Post on 14-Dec-2015
Japan in the Pacific
During the Interwar Period, Japan faced overcrowding and shortages of raw materials
Japanese military leaders began a program of empire building and foreign expansion
(1931) Japanese troops took over Manchuria
(1937) and northern China
United States govt. sent aid to China
(1941) Japanese take over French Indochina (present-day Vietnam)
Roosevelt cuts off oil shipments to Japan
Hideki Tojo – Prime Minister of Japan from October, 1941 – July, 1944
Militaristic leader
appointed by Emperor
Hirohito
He favored war with
the United States
Isoroku Yamamoto – Japanese admiral who commanded the navy
Attended Harvard and
trained in the U.S.
Planned the attack on
Pearl Harbor
Did not want war, but…
He argued that U.S. naval fleet in Hawaii was “a dagger pointed at our throat”
(Dec 7, 1941) Japan launches surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
• More than 2,400 Americans killed
• Over 1,000 wounded
• 18 U.S. ships, nearly the entire fleet, destroyed
• Aircraft carriers were at sea training
• President Franklin Roosevelt described December 7 as “a date which will live in infamy.”
• The next day, Congress declared war on Japan
After bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan seized Guam and other islands in the Pacific
They attacked the American territory of the Philippines only 9 hours later
Seized Hong Kong from the British
By 1942, Japan had conquered over 1 million sq. miles of new land and over 150 million people
(1942) U.S. wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor and sent 16 B25 bombers to Tokyo and other Japanese cities
Did little damage, but proved Japan could be attacked at home.
By 1942, Japan had a vast empire that was difficult to control.
U.S. and Japanese naval forces clashed in many significant and novel battles
(May, 1942) Battle of the Coral Sea– Airplanes did all the fighting– U.S. and Australian forces prevented
Japanese invasion of Australia
(June, 1942) Battle of Midway
Island west of Hawaii, key American airfield
Largest naval fleet ever assembled, including world’s largest battleship
Japan hoped to seize Midway island and finish off U.S. Pacific fleet
Outnumbered U.S. forces prevailed, symbolic turning point in Pacific War
Midway Atoll
Japanese Now on Defense, but War is Far From Over
• Japanese troops dug in on hundreds of islands across Pacific
• U.S. General Douglas MacArthur used strategy called “island-hopping”
• U.S. seized islands that were not well defended and moved closer to Japan
On the home front, Japanese Americans Imprisoned
After Pearl Harbor, wave of prejudice spread across the U.S. against Japanese Americans (127,000)
(Feb, 1942) Roosevelt set up a program to create internment camps for Japanese
Military rounded up Japanese and sent them to camps (2/3 of them were native-born American citizens, Nisei)
Intern, as a verb:
• To confine or impound, especially during a war
• In U.S. documents, camps are referred to as “relocation camps”
• Some have likened camps to Nazi “concentration camps.” – What do you think?
Internment Camp
Japanese Internment Camps
Between 1941 and 1946, over 110,000 Japanese Americans were rounded up and imprisoned
• Back in the Pacific, Japan was losing territory to the Allies
• By June of 1945, the Allies conquered Okinawa Island, only 350 miles from Tokyo
As Japanese defenses were weakened, they resorted to more desperate tactics, including the use of the Kamikaze.
The Kamikaze were Japanese suicide pilots who would sink Allied ships by crash-diving into them in bomb-filled planes
Most Kamikaze pilots were between the ages of 17 and 22
USS Columbia, January 1945
1. How did the Japanese military leaders plan to overcome shortages in raw materials?
2. After what event did Congress declare war on the Japanese?
3. What major battle was the symbolic turning point of the war in the Pacific against the Japanese?
In April of 1945, President Roosevelt died
Harry Truman was sworn in as president
President Truman’s advisers had informed him that an invasion of Japan might cost the Allies half a million lives
Truman did not know of the atom bomb’s existence until he be became president
On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was given to Japan ( by U.S., Britain, China)
It outlined the terms of surrender for Japan– Militarism in Japan must end– Japanese army would be completely
disarmed– Japan would be permitted to maintain a viable
industrial economy– War criminals would be punished– Japan would be occupied following the war
until these objectives were met
The Potsdam Declaration stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction
Japan did not respond to the declaration…
August 6, 1945
Hiroshima
Pop: 250,000
August 9
Nagasaki
Pop: 230,000
Effects of the Hiroshima bombing:
Ground temperatures 7,000 F
Winds 980 mph
Energy released 20,000 tons TNT
Buildings destroyed 62,000
Killed immediately 70,000-100,000
Dead by the end of 1945 around 150,000
What your textbook says:
Hiroshima: 73,000 dead
Nagasaki: 37,500
“Radiation killed many more.”
Atomic bomb victims…
Woman with
flash burns
14 year old girl
Radiation affects
civilians long after the
bombing
1 hr later from 80 km away