The War in the Pacific

Japan and the United States

Japanese Internment, 1942  Relocation & internment 110,000 Japanese Americans Pacific coast "War Relocation Camps,"  Executive Order 9066: Ability to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," Used to target all people of Japanese ancestry  Korematsu v. United States : 1944, the US Supreme Court Case maintained legality of interment Grounds: need to protect against espionage outweighed individual rights

Japan, Propaganda, & Dehumanizing

The Savagery of the Pacific Life Magazine, May “Arizona war worker writes her Navy boyfriend a thank-you note for the Japanese skull he sent her. This skull of a Japanese soldier bears the inscription: ‘Here is a good Jap -- a dead one!’”

Midway Island: June 4-7, 1942  The turning point in the Pacific Halts Japanese expansion in the Pacific.  Japanese plan lure American ships into battle & permanently destroy the American war effort  Intercepted battle plans Admiral Chester Nimitz

Midway & Island Hopping  Turning Point BUT not an immediate turn around for either nation. Japan maintained its superiority US still building up navy  Island Hopping Campaign Avoid head on onslaught Attack strategically important islands  Poorly defended but allow slow crawl towards Japan

Bataan Death March  Phillipines lost in 1942  75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war marched 60 miles  Death count: Impossible to determine…estimates  6, ,000

 “I came out of Bataan and I shall return“  Douglass MacArthur  US loses the Philippines but Douglas MacArthur promises a return…

Battle of Guadalcanal,  First major offensive launched against Japan  Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders  First significant strategic victory for Allies  Shifts the momentum of the Pacific  Japanese had continued moving south in the Pacific.  Guadalcanal stops this

The Status Quo: 1944  Mid-1944 Japan controlled six million square miles  Victory meant controlling the seas.

Leyte Gulf: October, 1944  Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, 400 planes and 16 additional surface ships. Neutralizes Japanese Navy  US began bombarding outlying islands of Japan. B-29 bombers – long range bombers attack Japan “I have returned” -Douglas MacArthur

Iwo Jima (February-March, 1945)  First American attack on the Japanese home islands. Thus imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously.  Americans made use of naval and air support  Japan fortified Iwo Jima 5,000 pillboxes and fortified caves 13,000 yards of tunnels. A key area of defense was Mt.Suribachi

Iwo Jima, Feb-March, 1945  Japan & US fought savagely Japan had 21,000 men but only 1,000 taken prisoner, Americans 6,821 killed and nearly than 20,000 wounded.  Iwo Jima was 900 miles from Japan Allows US to bomb Japan, thereby reducing fuel consumption & flying time  Raising the Flag Iwo Jima had one of the most famous images of the war Flag being raised on Mt. Suribachi

Campaign on Tokyo  March, 1945 – B29 Bombers attacked Tokyo Tokyo mostly constructed of wood US dropped more than 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs  Firestorm More than 100,000 Tokyo residents were killed  Japanese defenders on Okinawa aware of what happened in Tokyo

Okinawa: The Last Battle, April 1945  April 1, ,300 US ships/50,000 men to invade 120,000 Japanese did not contest the landing.  Kamikazes Kamikazes Sunk more than 20 US ships 1,000 kamikaze pilots died during battle  Fighting ferocious. 110,000 Japanese defenders were killed. Civilians suffered losses between 70,000 and 160,000. United States lost 6,938 killed and 38 ships sunk.

Midway Guadalcanal Leyte Gulf Iwo Jima Okinawa

Potsdam Conference, July-August 1945  Participants  Met to discuss how to punish Nazi Germany  Also…  ATOMIC WEAPONS: Truman informed both Churchill and Stalin of the A-Bomb  Potsdam Declaration Message to Japan, threatening total destruction Told Japanese government to submit to unconditional surrender Winston Churchill -Harry Truman -Joseph Stalin

Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer Gen. Leslie Groves

Operation Olympic  Invasion of Japan? Estimates  500,000 American soldiers killed Possible 1,000,000 casualties  Or…Atomic Bomb

Hiroshima & Nagasaki  Why these cities? largely untouched by previous bombing Would allow assessment of weapon’s power

Hiroshima & Little Boy  August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM  The Enola Gay dropped ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima Instantly kills an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year casualties to 90, ,000 (due to radiation and other injury)  69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed  7% severely damaged. Paul Tibbets & Enola Gay HIROSHIMA BEFORE AFTER

Nagasaki & ‘Fat Man’  August 9, 1945  Nagasaki attacked at 11:02 a.m.  Less killed by the second bomb: "Fat Man." Death toll totaled 73,884 74,909 injured NAGASAKI BEFORE/AFTER

Surrender  Hirohito gave a recorded radio address to the nation on August 15.  He declared a surrender, announcing to the Japanese populace the surrender of Japan.  Official surrender signed on the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.

 …THE END…for now…