badly outnumbered by Japanese
Held out for 3 mos.; MacArthur ordered to Australia
Remaining troops surrendered in April 1942
Bataan Death March to prison camp – thousands died; worst defeat in U.S. military history

4. FALL OF THE PHILIPPINES

5. THE DOOLITTLE RAIDS, April 1942
Secret mission from USS Hornet; 16 B-25s took off from Hornet to bomb Tokyo – first bombing of Japan
Then supposed to land in friendly airfields in China
Had to take off early after Japan discovered aircraft carriers
Not enough fuel to reach friendly airfields in China – had to crash land or bail out; all planes lost
Of the 80 airmen that participated in the raid, 69 escaped capture and death; aided by Chinese … who paid dearly
Raid a MAJOR boost to American morale and surprise to the Japanese; forced Japan to shift vital resources to their defense.
Japanese had been told they were invulnerable
Sixteen B-25 bombers (medium bombers ) took off from the deck of the USS Hornet, led by (then Col.) Jimmy Doolittle. They were to fly over Japan, drop their bombs and fly on to land in a part of China that was still free.
succeeded in its goal of raising American morale and casting doubt in Japan on the ability of its military leaders to defend their home islands. It also caused Japan to withdraw its powerful aircraft carrier force from the Indian Ocean to defend their Home Islands, and the raid contributed to AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto's decision to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific—an attack that turned into a decisive strategic defeat of theImperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the U.S. Navy in the Battle of Midway.
Approximately 250,000 Chinese civilians were massacred by the Japanese in eastern China in retaliation for helping the attacking American aviators escape capture

6. THE DOOLITTLE RAIDS, April 1942

7. U.S.S. LEXINGTON BATTLE OF CORAL SEA – 5/42
Halts Japanese advance on Australia
First all-aircraft battle
Lexington sank, but supply lines to Australia stayed open!

8. Battle of Midway – 6/42 3 day air battle
US sinks 4 Japanese carriers with 100 planes each
3000 Japanese casualties
Turning point in War in the Pacific!
Limited Japan’s ability to conduct an offensive war
Decision to attack at Battle of Midway had much to do with resources shifted by Japanese back to Japan after Doolittle Raid

11. Battle of Guadalcanal 8/42 – 2/43
By air, sea and land
Many Marines
Victory guaranteed Japanese would not disrupt U.S. – Australian shipping lanes
Marianna Islands
Could be used for B52 bombing raids
250 Japanese planes downed; 29 U.S.
Saipan Island, Suicide cliffs

13. MacArthur returns & retakes Philippines in October 1944 with victory at LEYTE GULF - destroys Japanese imperial fleet – 60 ships / greatest naval battle of all time! Kamikazes first used.
Major difficulties in combat: Reefs surrounding the islands; Japanese fought to the death --- dishonorable to surrender

14. Fire bombing of Tokyo March 1945 Napalm bombings destroyed 16 square miles of Tokyo 83,000 civilian casualties - Japan still won’t surrender

15. IWO JIMA
660 miles from Tokyo
Only 8 square miles
Has 3 airstrips

17. Iwo Jima, Feb.-March 1945 One of last major outposts
Only 660 miles from Tokyo -- would be an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” from which to launch attacks
B52s made 2,500 emergency landings here during Tokyo firebombing
Extremely heavy casualties
20,000 Japanese at start – 1,083 at end
7,000 Marines
lost
Small, 8 square miles

18. OKINAWA June 1945 Only 350 mi. from Japanese mainland
Took 3 months for victory
Ground invasion to take place from here
More than 1,000 Kamikaze attacks
U.S. gets airfield to launch attacks against Japanese industrial centers

19. POTSDAM CONFERENCE July – August, 1945 Truman and Stalin and Churchill
Ultimatum to Japan – surrender or else
Truman insists German industry be allowed to recover but Stalin wants reparations
Agreement:
German industry allowed to revive in the British, American and French zones
Stalin gets reparations from only the Soviet zone of Germany (not happy since it was primarily agricultural)
Truman tells Stalin of U.S. atomic bomb testing

20. “Fat Man” Nagasaki, Aug. 9, 1945 “Little Boy” Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945
80,000 casualties
35,000 dead
“Little Boy”
Hiroshima,
Aug. 6, 1945
180,000 casualties
70,000 dead instantly

21. Col. Paul Tibbets prepares to take off for Hiroshima
4 ton bomb not fully armed at take off …. In case of crash
Plane itself was 8 tons overloaded
45 seconds to detonate … at first, thought it was a dud
Col. Paul Tibbets prepares
to take off for Hiroshima
Col. Tibbets named his plane after his mother.

22. HIROSHIMA August 6, 1945 Why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki the
chosen sites?

23. Nagasaki under atomic bomb attack on August 9, 1945
Nagasaki under atomic bomb attack on August 9, Two planes of the 10th Air Force participated in the mission-one to carry the bomb, the other to serve as an escort. The new atomic age was underway.

24. EFFECTS OF THE ATOMIC BOMB
Shadows burned into a wooden observation tower
and outlined in chalk by investigators record a Nagasaki air-raid observer’s last moments. After descending from his post by ladder,the observer hung up his sword belt and was unbuttoning his jacket when the bomb exploded.

25. The duration of the heat radiation from the bomb is so short, just a few thousandths of a second, that there is no time for the energy falling on a surface to be dissipated by thermal diffusion; the flash burn is typically a surface effect. Where solid objects block the energy, the blast produced a permanent atomic shadow on solid surfaces.
One feature connected with heat radiation was the charring of fabric to different degrees depending upon the color of the fabric. Persons wearing clothing of various colors received burns greatly varying in degree, the degree of burn depending upon the color of the fabric over the skin in question.

26. Vegetation begins to propagate because of the radiation.

27. V-J DAY
August 15,
1945

28. SURRENDER- SEPT. 2, 1945 ON THE U.S.S. MISSOURI

29. TOJO’S
SUICIDE
ATTEMPT
September 11, 1945