Essential Question: What strategies did the US use to win the war in the Pacific?

 US had been able to intercept Japanese radio traffic in an operation called “Magic”  Magic intercepts allowed Admiral Nimitz to position two carriers off the eastern tip of New Guinea  Both sides suffered heavy losses but the Japanese were forced to call off their amphibious attack on Port Moresby  Battle waged exclusively via air strikes Opposing surface ships never made direct contact Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief Pacific and Pacific Ocean Areas

 Japanese planned a diversionary attack on the Aleutian Islands while the main force attacked Midway to destroy the American fleet  Thanks to Magic intercepts, US didn’t fall for the Alaska feint and reinforced Midway  Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers and most of their flight crews  Japanese advance was checked and initiative in the Pacific began to turn to the Americans

 Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King favored a drive across the central Pacific moving toward Japan over the coral atolls scattered across the Pacific Take advantage of ability to leap across vast distances  MacArthur favored an advance across the South Pacific via New Guinea and the Philippines Meet obligations to Filipinos Maintain pressure against the retreating Japanese Protect against a renewed threat against Australia  Compromise King’s planned drive would move first against the Gilbert Islands and then toward the Philippines Admiral Ernest King

 MacArthur requested five additional divisions and 1,800 aircraft to capture Rabaul  Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded there were not enough resources to capture Rabaul in 1943 so they accepted MacArthur’s proposal for a two- pronged drive to isolate it

 Became the model for Pacific commanders throughout the rest of the war don’t move island to island; advance by great bounds using air superiority bypass major strongpoints and leave them reduced to strategic and tactical impotence hit Japanese weak spots; avoid frontal assaults; use deception and surprise seize existing airfields and ports and use these newly acquired bases to support the next leap forward

 The invasion of the Philippines brought MacArthur and Nimitz’s twin drives together  On Oct 20, 1944, MacArthur attacked Leyte

 The Battle of Leyte Gulf secured the beachheads of the U.S. Sixth Army attack on Leyte and destroyed Japanese naval power  By the end of December 1944, the Allies controlled Leyte and MacArthur was in position to attack Luzon, the heart of the Philippines Walter Krueger, commander of Sixth Army

February-March 1945 Island off the coast of Japan—Japanese soil Longest sustained aerial offensive of the war More marines sent than in any other battle 100,000 men fighting on an island the 1/3 the size of Manhattan Japanese fought from below ground—Allies rarely saw a soldier The battle was won inch-by-inch

Results: US win Results: US win Provides a link in the chain of bomber bases Provides a link in the chain of bomber bases By the war’s end, 2,400 B- 29 bombers and 27,000 crewmen made emergency landings. By the war’s end, 2,400 B- 29 bombers and 27,000 crewmen made emergency landings. “4 marines raising US flag” “4 marines raising US flag”

April 1 st -June 22 nd Casualties US—12,500 killed; 36,000 wounded Japan—93,000 troops killed; 94,000 civilians killed (many killed themselves) Kamikazes—suicide pilots Crashed planes loaded with explosives Sank 30 US vessels

 US planned to invade Japan with eleven Army and Marine divisions (650,000 troops)  Casualty estimates for the operation were as high as 1,400,000  Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to avoid such losses Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo

 In the early 1940s, America had started an atomic weapons development program code named the “Manhattan Project”  A successful test was conducted at Alamogordo in New Mexico in July 1945 J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves at the Trinity Site soon after the test

 Hiroshima Aug 6, ,000 killed  On Aug 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria the next day  Nagasaki Aug 9, ,000 killed  Okinawa had been much more costly than Hiroshima and Nagasaki Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima

Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri