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VE Day did not mean WWII was over – there was
still the issue of the war against Japan.
The Soviets refused to help, as they were in ruins
– so it was essentially up to the Americans to
finish the job with the war in the Pacific.
The Pacific Campaign was difficult as there were numerous
heavily fortified islands that had to be conquered one by one,
which made American successes very slow. Going from island
to island was nicknamed ‘Island hopping’ & took a large toll on
the Americans & there were huge causalities.
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Essentially ‘island hopping’ wasn’t going to be
easy—the Americans realized that if they
continued to island hop they would face
increasingly large causalities.
The American people were tired of the war &
frustrated about hearing of the loss of life on the
daily news...
The USA begins a new air-born bombing tactic
against Japan called the Firebombing of Tokyo.
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Towards the end of the war
as the role of strategic
bombing became more
important, a new command
for the U.S. Strategic Air
Forces in the Pacific was
created to oversee all US
strategic bombing in the
hemisphere, under USAAF
General Curtis LeMay.
Japanese cities suffered
greatly from air attacks by
US bombers. On March 910 1945 alone, about
100,000 people were killed
in a fire caused by the
attack on Tokyo.
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Hard-fought battles at
Tarawa, Iwo Jima,
Okinawa, & others
resulted in horrific
casualties on both
sides, but finally
produced a Japanese
retreat.
The bombing of Tokyo
also put the US on the
winning side.
Faced with the loss of
most of their
experienced pilots,
the Japanese resorted
to kamikaze tactics in
an attempt to slow the
US advance.
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The American military & public realized Japan is
not going to surrender easily...
...which means there will continue to be huge
causalities of American soldiers.....
...& America is not looking forward to this loss of
American lives.
Until....
....a group of scientists take US President ‘Give
‘em hell Harry’ Truman into a top secret meeting
to discuss a weapon they’d been working on
called ‘The Manhattan Project’.
Modern warfare would be changed forever...