1. End of WWII in the Pacific
Semester 2
Week 5

2. Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was perfectly located, roughly halfway between the Marianas & Japan
At its S’rn tip was Mt. Suribachi, a dormant volcano, the terrain was rugged, with rocky cliffs & dozens of caves
Japanese had built a vast network of caves & concrete bunkers connected by miles of tunnels
2/19/ ,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima
Inch by inch, the marines crawled inland, using flamethrowers and explosives to attack the Japanese bunkers
7000 marines were killed before the island was capture

3. Okinawa
4/1/1945, U.S. troops landed on Okinawa, the Japanese troops took up positions in the island’s rugged mountains
To dig the Japanese out of their caves & bunkers, the U.S. had to fight their way up steep slopes against constant machine gun & artillery fire
6/22/1945, Okinawa captured
More than 12,000 American soldiers, sailors, and marines died during the fighting

4. The Bombing of Tokyo
Gen. Curtis LeMay - commander of the B-29s based in the Marianas, ordered them to drop bombs filled with napalm (a kind of a jellied gasoline)
The bombs were designed not only to explode but also to start fires
The Tokyo firebombing killed over 80,000 people & destroyed more than 250,000 buildings
7/1945, Japan’s six most important industrial cities had been firebombed, destroying almost ½ of their total urban area

5. Manhattan Project
The U.S. program to build an atomic bomb was code-named the Manhattan Project and was headed by Gen. Leslie R. Groves
The project’s 1st breakthrough came in 1942, when physicists Leo Szilard & Enrico Fermi, built the world’s 1st nuclear reactor at the U. of Chicago
Groves organized a team of engineers & scientists to build an atomic bomb at a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, NM
J. Robert Oppenheimer led the team
7/16/1945, the world’s first atomic bomb detonated near Alamogordo, NM
J. Robert Oppenheimer

6. Truman Makes a Tough Decision
Truman’s advisers had warned him to expect massive casualties if the U.S. invaded Japan
The Allies threatened Japan w/ “prompt & utter destruction” of the nation did not surrender unconditionally; the Japanese did not reply
Truman order for THE bomb to be dropped

7. The Bombs of Japan Nagasaki
Hiroshima
8/6/1945, U.S. plane named the Enola Gay, dropped “Little Boy,” a Uranium bomb on Hiroshima
150,000 causalities
city was on fire for days
Nagasaki
8/9/1945, “Fat Man,” a plutonium bomb, was dropped from the sky on the city of Nagasaki
100,000 causalities

8. Aftermath of the Cities
Radiation poisoning, which was not considered when dropping the bombs, continued to produce unpredictable symptoms
This claimed more victims with the years to come
Generation of Japanese still suffering
Both cities were little more than mounds of rubble near where the bombs hit

9. Before & After: Hiroshima

10. Before & After: Nagasaki

11. Japan Surrenders
Japan was considering surrendering 2 days before the bombs were dropped when the USSR entered the war on the Chinese front
8/14/1945, Japanese leaders accepted American terms
9/2/1945, Japan officially surrenders

12. PREPARE QUIZ
TAKE OUT FULL, SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER
NUMBER 1-5

13. QUIZ
This was perfectly located, roughly halfway between the Marianas and Japan?
He was commander of the B-29s based in the Marianas?
Who led the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos?
What were the names of the 2 bombs dropped in Japan?
What were the names of the cities that the bombs were dropped?