War in the Pacific
Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941 Japan
attacks the US Pacific fleet
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The US can no longer
remain neutral and we
enter the war.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Pearl Harbor from the Cockpit
of a Japanese Pilot
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor
President Roosevelt Signs the
US Declaration of War
Pacific Theater of Operations
“Tokyo Rose”
Singapore Surrenders
[February, 1942]
U.S. Surrenders at Corregidor,
the Philippines [March, 1942]
Bataan Death March: April, 1942
76,000 prisoners [12,000 Americans]
Marched 60 miles in the blazing heat to POW
camps in the Philippines.
Bataan: British Soldiers
A
Liberated
British
POW
The Burma Campaign
General Stilwell
Leaving Burma, 1942
The “Burma Road”
Battle of the Coral Sea:
May 7-8, 1942
• Coral Sea – This was the first victory for the Americans
against the Japanese.
Battle of Midway Island:
• Battle of Midway
– The turning point
in the war in the
Pacific. American
aircraft carriers
defeated Japanese
aircraft carriers. 3 of
their 4 carriers were
sunk in this battle.
Japan goes backward
after this point.
June 4-6, 1942
Battle of Midway Island:
June 4-6, 1942
Turning point of the war in the Pacific
Allied Counter-Offensive:
“Island-Hopping”
• Island hoping – The allies plan to take back one island at
a time. Each time getting closer to Japan for the final
invasion.
“Island-Hopping”: US Troops
on Kwajalien Island
Farthest Extent
of Japanese Conquests
Japanese Kamikaze Planes:
The Scourge of the South Pacific
Kamikaze Pilots
Suicide
Bombers
Gen. MacArthur “Returns” to
the Philippines! [1944]
• Navajo Code Talkers – Used in the Pacific. They
spoke in Navajo and in code. Navajo is not a
written language and it’s very complex. Battleship
was a whale and Germany was the Iron Hat. The
code was never broken.
• Iwo Jima and Okinowa – These were the last
two islands before Japan. The Japanese would not
surrender. Death was the only thing to stop them.
Iwo Jima was where the marines raised the flag on
Mount Suribachi.
US Marines on Mt. Surbachi,
Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Invasion of Japan? Z-Day
– Allies believed invasion would lead to a huge loss
of life
– Truman hoped to shorten the war and save lives
– US makes the decision to drop the atomic bomb
on Japan
– Hiroshima: 8/6/1945, Fatman (uranium)
– Japan does not surrender
– Nagasaki: second bomb dropped 8/9/1945,
Little Boy (plutonium)
– Japan Surrenders 9/2/1945
V-J Day (September 2, 1945)
V-J Day in Times Square, NYC
Effects of War
1. Death
– 50 million died
– More than half were civilians
2. Physical and Economic Destruction
– Cities across Europe and Asia were demolished
– Economies were devastated
3. Two Super Powers
– US and USSR emerge as the two World Super
Powers