1. War in the Pacific

2. Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
Japan attacked US Naval Base Pearl Harbor because:
US was boycotting Japanese goods because of China and Indochina (FDR had demanded Japan withdraw from both)
US stood between Japan and Pacific expansion
Greater victory than they had hoped:
Sank/disabled 19 ships, 188 airplanes, killed over 2400 and wounded 1100
US aircraft carries out to sea, so they escaped damage
Roosevelt declared war the next day

3. Victory in the Pacific (1942-45)
While European war occurring, Japan taking over much of the Pacific (wanted living space)
1942 Japan took Philippines, Malay States, Dutch East Indies, part of New Guinea
US halted their advance north of Australia at Coral Sea (May) and Midway (June, considered payback for Pearl Harbor)
August, under command of Douglas MacArthur, launched an attack at Guadalcanal
6 months to victory
Beginning of “island hopping” North to Japan, take some islands, skip others
1945 captured Iwo Jima and Okinawa, allowed US to launch air raids on Japan
Japan fought back with Kamikaze, suicide pilots

4. Pacific Theater

5. Back to Europe Yalta Conference
Feb. 1945, the Big Three (Roosevelt, Stalin & Churchill) met in the Soviet Union to decide what to do with the world after the war
Decisions reached:
United Nations would be organized as a permanent international peace-keeping organization
Germany & Berlin would be divided into 4 zones of occupation by the US, Britain, Soviet Union, & France

6. Victory Over Japan General Hideki Tojo refused to surrender
July US issued an ultimatum, surrender or face “utter destruction”
Japan did not surrender
Japanese refused to surrender & President Harry S. Truman (FDR had died in April) knew an invasion of Japan could mean up to a 1 million American deaths, he ordered that a new defensive weapon be dropped on a Japanese city
August 6, 1945 first bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Japan still did not surrender
August 9 second dropped on Nagasaki
August 14 Japan surrendered

7. Truman’s notes to Stalin At Potsdam

8. Bomb cloud over Hiroshima
Manhattan Project
Atomic bomb
Invented in the Manhattan Project
Albert Einstein told FDR in 1939 that a a-bomb could be built and the Nazis were working on it
US secret project led by Oppenheimer
Used people from US, GB, Canada, and refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe
Made Atomic Bomb containing 2 lbs of Uranium; explosive power of 20,000 tons of TNT
Bombs were known as “fat man” and “little boy”
Hiroshima bomb killed or injured 130,000 destroyed 60% of city
GB worked on it, Allies did not tell Stalin about a-bomb: led to resentment that leads to Cold War
H-bombs, which we have today, several thousand times more powerful than a-bomb, can wipe out all life within a 60- to 100-mile radius
Bad times
Bomb cloud over Hiroshima

9. Hiroshima Before and After

10. Effects of the War 55 million people died in this war
China, Japan, & Germany were in ruins from the bombing
Millions of people were homeless & w/o families—known as displaced persons
The US and Soviet Union would have major conflicts that would result in the Cold War