War in the Pacific

Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor

• The Japanese attack Clark Field, an American airbase in the Philippines.

McArthur did not expect this. .

• An immediate attack was not expected.

• About half of his air force was destroyed.

McArthur withdraws his troops

• Goes to the Bataan peninsula

• sets up his defenses and hopes the navy will be able to evacuate his men from the Philippines.

McArthur holds out for 4 months

• After realizing it was hopeless, he is told to escape to Australia.

• He does not want to abandon his soldiers, and promises “I shall return.”

Trouble in Bataan

• As the Bataan peninsula fell, 76,000 men became prisoners of war.

Prisoners were split into groups

• They were made to march 60 miles to a railroad.

• Already weak from lack of food, at least 10,000 died during the march.

• Many were executed when they could not keep up.

• Those who made it to the railroad were shipped to prison camps where they stayed for the remainder of the war.

A first hand account of the march• Troops started to march in a long column on a dusty road without food and water.

For many of the Bloody, frail men, this was the last march.

One man fell from exhaustion and was then flatten by a tank, as all the other troops witnessed this horrible action, other soldiers were hit by Japanese trucks passing by.

The P.O.W's were forced to stand next to a fresh stream but weren't allowed to drink from it, even though they were exhausted and dehydrated , after a while one soldier could not take it any more, he ran to the stream and fell in, face first, to drink. Immediately one of the Japanese guards ran over, pulled his sword out and cut his head off..

A great many men reached the end of their endurance. The dropouts became numerous. They fell on the roadside, some making no effort to rise. Groaning and weeping, some succeeded while others fell back helplessly.

• As the march continued, the diseased, starving men staggered up the dusty road, prodded by the Japanese guards to keep moving. As one soldier was dying, he cried for water. He died on the dusty road. The heat of the day was so intense that they were half crazy from thirst. They arrived at a small stream that was contaminated with filthy water, a bloated corpse filled with maggots, this filthy stream the P.O.W's were allowed to drink from , as the Japanese guards laughed at them.

Death March ended after 6 days, where the P.O.W's boarded a train to the Death Camp.

Bataan• The war camps were only expecting 25,000

men. They could not hold and feed 76,000. The death of US men could only help this situation.

• Japan never ratified the Geneva Convention, which states how you treat POW’s.

• Japanese tradition holds that those who surrender rather than die on the battlefield are cowards unworthy of respect.

Knowledge of the Bataan Death March,

• as it is now called, did not reach the U.S. for three years.

• After the war, the general in charge of the march was executed for war crimes.

Battle of the Coral Sea

• This was the first navy battle to be fought entirely by aircraft.

• The battle was a draw.• But it prevented the

Japanese from invading Australia.

Island hopping, as we called it, was a very effective strategy for

the United States.

Midway and Guadalcanal

• Mid 1942• These battles changed the course

of the war in the Pacific.

The Japanese hoped . . .

• To destroy what remained of the Pacific Fleet by luring it into battle at Midway Island.

Battle of Midway• Fought

entirely from the air.

• The U.S. demolished 3 of 4 carriers, as bombs stacked on their decks exploded in the attack.

• They also lost 250 planes.

After our victory at Midway Islands. . .

• Our goal was to capture Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

• 11,000 marines landed on the island in August 1942

Jungle Warfare

• Guadalcanal was our first taste of jungle warfare.

• Japanese were masters at hiding in swamps, in trees. . .

• When Japan’s forces slipped off the island in Feb. 1943, it went undetected, until the marines discovered their empty boats.

October 1944

• American troops invade the Philippines.

• McArthur says, “I have returned.”

While troops were fighting their way inland. . .

• The greatest naval battle ever was developing off the coast of the Philippines.

• It was called the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

• The battle saw the first use of kamikazes or suicide planes

• Regardless of this tactic, the Japanese navy was virtually destroyed.

• But not until June 1945 were the Philippines in allied hands.

The next major battle

• Iwo Jima• one of the bloodiest of

the war• November 1944,

America pounds Iwo Jima from the air.

• This lasts 74 days.

February 1945• marines storm the

beaches of Iwo Jima.• After 3 days of combat,

the U.S. has only advanced 700 yards inland.

• Almost 25,000 Japanese fought us- and they fought till the last defender. Only 216 were taken as prisoners.

There were no front lines. The Marines were above ground and the Japanese were below them underground. The Marines rarely saw

an alive Japanese soldier. The Japanese could see the Marines perfectly.

April-June 1945• 1300 warships• 180,000 combat

troops• all gathered to drive

the Japanese out of Okinawa.

• After 3 months, 7200 Japanese surrender.

• The way was open for an invasion of Japan!!!

American soldiers begin to prepare for the invasion of Japan.• Unknown to them, however, work was

nearly done on a bomb that would make an invasion unnecessary.

Albert Einstein

• A Jewish physicist• writes of a powerful

bomb that Germany was already working on.

• The U.S. needed to develop this first, and the Manhattan Project was developed.

Einstein• Concern for man himself

must always constitute the chief objective of all technological effort -- concern for the big, unsolved problems of how to organize human work and the distribution of commodities in such a manner as to assure that the results of our scientific thinking may be a blessing to mankind, and not a curse." "

July 16, 1945• In New Mexico the

U.S. detonated the first atomic bomb.

• The explosion shattered windows 125 miles away.

• The development of the atomic bomb would lead to new technologies and an arms race in the future.

Now we have it,but should we use it?

4 Alternatives

• Invasion of Japan

• Blockade

• Demonstrate

• Soften the U.S. stance to unconditional surrender

The heavy American casualties at Iwo Jima and

Okinawa were a factor in the U.S.

support of using the bomb.

The final decision rests with Harry Truman

• President for only 3 months.

• (takes over after FDR dies suddenly in April)

• He believes it should be used.

• After the bombing he says, “you should do your crying at Pearl Harbor.”

August 6, 1945

• An atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, an industrial and military center in Japan.

• Estimated 140,000 dead• buildings were

demolished, people killed and disfigured.

3 days later- August 9, 1945

• Bomb is dropped on Nagasaki

• 70,000 killed and 70,000 injured.

Pictures of the aftermath

August 14, 1945

• Japan accepts terms for surrender.

• September 2, 1945- the agreement is signed.

• THE WAR IS OVER

• A conference is formed to determine what to do with Japan. Truman, Churchill and Stalin meet.

Okay let’s go.10 question quiz coming up.

All fill-in’s