18.4 WWII in the Pacific

Identify U.S. Battles in the Pacific.

Assess U.S. And
Japanese attitudes towards each other.

Discuss the decision to drop the atom bomb on Japan.

The Pacific Front in 1942

U.S. Generals during W.W.II

Douglas McArthur Chester Nimitz

The Pacific War, 1941-1942.

U.S. Navy bloodied but not beaten after Pearl
Harbor.
 Most ships repaired by 1943.

Japan invades most of
Pacific after Pearl
Harbor

First Battles of the Pacific

(May 4 th , 1942)Battle of Coral
Sea

 First battle with carrierbased aircraft
(June 4 th , 1942) Battle of
Midway


Major Japanese defeat.
Japan couldn't make up losses from battle.

Wartime Propaganda

Both U.S. and Japan engaged in racist stereotyping.

U.S. Campaigns in the Pacific

Island-Hopping Campaign (1942-1944)



Took over strategic islands.
Ignored others, U.S. Navy blockaded them.
Aimed towards Japan.

U.S. Campaigns in the Pacific
- Liberation of the Philippines
(Oct. 1944)
Lost to Japan in 1942.
McArthur wanted it back!
- Battle of Leyte Gulf (Oct.
23 rd , 1944)
Largest naval battle in history.
Japanese Navy destroyed.
Kamikazes

Last Pacific Battles
Iwo Jima (Feb 1945)
6,800 U.S. casualties,
21,000 Japanese casualties.
Many Americans thought cost was too high.
Okinawa
83,000 U.S., 100,000
Japanese casualties.
Many civilians told by
Japanese army to commit suicide.

Invasion of Japan
- U.S. hesitant for two reasons.
U.S. casualties (500,000 predicted)
Japanese civilian casualties, mass suicide
- The Atom Bomb exists.
Created in the Manhattan
Project .
To drop or not to drop?

Dropping the Atom Bomb
- (April, 1945) F.D.R. dies, Harry Truman is now President!
- Truman decides to drop bomb.
Argues he does it to save
American lives.

Bombing Japan
Hiroshima
80,000 killed, 70,000 wounded
Nagasaki
35,000 killed, 60,000 wounded

Costs of WWII
- Most deadly conflict in human history!
- 60-70 million dead from war.
40+ million civilians.
- War cost $1 trillion+ dollars total.
- U.S. Economy = half of world’s economy.