The War in the Pacific

The Players  United States  England  Australia  New Zealand  China Philippines  Japan

Background  Japanese imperial expansion begins in 1931  Need for oil and other natural resources  Japan attacks the US at Pearl Harbor crippling the US pacific fleet Dec 7th 1941

Japanese War Mentality  Death before surrender  Boshito Code meaning “Way of the Warrior-Knight”, is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life  If you surrender you disgrace your family and ancestors  All other Asians are inferior

Dec 1941  Attack on Pearl Harbor Dec 7 th  Dec 8 th Japan invades US held territory of the Philippines  The US has only one hope: the aircraft carrier (3 survived Pearl Harbor)

Early 1942  Japan invades various other Pacific Islands  US garrison in the Philippines surrenders to Japanese forces in April 1942  Bataan Death March:  60 miles  76,000 POW  12,000 are Americans  5,000 die in a week

US/Allied Strategy  Reclaim the Pacific: Island hopping Campaign: one island at a time, clear it and use it as a base of operations for the next island.  Must clear the oceans of the Japanese Navy first! (Large challenge with a crippled Navy and only 3 Aircraft carriers!)

Japanese Strategy  Make the war so horrible the US will give up  They dug into tropical islands, built underground bunkers and fortresses.  heavy artillery, suicide attacks  Bleed the enemy dry, Japanese rarely surrender but die to the last man!

Early 1942: The US strikes back  Doolittle raid  May 1942: Battle of Coral Sea, first ever carrier vs. carrier battle- US looses an Aircraft carrier  TURNING POINT: Battle of Midway June 1942

Midway June 4, 1942  US lost one of two carriers  Japanese lost four irreplaceable aircraft carriers in five minutes!  The Japanese would be on the defensive for the rest of the war.

Island Hoping: The first step: Guadalcanal  Invaded by the US Navy and Marines August 1942 Took the Marines 6 months to take the island from Japan Allies lost 7,100 men Japan lost 31,000 killed

A list of “D-Days”  Nov 1943 Bouganville  Nov 1943 “ Bloody” Tarawa  June 1944 Siapan  July 1944 Guam and Tinian  Oct 1944 Allies invade the Philippines  Feb 1945 Iwo Jima  April 1945 Okinawa (falls in June)

Soldier’s Lives  HARSH  Subtropical diseases  Humid, sticky, and always hot.  Average age was 19  Death was around every corner.

Japan’s desperation  Oct 1944 U.S. warships in Leyte Gulf faced their first Kamikaze attacks  2,257 Japanese aircraft were destroyed in these suicide missions during the war.  Kamikaze: Devine Wind  Kamakazi Kamakazi

A most famous Photo  Taken on Iwo Jima  February 23, 1945  On March 16, when Iwo Jima was declared secured, 6,821 Americans and 21,000 Japanese (the entire force) had died  Iwo Jima - Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima Iwo Jima - Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima  Iwo Jima - The Pacific Iwo Jima - The Pacific

Planning for the end  May 1945 Allied forces plan Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan itself in Nov.  US planners feared casualty estimates of one million!  Japan was desperate but unwilling to surrender!

Atom bomb

“Little Boy” and “Fat Man” are unleashed  August 6, Hiroshima  August 9, Nagasaki  killed an estimated 110,000 Japanese  injured another 130,000.  By 1950, another 230,000 Japanese had died from injuries or radiation.

VJ Day  August 14, Japanese accepts unconditional surrender  Celebration parties erupt throughout every allied country!

The End  September 2, Formal Japanese surrender ceremony on board the MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay as 1,000 carrier- based planes fly overhead.

 The most destructive conflict in human or world history ends.  The world is forever changed.  Millions have died.  100s of cities destroyed  Millions are homeless  US & USSR are WORLD powers