World War II in the Pacific
Lsn 18: Pacific and Beginnings of
the Cold War
The Pacific Theater
Principles of War
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Objective
Offensive
Mass
Economy of force
Maneuver
Unity of command
Security
Surprise
Simplicity
Pacific Theater and Selected
Principles of War
• Maneuver
– Sea power gave
the US the ability
to go where it
wanted
• Security
– Magic
intelligence
intercepts gave
the US an
advantage
USS Enterprise aircraft
carrier
Pacific Theater and Selected
Principles of War
• Economy of Force
– “Germany First” strategy made Pacific a
secondary theater
• Objective
– MacArthur strongly influenced by desire to return
to the Philippines
• Unity of Command
– Interservice rivalry led to twin drives, one from
the south Pacific and one across the central
Pacific
Imperial Japan
• Japan saw the US and
others as a threat to its
influence in Asia and in
1940 the Japanese
began developing plans
to destroy the US Navy
in Hawaii
• On Dec 7, 1941, the
Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor
In May 1940, the main part of the
US fleet was transferred to Pearl
Harbor from the west coast
Pearl Harbor
• Dec 7, 1941
– “a date which will live
in infamy”
• Americans taken
completely by
surprise
• The first attack wave
targeted airfields and
battleships
• The second wave
targeted other ships
and shipyard facilities
Tactical Damage
• Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk
• Three light cruisers, three destroyers, three
smaller vessels, and 188 aircraft were destroyed
• 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed
• 1,178 wounded
– 1,104 men aboard the battleship USS Arizona were
killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into
the forward magazine causing catastrophic
explosions.
Broader Results
• In spite of the tactical
success, the attack on
Pearl Harbor was an
operational and
strategic failure for the
Japanese
– The attack failed to
destroy the American
aircraft carriers, fleet
repair facilities, or fuel
reserves
– The “sneak attack”
galvanized American
support for entry into the
war
Fall of the Philippines
• Shortly after Pearl
Harbor the Japanese
made initial landings
on Luzon, then made
their main landings
on Dec 22
• On Dec 24,
MacArthur ordered
his forces to
withdraw to the
Bataan Peninsula
• By Apr Bataan
surrendered
• By early May
Corregidor
surrendered
Douglas MacArthur in his
headquarters tunnel at Corregidor
in March 1942
Bataan Death March
• President Roosevelt
ordered MacArthur to
relinquish command
to Lieutenant
General Jonathan
Wainwright and
MacArthur escaped
to Australia
• 25,000 Americans
and Filipinos died on
the Bataan Death
March to captivity
Centrifugal Advance
• Japanese attacked Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch
East Indies, Wake, Guam….
• Instead of halting, establishing a defense, and
pressuring the US to sue for peace (the prewar plan), the
Japanese decided to extend their control over the Pacific
planning operations in New Guinea near Port Moresby
and against Midway (1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu)
• US achieved a moral victory with Doolittle’s Raid on the
Japanese home islands on April 18, 1942
– Minimal damage but humiliated Japanese high
command and led them to advance the date for their
attack on Midway
Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942)
• US had been able to intercept
Japanese radio traffic in an
operation called “Magic”
• Magic intercepts allowed
Admiral Nimitz to position two
carriers off the eastern tip of
New Guinea
• Both sides suffered heavy
losses but the Japanese were
forced to call off their
amphibious attack on Port
Moresby
• Battle waged exclusively via
air strikes
– Opposing surface ships
never made direct contact
Admiral Chester Nimitz,
Commander in Chief Pacific
and Pacific Ocean Areas
Midway (June 3-6, 1942)
• Japanese planned a diversionary attack on the
Aleutian Islands while the main force attacked
Midway to destroy the American fleet
• Thanks to Magic intercepts, US didn’t fall for the
Alaska feint and reinforced Midway
• Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers and
most of their flight crews
• Japanese advance was checked and initiative in
the Pacific begins to turn to the Americans
Greatest Extent of Greater East
Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
Twin Drives
• Chief of Naval Operations Admiral
Ernest King favored a drive across
the central Pacific moving toward
Japan over the coral atolls scattered
across the Pacific
– Take advantage of ability to leap
across vast distances
• MacArthur favored an advance
across the South Pacific via New
Guinea and the Philippines
– Meet obligations to Filipinos
– Maintain pressure against the
retreating Japanese
– Protect against a renewed threat
against Australia
Admiral Ernest King
Compromise
• King’s planned drive
would move first against
the Gilbert Islands and
then toward the
Philippines
• MacArthur would
likewise advance toward
the Philippines
– Joint Chiefs gave no
clear priority to either
drive
– “Mutual supporting” or
“mutually competing?”
Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief
Pacific and Pacific Ocean Areas and
William Halsey, Commander, South
Pacific Area and South Pacific Force
Operation Cartwheel
• MacArthur requested five additional divisions
and 1,800 aircraft to capture Rabaul
• Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded there were not
enough resources to capture Rabaul in 1943 so
they accepted MacArthur’s proposal for a twopronged drive to isolate it
Operation Cartwheel
• MacArthur would be
in overall command
• Halsey would
advance up the
Solomons as far as
Bougainville
• MacArthur would
move along the
coast of New
Guinea before
attacking the
western end of New
Britain
Operation Cartwheel
• Became the model for Pacific commanders
throughout the rest of the war
– don’t move island to island; advance by great
bounds using air superiority
– bypass major strongpoints and leave them
reduced to strategic and tactical impotence
– hit Japanese weak spots; avoid frontal assaults;
use deception and surprise
– seize existing airfields and ports and use these
newly acquired bases to support the next leap
forward
Retaking the Philippines
• The invasion of
the Philippines
brought MacArthur
and Nimitz’s twin
drives together
• On Oct 20, 1944,
MacArthur
attacked Leyte
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• The American and
Japanese surface fleets
made contact the night of
October 24-25 in the San
Bernardino Strait
• Two Japanese task
forces entered the strait,
Halsey did the classic
naval maneuver of
crossing the “T” and sank
all but one enemy
destroyer
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• However, Halsey was
surprised shortly after
dawn when Japanese
heavy cruisers and
battleships passed
unopposed through the
San Bernardino Straits
and threatened the
invasion fleet
• American aircraft turned
back the already
weakened Japanese
• Still the Japanese did
not give up, delivering
their first wave of
kamikaze attacks
Escort carrier St. Lo
sunk by kamikaze attack
Battle of Leyte Gulf
• The Battle of Leyte Gulf
secured the beachheads of
the U.S. Sixth Army attack on
Leyte and destroyed
Japanese naval power
• By the end of December
1944, the Allies controlled
Leyte and MacArthur was in
position to attack Luzon, the
heart of the Philippines
Walter Krueger,
commander of
Sixth Army
“I shall return”
Final Campaigns
• From Feb 19 to Mar 11, 1945
the Marines captured Iwo Jima
• From Apr to June Americans
captured Okinawa
– Total American battle
casualties were 49,151, of
which 12,520 were killed or
missing and 36,631
wounded
– Approximately 110,000
Japanese were killed and
7,400 more were taken
prisoners
– Okinawa showed how
costly an invasion of the
Japanese home islands
would be
Raising the flag
on Mt. Suribachi,
Iwo Jima
Plan to Invade Japan
• US planned to invade
Japan with eleven
Army and Marine
divisions (650,000
troops)
• Casualty estimates
for the operation were
as high as 1,400,000
• Truman decided to
use the atomic bomb
to avoid such losses
Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo
The Atomic Bomb
• In the early 1940s,
America had started
an atomic weapons
development program
code named the
“Manhattan Project”
• A successful test was
conducted at
Alamogordo in New
Mexico in July 1945
J. Robert Oppenheimer and
General Leslie Groves at the Trinity
Site soon after the test
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945
– 90,000 killed
• On Aug 8, the USSR
declared war on Japan
and invaded Manchuria
the next day
• Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945
– 35,000 killed
• Okinawa had been
much more costly than
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the
plane that dropped the bomb on
Hiroshima
Hiroshima, vicinity of ground zero
Surrender
Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri
Beyond World War II
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Growth of Total War
Holocaust
Post-war impact of the atomic bomb
Expanded roles of women
Cold War
Growth of Total War
• Total war describes a war in which nations use
all of their resources to destroy another nation’s
ability to engage in war.
