Post on 11-Jan-2016
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 4th, 1942)Battle of Coral Sea
First battle with carrier-based aircraft
(June 4th, 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. 23rd, 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.