SECTION 3: THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

• The Americans did not celebrate long, as Japan was busy conquering an empire that dwarfed Hitler’s Third Reich

• Japan had conquered much of southeast Asia including the Dutch East Indies, Guam, and most of China

Essential Questions

• What was the key difference between the war in Europe and the war being fought in the Pacific?

• What were the Allies’ plans for winning the war?

• What were key events in the war in the Pacific?• How were islands in the Pacific liberated from

Japanese control?

Key Figures in the Pacific War

• Douglas MacArthur• Supreme Allied

Commander of Forces in the Pacific

• Why have another American as Supreme Commander?– The U.S. had the biggest

investment of forces in the Pacific

– Great Britain had its hands full with Germany

Admiral Chester Nimitz

• Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Pacific

• Defended Midway• Would coordinate with

General MacArthur to squeeze the Japanese Empire from the north and south

Hackettstown Connection

• Vice-Admiral John D. Bulkeley

• Hackettstown HS graduate • Medal of Honor recipient• He was also the PT boat

skipper who evacuated General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in the Philippines

• Buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery

The Sea Wolf

What was the key difference between the war in Europe and the war being

fought in the Pacific?

• Naval rather than land offensives• Carriers replaced battleships as the mainstay

of the fleet• The need for amphibious units to capture

islands called for the U.S. Marines to do most of the fighting

The Doolittle Raid- April 18th 1942

• How long after the attack on Pearl Harbor?

• A carrier-based attack designed to attack Japanese cities

• Not much damage, but a huge morale boost to America!

• According to FDR, the raid was “a pinprick in the heart of Japan”

BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA

• The main Allied forces in the Pacific were Americans and Australians

• In May 1942 they succeeded in stopping the Japanese drive toward Australia in the five-day Battle of the Coral Sea

THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY• Japan’s next thrust was

toward Midway Island – a strategic island northwest of Hawaii

• Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Commander of American Naval forces in the Pacific, moved to defend the Island

• The Americans won a decisive victory as their planes destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft carriers and 250 planes

The Turning Point of the War in the Pacific

• The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the war; from this point on, the U.S. was on the offensive

• Soon the Allies were island hopping toward Japan

• What is island-hopping?– Going island by island

clearing out the Japanese, while bypassing the more heavily-defended islands

The Code-Talkers

• Communication during the war was important

• Messages could be intercepted

• The U.S. had already broken the Japanese codes and were always one step ahead of them. How could we stop the Japanese from breaking our codes?

• Navajo Code Talkers

WindTalkers

• Navajo Indians served in the Pacific

• Their language was not a written language;

• The Japanese were never able to break their code

Major Battles of the Pacific Theatre• Guadalcanal (the first major

U.S. offensive in the Pacific)• Saipan• Tarawa• Iwo Jima (first of the Japanese

home islands)• Okinawa (second of the

Japanese home islands)• As U.S. forces get closer to the

Japanese home islands, the fighting becomes increasingly ferocious; casualties higher

KAMIKAZE PILOTS ATTACK ALLIES

• The Americans continued island-hopping across the Pacific toward Japan

• Japanese countered by employing a new tactic – Kamikaze (divine wind) attacks

• Pilots in small bomb-laden planes would crash into Allied ships

In the Battle for the Philippines, 424 Kamikaze pilots sank 16 ships and

damaged 80 more

IWO JIMA• General MacArthur and the Allies next turned to the Island of Iwo Jima

• The island was critical to the Allies as a base for an attack on Japan

• It was called the most heavily defended spot on earth

• Allied and Japanese forces suffered heavy casualties

American soldiers plant the flag on the Island of Iwo Jima after their victory

THE BATTLE FOR OKINAWA• In April 1945, U.S.

marines invaded Okinawa• The Japanese unleashed

1,900 Kamikaze attacks sinking 30 ships and killing 5,000 seamen

• Okinawa cost the Americans 7,600 marines and the Japanese 110,000 soldiers

INVADE JAPAN?• After Okinawa,

MacArthur predicted that a Normandy type amphibious invasion of Japan would result in 1,500,000 Allied deaths and close to 10 million Japanese casualties!

• President Truman saw only one way to avoid an invasion of Japan . . . The loss of life at Iwo Jima and Okinawa

convinced Allied leaders that an invasion of Japan was not the best idea

Okinawa

“The Bomb”• Civilian Physicist J. Robert

Oppenheimer• Along with General Leslie

Groves, he led the effort by the OSRD to build a weapon which could split the atom and unleash a tremendous amount of energy.

• About 100,000 scientists were involved in its development; many had no idea!

• Code Name: The Manhattan Project

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Should the bomb have been used?

• Yes! Invasion of the main islands would cost millions of lives- Allied and Japanese. The entire Japanese population was mobilized to defend the home islands.

• No! The bomb was a terrible weapon that would target military as well as civilians.

U.S. DROPS TWO ATOMIC BOMBS ON

JAPAN

• Truman warned Japan in late July 1945 that without a immediate Japanese surrender, it faced “prompt and utter destruction”

• On August 6 (Hiroshima) and August 9 (Nagasaki) a B-29 bomber dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan

The plane and crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,

Japan

August 6, 1945

HIROSHIMA

August 9, 1945 NAGASAKI

JAPAN SURRENDERS

At the White House, President Harry Truman announces the Japanese surrender, August 14,

1945

• Japan surrendered days after the second atomic bomb was dropped

• General MacArthur said, “Today the guns are silent. The skies no longer rain death . . .the entire world is quietly at peace.”

THE YALTA CONFERENCE

• In February 1945, as the Allies pushed toward victory in Europe, an ailing FDR met with Churchill and Stalin at the Black Sea resort of Yalta in the USSR

• A series of compromises were worked out concerning postwar Europe

(L to R) Churchill, FDR and Stalin at Yalta

YALTA AGREEMENTS• 1) They agreed to divide Germany into 4 occupied zones after

the war• 2) Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe• 3) Stalin agreed to help the U.S. in the war against Japan and to

join the United Nations

NUREMBERG WAR TRIALS

• The discovery of Hitler’s death camps led the Allies to put 24 surviving Nazi leaders on trial for crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and war crimes

• The trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany• “I was only following orders” was not an acceptable defense as 12 of

the 24 were sentenced to death and the others to life in prison, though some were released

Herman Goering, Hitler's right-hand man and chief architect of the German war effort, testifies at his trial. He was found

guilty of war crimes but avoided execution by swallowing potassium cyanide.

THE OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

• Japan was occupied by U.S. forces under the command of General MacArthur

• During the seven- year occupation, MacArthur reshaped Japan’s economy by introducing free-market practices that led to a remarkable economic recovery

• Additionally, he introduced a liberal constitution that to this day is called the MacArthur Constitution