Pacific Theater of World War II

September 1931 - August 14, 1945

Prewar

Japan invades Manchuria

• September 1931• Start of World War II

1932

1937

1940

Axis Powers Formed

• September 1940 – Germany– Italy– Japan

Flying Tigers

• December 1941 – July 1942 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG)

• Secretly recruited from US Air Corps, Navy, and Marines• Approved by President Roosevelt to fight for China• Paid salary PLUS $500.00 bonus for each Japanese

plane taken out• Early success against Japanese fighters provided a key

morale boost to the Allies after Pearl Harbor.• Brought down 286 Japanese Aircraft in six months of

operations, with only 23 loses.

1941

Dec 8/7 1941

Attack on Pearl HarbourDec 7, 1941. “A day that will live in infamy”

Dec 8, 1941. United States declares war on Japan

1941

Philippines• US Commander General Douglas

MacArthur• December 9, 1941

– Japanese troops land on the Philippines

– MacArthur and US troops retreat to Bataan Peninsula

• February 22, 1942– Roosevelt orders Mac Arthur to

Australia– MacArthur vows to return to the

Philippines• April 9, 1942

– Remaining defenders of Bataan surrender to Japanese

Bataan Death March April 1942– 78,000 Prisoners

of War captured– 12,000 Americans

walked 60 miles to a POW camp

– No food or water– 5,000 died

May 1942• The last remaining forces in

the Philippines surrender.

Doolittle Raids• The Plan

– B52’s were put on an aircraft carrier (could take off but not land on carrier)

– Fly off carrier – Drop bombs on Tokyo– Land in China

• What really happened– Japanese saw carrier– Planes took off too soon– Dropped bombs on Tokyo– Not enough fuel to make it to

Chinese airfields– Crews crash landed or bailed out (71

of 80 crew members did not survive)

• The Effect– Boost to American morale as

it was the 1st time American bombs fell on Japan

– Japanese embarrassed and vowed to destroy the remains of US fleet.

1942

Code breakers broke the Japanese secret code and discovered

• March 1942• Japanese are unaware that US has broken code• Plan two different attacks on US

1. Attack on New Guinea2. Attack on Midway Island

• US sends two carriers to intercept the Japanese on their way to New Guinea in the Coral Sea

Battle of Coral Sea• May 7, 1942

• First naval battle carried out entirely by aircraft.

• USS Lexington and USS Yorktown damaged

• Result - Strategic Allied victory—halted the Japanese advance on Australia (to stop supply line)

The Battle Of MidwayJune 4-7 1942

Turning Point of the War for US

Yamamoto seeks to capture Midway atoll and thus confront and destroy the US Navy’s carrier forces.

Plan of Attack

The Battle of Midway• Japan still unaware that US has broken code• US is waiting for Japanese as they approach

Midway

The Battle of Midway

US forces:

3 carriers, 1 lost

~50 support ships, 1 destroyer lost

360 aircraft, 98 lost

307 dead

Japanese forces:

4 carriers, 4 lost

7 battleships, 0 lost

~150 support ships, 1 cruiser lost

264 aircraft, 228 lost

3058 dead

1943-1944

Two Pronged Attack

• Pacific Fleet advances through central Pacific– Led by Admiral Chester

Nimitz– Island-Hopping Warfare

• Troops advance from Solomon Islands to Philippines– Led by General Douglas

MacArthur

Tarawa

• 20 ships ran aground due to running into coral reef

• 5,000 Marines had to wade to beach– Only 1 in 3 made it ashore– 1,000 Marines died

• Result of Tarawa– Discovered that the one amphtrac made it ashore

and delivered Marines to the shore– More amphtracs were purchased

Marshall Islands

• Marines used Amphtracs to get ashore• A lot less casualities• Captured the Marshall Islands

Mariana Islands (Saipan, Tinian, Guam)

• Goal– Build a base for B-29s. They could bomb Japan

from the islands. • Captured August 1944• Bombing of Japan started a few months later

– Bombs kept missing their targets because they didn’t have enough fuel to adjust when they got to Japan

Iwo Jima

• February 1945• Mariana Islands air base was too far to bomb

with accuracy. Iwo Jima was halfway between Japan and Mariana Islands– 60,000Marines landed on Iwo Jima– 6,800 Marines killed in the capture of Iwo Jima

• Nimitz quoted as saying, “uncommon valor was a common virtue”

Bombing of Tokyo

• March 1945• Dropped firebombs

– Napalm (a jellied gas) that is designed to start fires.

• 80,000 civilians killed• 250,000 buildings

destroyed

Okinawa

• Why invaded Okinawa? – There was no sign the

Japanese were going to surrender

– Needed a base close enough to launch invasion of mainland Japan

• Captured June 22, 1945• More than 12,000 US soldiers

killed

MacArthur’s March from Solomon Islands to Philippines

• Guadalcanal• New Guinea• Molokai• Philippines

– Battle of Leyte• Largest naval battle in history• Japanese used Kamikaze

attacks by deliberately crashing planes into American ships.

– Long and grueling battle• >80,000 Japanese soldiers

killed• <1,000 surrendered• 100,000 Filipino civilians killed

• MacArthur returns to Philippines, “People of the Philippines, I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil.”

April 4, 1945

Manhattan Project

• Albert Einstein warns Roosevelt in 1939, that by using uranium “extremely powerful bombs of a new type may …be constructed.”

• Atomic Bomb program headed by General Leslie Groves.

• Secret laboratory set up in Los Alamos, NM headed by Robert Oppenheimer

• July 6, 1945, the 1st atomic bomb detonated in New Mexico.

Dropping of the Atomic Bomb • Hiroshima

• 90,000 to 100,000 persons were killed immediately

• 145,000 persons perish from the bombing by the end of 1945.

• Nagasaki• Leveled Area: 6.7 million square meters• Casualties

• Killed------73,884• Injured-----74,909• Total------148,793

• (Large numbers of people died in the following years from the effects of radioactive poisoning.)

Dropping the Bomb• Pros1. The drop of atomic bomb triggered

Japan to surrender and this ended the war faster.

2. This gave US superior strength since they have control over the atomic bomb.

3. This incident saves thousands of lives of American soldiers.

4. US become powerful and it has maintained peace with the atomic bomb as the needed leverage.

5. Many nations have witnessed the devastation brought by atomic bomb and this encouraged them to talk about peace talks rather than war.

• Cons1. Dropping the atomic bomb enable other countries

to start with their nuclear weapon buildup.2. This incident has destroyed countless Japanese

citizens who are innocent and has plagued radiation and serious medical condition like cancer.

3. Millions were spent in the development of the atomic bomb, a larger amount of money that can be use for further priorities should they decide not to allocate this on the atomic bomb preparation and development.

4. Firebombing also cause serious amount of damage.5. Japan has made serious sacrifices for their power

and for the lives of their people.6. Dropping the bomb also built a wall that divides

citizens of both nations.7. o one can control the means on how the bomb

caused devastation and the people that will be killed.

8. The incident has revealed the power that a nuclear weapon can do giving them the idea to utilize this weapon for battle.

Nuclear Strikes

Aug 6, 1945. Uranium bomb “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima, killing 140,000

Aug 9, 1945. Plutonium bomb “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki, killing 74,000

The Cost

The Cost