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Conscription
Military-industrial complex to include women workers
Unconditional surrender
Civilian targets to include the Holocaust
Rationing, price controls, and other impacts on the
homefront
– More destructive weapons to include the atomic bomb
Holocaust
• Jews were the primary targets of Hitler’s racially
motivated genocidal policies, but Slavs, Gypsies,
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
communists, and others suffered as well
• Sometime during 1941, the Nazi leadership
committed to “the final solution” of “the Jewish
problem”
– At the Wansee Conference on Jan 20, 1942, experts
gathered to discuss and coordinate the
implementation of the plan to kill all the Jews living in
Europe
Holocaust
• Jews were rounded up and sent to
concentration camps
– The largest was Auschwitz where at least a
million Jews died
• The process was organized and
technologically sophisticated
– Gassing was the preferred method of killing,
but electrocution, phenol injections,
flamethrowers, hand grenades, and machine
guns were also used
Roll Call at Auschwitz
Holocaust
• Victims were subjected to
industrial work,
starvation, medical
experimentation, and
extermination
• Large crematories were
used to hide the evidence
• Approximately 5.7 million
Jews perished in the
Holocaust
• Helps generate support
for the creation of Israel
as a Jewish state
Auschwitz crematory
Mass Grave at Bergen-Belsen
Children Subjected to Medical
Experiments in Auschwitz
Survivors of
Ampfing Subcamp of Dachau
Prisoners liberated at
Auschwitz
Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
• Changed the very nature
of war
– Presented the
possibility of
annihilation of
humankind
• US came to place great
strategic reliance on
atomic bomb
– War plans emphasized
sudden atomic attack
against USSR to allow
time for conventional
mobilization
15 megaton thermonuclear
device test on Bikini Atoll in
1954
Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
• US held an atomic
monopoly until 1949
– Huge US-USSR arms
race followed
– Eventually led to
Mutually Assured
Destruction (1967)
• Massive retaliation
strategy (1954) meant
US was prepared to
respond to Soviet
aggression with a
massive nuclear strike
Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb
• Nuclear
weapons prove
to not be a
reasonable
option in limited
wars
• We’ll see this in
Lesson 19-20
(Korea) and
Lesson 21-22
(Vietnam)
The US considered, but did not use, atomic
bombs in support of the French at Dien Bien
Phu in 1954
Expanded Roles for Women
• The emergencies of war
greatly expanded the
roles of women
• Some served in the
military
• Others replaced men on
factory assembly lines
• Women whose husbands
went overseas acted as
heads of households
Expanded Roles for Women
• From 1940 to 1944
over 6 million
women joined the
workforce filling jobs
that had been
exclusively male
• After the war,
women were
expected to return
home and resume
their traditional roles
as wives and
mothers
Woman's Day, Oct 1950.
The picture asks, "What more
needs to be said about a woman's
day?"
Marriage of Convenience
• “If Hitler invaded
Hell, I would at
least make
favorable
reference to the
Devil in the
House of
Commons.”
– Winston
Churchill
American and Russian Soldiers Meet at
the Elbe River Apr 25, 1945
• But, with the common enemy gone, the marriage
of convenience quickly dissolved.
• Europe divides; Cold War begins
Next
• Early Cold War
and Korean War
through Inchon