1. Japan Strikes in the Pacific
Chapter 16, Section 2

2. Japan Seeks a Pacific Empire
Japan started expanding in 1931 (Manchuria)
By August of 1940 America could read Japanese messages
They knew that Japan wanted to conquer European colonies there
Japan decided to launch a massive attack all around the Pacific

3. Surprise Attack
Isoroku Yamamoto argued that the American fleet a Pearl Harbor must be destroyed
December 7, 1941 this event took place
In just TWO hours the Japanese had sunk and damaged 18 ships, including 8 battleships
They killed close to 2,400 Americans

4. Surprise Attack Pearl Harbor was just the first of many attacks
They took
Guam and Wake Island (US)
Philippines (US)
Hong Kong (GB)
Dutch East Indies
Burma
In the end Japan had taken more than 1 Million square miles of land

5. Surprise Attack
Native people received brutal treatment by the Japanese
150,000 prisoners took the Bataan Death March
I was questioned by a Japanese officer who found out that I had been in a Philippine Scout Battalion. The [Japanese] hated the Scouts…Anyway, they took me outside and I was forced to watch as they buried six of my Scouts alive. They made the men dig their own graves, and then had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the head with shovels to stun them and piled earth on top

6. The Allies Strike Back America declares war on Japan December 8, 1941
Germany declares war on America December 11
America wanted to “get back” at Japan
They launch the Doolittle Raids
16 B-25 bombers hit targets in Japan then crashed in China
The raids did little damage physically but had psychological effect

7. The Allies Turn the Tide of War
The Japanese had grown too large, too quick
The Battle of Coral Sea
America and Australia VS Japan
It was a naval battle over an air base in New Guinea. The air base would allow Japan to strike Australia
It was planes against ships
The Allies lost more ships but stopped the expansion south

8. Battle of Midway Island midway between Japan and USA
US breaks a Japanese code and Chester Nimitz races to Midway
150 Japanese ship with Yamamoto
Nimitz was out numbered 4::1 (ship & plane)
Nimitz waited for the attack to begin and sent planes to destroy the enemy
332 planes, all 4 aircraft carriers and a support ship were lost

9. Allies on the Offensive
The Battle of Midway - “the American have avenged Pearl Harbor”
Douglas MacArthur – commander of land forces in the Pacific
Island-Hopping: Bypass strongpoint islands and capture ones closer to Japan, then starve the strongpoints out

10. Battle of Guadalcanal First action in the island-hopping campaign
The Japanese were building and airfield on Guadalcanal
So the Americans invaded the island August 7, 1942
Both the Americans and Japanese poured troops onto the island
After losing 23,000 troops, in February 1943 the Japanese abandoned the battle
When a war correspondent was asked about Guadalcanal he simply stated “Hell”