Essential Question: What caused the United States to join WWII? Which was most significant, WHY?

Ch: 16-2: Japan’s Pacific Campaign

Review

Aug. 1939: FDR urged Hitler to settle his differences with Poland peacefully Sept. 1st: Hitler invades Poland Sept. 3rd: France and Great Britain declare war on Germany

Sept. 8th: FDR announced that he was calling a special session of Congress to revise the Neutrality Acts

Asked for a “cash-and-carry” provision Permit nations to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash & carried the goods home in their own

ships FDR believed providing arms to Britain & France would be the best way to keep the U.S. out of

war After 6 weeks of heated debate, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939

Review

1941: Lend-Lease Act Britain had no more cash to spend FDR suggested replacing cash-and-carry with a new plan that called lend-lease Would lend or lease arms and other supplies to any country whose defense was

vital to the U.S.

Sept. 4, 1941: A German U-boat fired 2 torpedoes at a U.S. destroyer FDR ordered U.S. Navy to fire on German ships on sight U.S. was in an undeclared naval war with Hitler

2 weeks later a U.S. merchant ship was sunk off Greenland Mid-October, two other U.S. destroyers were torpedoed near Iceland

America Moves Toward War

If the U.S. were to declare war on any one of the Axis powers, it would face a two ocean war, fighting in both the Atlantic & the Pacific After years of isolationism, the U.S. was militarily weak 18 countries had larger armies

FDR asked Congress to increase spending for national defense Congress boosted defense spending & passed the nations first peacetime

military draft

Hoping to avoid a war on 2 fronts, FDR provided the British with all aid except war Sent 500,000 rifles & 80,000 machine guns

Japan seeks a Pacific Empire

Japanese expansion began in 1931 when troops took over Manchuria and six years later armies swept through the heartland of China

When the Japanese overran French Indochina in July 1941, the United States cut off oil shipments to Japan.

Japan seeks a Pacific Empire

On December 7, 1941, Japanese Admiral IsorokuYamamoto led a surprise attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor. Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over the U.S. Naval

base in the Pacific Followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes

launched from six aircraft carriers For an hour and a half, the Japanese planes were barely

disturbed by U.S. antiaircraft guns & blasted target after target

It was over at 9:30 a.m.

America Moves Toward War

Attack was a stunning victory for Japan Japanese navy all but crippled the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet in one blow Japan’s casualties

29 planes

U.S. casualties: Sunk or badly damaged 19 ships 350 planes destroyed or severely damaged 2,400 people died 1,178 people wounded More damage than the U.S. Navy suffered in all of WWI

The Next day President Roosevelt addressed Congress

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy,” he said, “…the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

He asked for a declaration of war against Japan, which Congress quickly approved.

Note: Three days later, Dec. 11, 1941 Germany & Italy declare war on the United States.

Causes of U.S. entering WWII

Military Support of

allieS

pearl HarborUS Enters WWII

December 8, 1941

GerMan Sub attackS

JapaneSe iMperialiSM

Japan seeks a Pacific Empire

After Pearl Harbor the Japanese had planned a series of strikes at the United States in the Pacific.

Japan seized Guam and Wake Island in the western pacific, then launched an attack on the Philippines. By January of 1942 they were marching in Manila.

Japan also hit the British, seizing Hong Kong, invading Malaya and reaching Singapore.

By the time Burma fell, the Japanese had conquered more than a million square miles with about 150 million people.

Native people or prisoners often received brutal treatment, such as the Bataan Death March.

The Allies Strike Back

Seeking revenge for Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle leads a bombing raid to Tokyo, which despite little damage, showed the Japanese were vulnerable.

In the Battle of the Coral Sea featured a new kind of sea warfare where the opposing ships did not fire a single shot against each other, rather aircraft taking off from huge carriers did all the fighting. While the Allies didn’t win, they showed Japan could be stopped.

The Allies Strike Back

By June of 1942, the allies had broken the Japanese codes. Admiral Nimitz prepared an ambush for the largest fleet ever

assembled (150 Japanese ships) at Midway Island. American carrier planes swooped in to attack the Japanese fleet,

destroying all 4 aircraft carriers, one support ship and 332 planes. In the Battle of Midway the Americans had avenged Pearl Harbor

and turned the tide of the war.

Midway Island

War in the Pacific

The Allies Strike Back

The Allies took the offensive with the morale high after Midway General Douglas MacArthur led the allies in a policy of island hopping

past Japanese strong points. The Allies had to strike quickly at the island of Guadalcanal after

learning the Japanese planned to build a huge air base. After 6 months of fierce fighting, the Battle of Guadalcanal finally ended

with an allied victory and 23,000 out of 36,000 Japanese troops dead.