WWII - Pacific
Identify the historical significance of key battles and
terms related to the conduct of WWII in the Pacific
Meanwhile in Japan . . .
Japan’s Need for Resources – April 1942
• Japan invades the Philippines
– Bataan Death March
Douglas MacArthur
• Commander of the
US forces in the
Pacific
• His most famous
statements: “I Shall Return”
– upon leaving the
Philippine Islands when the
Japanese occupied them,
and “I Have Returned!”
when the United States
reclaimed the Philippine
Islands.
Island Hopping
US strategy to defeat
Japan
1. Start with a small
defenseless island
2. Take over –
establish ports and
airstrips
3. Be one “step”
(island) closer to
Japanese mainland
4. WIN!
Iwo Jima – February 1945
• Battle where the US took the Japanese island of Iwo Jima
as part of it’s island hopping strategy
Kamikaze
• Term for Japanese pilots
• Translates to: “divine
wind”
• During the end of WWII,
desperate Japanese leaders
recruited men to serve as
suicide pilots – promising them
eternal life in heaven in
exchange for their lives. The
men target ships with their
heavily armed airplanes, then
crashed into the ship.
Battle of Midway – June 1942
• Turning point of
the war in the
Pacific
• Resulted in the losses of
four Japanese aircraft
carriers (out of six in the
entire Japanese Imperial
Navy.) The American
ship Yorktown, which
was heavily damaged at
Coral Sea, was ultimately
downed during the battle
as well.
The Atomic Bomb
Debating the use of the atomic bomb
over Japanese cities - WWII
Manhattan Project – 1942-1946
• A top-secret program set up
by the US government to
develop and test an atomic
bomb
• Led by scientist J. Robert
Oppenheimer – “the father
of the atomic bomb”
• Suggested by none other than Albert
Einstein, who feared that the
Germans would create the weapon
first, the program was completed at
Oak Ridge, TN and Los Alamos, NM.
Leading to Deployment
• U.S. military suggested showing Japanese footage of possible destruction –
declined by high ranking officials
• Great Britain was made aware of U.S. atomic plans and agreed to having
presence if the bombs were dropped
• Months earlier, 63 million leaflets dropped warning civilians of air raids
– 12 cities were listed - Hiroshima was NOT one of them
• July 26, ultimatum given:
– "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces
and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland".
– No mention of atomic weaponry
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
• First atomic bomb
used in war
• Significant military supply and
industrial city
• The bombing of Hiroshima, Japan
was the dawn of the atomic age.
The city of approximately
120,000 people was reduced to
rubble instantaneously. The
plane Enola Gay dropped the
bomb on Hiroshima, after having
taken off from Okinawa, Japan.
Leading to Deployment . . . again
• August 7-9:
– Truman warns of a
second and more
powerful bomb
• August 9 – Soviets
declare war on Japan
• August 9, 1945 President Truman,
– “I realize the tragic
significance of the
atomic bomb ... It is
an awful
responsibility which
has come to us ... We
thank God that it has
come to us, instead
of to our enemies;
and we pray that He
may guide us to use
it in His ways and for
His purposes.”
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
• Second site of the
atomic bomb over
Japan
• Military vessel industrial zone
• The decision to use a nuclear
weapon against civilian
populations in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki is still a controversial
one – some maintain that it
was simply murder. Harry
Truman, however, explained
that an invasion of Japan’s
main islands would easily
have cost one million
American lives and perhaps
even more Japanese lives –
military and civilian.
Aftermath
• More bombs were ready:
– August 19
– Three more in September
– Three more in October
• Soviet Union invades Manchuria
• August 14 – Emperor Hirohito:
– “Moreover, the enemy now
possesses a new and terrible
weapon with the power to
destroy many innocent lives
and do incalculable damage.
Should we continue to fight,
not only would it result in an
ultimate collapse and
obliteration of the Japanese
nation, but also it would lead
to the total extinction of
human civilization.”
VIDEOS
• Show
– Hiroshima Atomic Bomb (1945)
– Hiroshima Nuclear (Atomic) Bomb – USA attack
– Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki - BBC
V-J Day – August 14, 1945
• Unofficial surrender of the Japanese to the US
Unconditional Surrender – September 2, 1945
• The Japanese officially surrendered to the US on board
the USS Missouri, on September 2, 1945.
• General MacArthur accepted the surrender
• He served as governor of the islands during its Reconstruction after WWII,
planting the seeds of democracy and individual rights in Japan