The War in the Pacific
Japan and the United States
Japanese Internment, 1942
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Relocation & internment
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Executive Order 9066:
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110,000 Japanese Americans
Pacific coast
"War Relocation Camps,"
Ability to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones,"
Used to target all people of Japanese ancestry
Korematsu v. United States : 1944, the US Supreme
Court Case
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maintained legality of interment
Grounds: need to protect against espionage
outweighed individual rights
Japan, Propaganda, & Dehumanizing
The Savagery of the Pacific
Life Magazine, May
22 1944
“Arizona war worker
writes her Navy
boyfriend a thank-you
note for the Japanese
skull he sent her. This
skull of a Japanese soldier
bears the inscription:
‘Here is a good Jap -- a
dead one!’”
Midway Island: June 4-7, 1942
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The turning point in the Pacific
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Japanese plan
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Halts Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
lure American ships into battle & permanently
destroy the American war effort
Intercepted battle plans
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Admiral Chester Nimitz
Midway & Island Hopping
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Turning Point BUT
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not an immediate turn around for either nation.
Japan maintained its superiority
US still building up navy
Island Hopping Campaign
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Avoid head on onslaught
Attack strategically important islands
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Poorly defended but allow slow crawl towards Japan
Bataan Death March
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Phillipines lost in 1942
75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of
war marched 60 miles
Death count:
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Impossible to determine…estimates6,00018,000
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“I came out of Bataan and I shall return“
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Douglass MacArthur
US loses the Philippines but Douglas
MacArthur promises a return…
Battle of Guadalcanal, 1942-43
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First major offensive launched against Japan
Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese
defenders
First significant strategic victory for Allies
Shifts the momentum of the Pacific
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Japanese had continued moving south in the Pacific.
Guadalcanal stops this
The Status Quo: 1944
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Mid-1944 Japan controlled six million square
miles
Victory meant controlling the seas.
“I have returned”
-Douglas MacArthur
Leyte Gulf: October,
1944
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Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, 400 planes and
16 additional surface ships.
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Neutralizes Japanese Navy
US began bombarding outlying islands of
Japan.
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B-29 bombers – long range bombers attack Japan
Iwo Jima (February-March, 1945)
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First American attack on the Japanese home
islands.
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Thus imperial soldiers defended their positions
tenaciously.
Americans made use of naval and air support
Japan fortified Iwo Jima
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5,000 pillboxes and fortified caves
13,000 yards of tunnels.
A key area of defense was Mt.Suribachi
Iwo Jima, Feb-March, 1945
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Japan & US fought savagely
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Iwo Jima was 900 miles from Japan
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Japan had 21,000 men but only 1,000 taken prisoner,
Americans 6,821 killed and nearly than 20,000 wounded.
Allows US to bomb Japan, thereby reducing fuel
consumption & flying time
Raising the Flag
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Iwo Jima had one of the most famous images of the war
Flag being raised on Mt. Suribachi
Campaign on Tokyo
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March, 1945 – B29 Bombers attacked Tokyo
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Firestorm
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Tokyo mostly constructed of wood
US dropped more than 2,000 tons of incendiary
bombs
More than 100,000 Tokyo residents were killed
Japanese defenders on Okinawa aware of
what happened in Tokyo
Okinawa: The Last Battle, April
1945
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April 1, 1945 1,300 US ships/50,000 men to invade
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Kamikazes
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120,000 Japanese did not contest the landing.
Sunk more than 20 US ships
1,000 kamikaze pilots died during battle
Fighting ferocious.
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110,000 Japanese defenders were killed.
Civilians suffered losses between 70,000 and 160,000.
United States lost 6,938 killed and 38 ships sunk.
Okinawa
Iwo Jima
Midway
Leyte Gulf
Guadalcanal
Potsdam Conference, July-August
1945
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Participants
Met to discuss how to punish
Nazi Germany
Also…
ATOMIC WEAPONS:
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Truman informed both Churchill
and Stalin of the A-Bomb
Potsdam Declaration
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Message to Japan, threatening total
destruction
Told Japanese government to
submit to unconditional surrender
Winston Churchill -Harry Truman -Joseph Stalin
Manhattan Project
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Gen. Leslie Groves
Operation Olympic
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Invasion of Japan?
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Estimates 500,000 American soldiers killed
Possible 1,000,000 casualties
Or…Atomic Bomb
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
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Why these cities?
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largely untouched by
previous bombing
Would allow assessment
of weapon’s power
AFTER
Hiroshima & Little Boy
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August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM
Paul Tibbets & Enola Gay
The Enola Gay dropped ‘Little Boy’ on
Hiroshima
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Instantly kills an estimated 80,000 people.
By the end of the year casualties to 90,000140,000 (due to radiation and other injury)
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69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed
7% severely damaged.
HIROSHIMA
BEFORE
NAGASAKI BEFORE/AFTER
Nagasaki & ‘Fat Man’
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August 9, 1945
Nagasaki attacked at 11:02 a.m.
Less killed by the second bomb: "Fat Man."
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Death toll totaled 73,884
74,909 injured
Surrender
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Hirohito gave a recorded radio address to the
nation on August 15.
He declared a surrender, announcing to the
Japanese populace the surrender of Japan.
Official surrender signed on the USS Missouri
on September 2, 1945.
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…THE END…for now…