War in the pacific to atomic bomb
Transcript of War in the pacific to atomic bomb
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World War II
Victory in Asia
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Pacific Offensives
• Island-hopping– U.S. strategy to only attack strategic
Japanese Islands instead of all of them– Began in November 1943 in the Gilbert
Islands
• Island of Tarawa– More difficult to capture due to highly fortified
coral reef surrounding the island– Used as a vital airstrip for future landings
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Saipan & Guam
• Faced fierce Japanese defenders
• U.S. forces suffered high casualties (16,000 injured, 3,400 dead)
• Important U.S. victories, they provided strategic airfields to launch bombing missions from.
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Recapturing the Philippines
• MacArthur led U.S. and Australian forces in June of 1943
• Fall 1944- the U.S. was ready to invade the Philippines
• Battle of Leyte Gulf– The last and largest naval engagement by the
Japanese• They lost 4 aircraft carriers, two battleships, and several
cruisers
• Filipinos assisted allied troops as the troops fanned out across the Philippines – MacArthur and the allies entered Manila in Feb. 1945
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Victory in the Pacific
• U.S. captured Japanese islands that they used as airbases
• March 1945 Tokyo was bombed which caused major destruction to the city
• Japan’s military leaders would still not surrender
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The Battle of Iwo Jima
• February 1945– Lasted 6 weeks
• U.S. troops faced fierce resistance• Several thousand U.S. troops were killed• 20,000 Japanese soldiers died• U.S. Marines struggled to take Mount Suribachi • Famous photo of Marines planting flag taken by
Joe Rosendahl
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The Battle of Iwo Jima
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The Battle of Okinawa
• April 1945- the largest landing force in the Pacific invaded Okinawa
• Japan chose to retreat to the southern tip of the island and wait
• U.S. Marines captured one airfield in 5 hours without a shot being fired
• FIVE DAYS LATER
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The Battle of Okinawa
• 700 Japanese planes attacked the beach and the navy off-shore
• 350 of the 700 planes were “kamikaze” or suicide planes
• Six U.S. ships were sunk• 135 kamikaze pilots were killed• Admiral Nimitz stated that the only thing
surprising about the war was the tactics of the kamikaze pilots
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The Battle of Okinawa
• Probably the bloodiest battle of the war in the Pacific
• Japanese hid in caves and fought till the very end
• U.S. troops used flamethrowers to clear the caves
• 49,000 U.S. troops were killed or wounded
• 100,000 Japanese died in the fighting
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The Death of Roosevelt
• Occurred on April 12, 1945
• Harry Truman becomes President
• Truman faces the huge decision on how to deal with the Japanese
• Despite repeated bombings in Japan, they are still strong and will fight to the end
• Truman will be the one who makes the decision to use the atomic bomb
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The Atomic Bomb
• Manhattan Project led by Leslie Groves• Other participants
– Albert Einstein– Enrico Fermi (Italian physicist) –created first
atomic chain reaction in 1942– J. Robert Oppenheimer- director of Los Alamos
lab in New Mexico• His team worked on building the 1st atomic bomb
• Successfully tested on July 15, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico
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Reasons for using the atomic bomb
1. Truman saw that the Japanese were still capable of fighting after Iwo Jima and Okinawa
2. A full scale invasion of Japan would cost many U.S. lives and Japanese lives
1. Estimates projected up to 1 million U.S. lives could be lost
3. The atomic bomb would bring a quick end to the war.
4. Truman wanted an unconditional surrender5. The use of the atomic bomb may have been
show of force to the Soviet Union
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The Dropping of the Bomb
• August 6, 1945– The Enola Gay flown by Paul Tibbits dropped
the atomic bomb on Hiroshima– Hiroshima was flattened and the bomb killed
75,000 people
• August 9, 1945– A second atomic bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki killing approximately 125,000 people
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HIROSHIMA
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Nagasaki
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Japan’s Surrender
• After seeing the destruction caused by the two bombs, Japan decides to surrender.
• V-J Day August 15, 1945
• The formal surrender took place aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945
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What Do You Think?
• Was Truman’s decision a good one?
• Should we have launched a full-scale invasion of Japan?
• What are your feelings?
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• http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=657#02