The War in the Pacific. Japan Hawaii Iwo Jima Leyte Gulf Okinawa Guadalcanal Coral Sea Midway.
-
Upload
tobias-banks -
Category
Documents
-
view
226 -
download
4
Transcript of The War in the Pacific. Japan Hawaii Iwo Jima Leyte Gulf Okinawa Guadalcanal Coral Sea Midway.
The War in the Pacific
Japan
Hawaii
Iwo Jima
Leyte Gulf
Okinawa
Guadalcanal
Coral Sea
Midway
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7th, 1941
Review: Why attack the USA at Pearl Harbor?
Attack on the Philippines
• March, 1942 - Philippines– Japan attacks the
Philippines to try to rid the US from the region.
• Bataan Death March– 76,000 American
refugees taken prisoner, forced to march 60 miles to prison camps without food or water.
» 10,000 die» 15,000 die in
prison camps
“I Shall Return”
The Doolittle Raid• April, 1942 – Doolittle Raid
– Small scale bombing raid on Tokyo• Does not cause much damage, but is a huge morale
booster for U.S.
Battle of Coral Sea
• May 1942 – Coral Sea– After fall of Dutch East
Indies (Indonesia) Japan is looking to invade Australia
• Battle of Coral Sea– Planes on both sides
bombed aircraft carriers.– *First naval battle
completely between aircraft carriers that weren’t within sight of each-other.
– Ended in a draw.• But, it stops Japanese
expansion into Australia.
The Turning Point
• June 1942 - Midway– Japan is looking to “finish
off” the US Pacific fleet.• US suffers heavy losses at
first, but ultimately sinks all four Japanese carriers.
– Allied victory - Go on offensive
• Aug 1942 – Feb 1943 – Guadalcanal– First Allied victory on
Japanese-held soil.• Fierce jungle combat
between Marines and Japanese on interior of island.
– 5 months!
• Island Hopping– US
strategy to attack specific crucial islands.
– Cuts off supplies.
Meanwhile, Carpet Bombing Japan
•In one such raid on Tokyo in March of 1945, 279 US B-29 Bombers destroyed 267,000 buildings, killing 100,000 people and destroying 25% of Tokyo.
=Dropping many bombs over a large area to destroy an entire region
Taking Back the Philippines
• Oct 1944 – Dec 1944 – Leyte Gulf– U.S. assault to take
back Philippines• Largest air and naval
encounter in history• Japanese utilize
Kamikazes
– U.S. victory.• Do not officially take
all of Philippines until June 1945.
• Nearly destroy entire Japanese navy
Iwo Jima
• Feb 1945 - Iwo Jima– Fighting intensified
as US Troops got closer to Japan.
• Iwo Jima is considered Japanese soil.
– Lasts 74 days– US drops 20,000
bombs– 25,000 US casualties– 22,000 Japanese
casualties– Only 218 Japanese
taken prisoner
Okinawa
• March 1945 – June 1945 - Okinawa– Last obstacle to an
invasion of the Japanese mainland.
– 100,000 Japanese defenders vow to fight to death.
• 1,300 warships, 180,000 combat troops invade.
– 50,000 US casualties– Only 7,200 Japanese
POWs
Invasion of Japan?
The Fears of Invading Japan
• Bushido (the warrior way) – this samurai way influenced how the Japanese fought until death
• Conventional bombing was not working (100,000 civilians killed in Tokyo)
• Our losses were mounting as well as time spent fighting was growing
Hiroshima
• August 6th, 1945 the Enola Gay dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima
• About 50,000 people were instantly killed
• Within a month or two up to 100,000 more died of radiation poisoning, burns, or sickness
The Effects
• Before After
Nagasaki
• August 9th, 1945, the Bockscar dropped the second atomic bomb (a fusion bomb)
• 35,000 people were instantly killed with 35,000 more dying with a few weeks!
• Two more bombings were planned but the Japanese surrendered on August 15th, 1945 (V-J Day) and since then a nuclear bomb has not been detonated in aggression
• The US made over 31,000 more by 1967 conducting over 1,000 test detonations!