WWII in the Pacific

Bushido--Japanese Warrior Tradition

• Importance of Honor– To surrender is to disgrace

your family & your country

• Death in Service of the Emperor

• Japan has never been defeated

“The other enduring image of total sacrifice is that of the kamikaze pilot, plowing his plane packed with high explosives into an enemy warship.”

Japanese Expansion--Review

• Goals– 3000 Mile E. Asian Empire—1940 (4,000 mi. by 1942)– Access to Resources– Living Space

• Expansion– Korea, Manchuria, E./S. China, French Indochina,

Dutch East Indies…• Alliances:

– Axis Powers (Tripartite Pact)—1940– Japan-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact—1940

U.S. Response--Review

• Embargo scrap metal, iron, and steel (1940)

• Freeze All Japanese Assets

• Lend Lease Aid to China• Oil Embargo

– Japan had depended on U.S. for 80% of its oil Japanese Occupation of Indonesia

After Pearl Harbor: Executive Order 9066

Japanese Pacific Strategy

• Knock out US fleet at Pearl Harbor

• Occupy islands in the Pacific and defend them

• Hope Allies will grow weary of war and give up

Execution of Japan Strategy• Attack on Pearl Harbor

• Attack on Philippines– General Douglas MacArthur

flees Philippines– 78,000 American and Filipino

soldiers forced to surrender– Begins Bataan Death March

(20,000 + die)“Do not live in shame as a prisoner. Die, and leave no

ignominious crime behind you.”

The War: Episode 1; Scene 9: Bataan

Japanese Empire--1942

U.S. Strategy• Executive Order 9066• Island Hopping

– Military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan» Idea was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and

instead concentrate the Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan.

• Commanding Generals– General Douglass MacArthur (Army)– Admiral Chester Nimitz (Navy)

Doolittle Raids (April 18, 1942)• What: The first air raid by the U.S. to strike the

Japanese Home Islands• Purpose:

– Restore American Morale– Get Japanese to Question Their Leadership– Retaliation for Pearl Harbor

• Significance:– Little physical damage; but mental toll on Japanese

people…question leaders– Led Japanese to hastily plan attack on Midway (the last

U.S. base west of Hawaii)…Midway would become major turning point in Pacific

– Japan moved key aircraft carrier from Indian Ocean to defend home islands

Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942)

Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942)• Significance:

– Key Pacific Naval Battle…Turning point in the Pacific

– Halted the Japanese advance– Destroyed 4 Japanese

Carriers– Irreparable damage to

Japan’s Pacific Fleet…evens the playing field b/n 2 Navy

Guadalcanal (8/7/42-2/9/43)

• Aug. 7, 1942 –Feb. 9, 1943• “6 months of Hell”

– 1st Marines

• Significance– First US land victory in Pacific– Puts Japanese on retreat– Protect US supplies in Australia

& route b/n US & Australia– Prevents Japanese airfield from

being constructed

Guadalcanal

• “The average soldier on Guadalcanal ran a fever, wore stinking dungarees, loathed twilight, and wondered if the US Navy still existed.”– Sid Phillips

Guadalcanal

• Based on the fighting at Guadalcanal, what could you assume about the war with the Japanese?

Terror in the Pacific (1943-1944)• Tarawa (Nov. 20-23, 1943)

– First major battle in the Central Pacific• Need to take ctrl. of Gilbert Islands to open door to

Marshall and Marianas Islands…Need to gain airfields– Only 1 Japanese officer & 16 enlisted men surrendered

(out of 4,690)– Over 3,100 US casualties

• Saipan (June 15-July 9, 1944)– Coveted as airfield as put Japan’s home islands w/in range of

B-29– Japanese enlist soldiers and civilians to fight in battle (20,000

civilian deaths)

• Peleliu (Sept. 15-Nov. 27, 1944)– 9,834 Amer. casualties on an island w/ little strategic

importance…party of Japanese soldiers held out until 1947!!!

Historical Footage from the Battle of Peleliu

Battle of Leyte Gulf (Oct. 23-26, 1944)

• MacArthur: Fulfills Promise to Return to Philippines

• Largest Naval Battle in History– Opens up liberation of

Philippines– Cut off Japan from vital

supplies of Petroleum and Rubber

Kamikaze

• Kamikaze– “The other enduring image of total sacrifice is that

of the kamikaze pilot, plowing his plane packed with high explosives into an enemy warship.”

– “I am pleased to have the honour of having been chosen as a member of a Special Attack Force that is on its way into battle, but I cannot help crying when I think of you, Mum. When I reflect on the hopes you had for my future ... I feel so sad that I am going to die without doing anything to bring you joy.”

Iwo Jima (Feb. 19-March 26, 1945)

• First American attack on Japanese home islands

• Significance:– Emergency air base for

American bombers– 1st time Americans had more

killed/wounded than Japanese– What was this a sign of?

Iwo Jima—Feb. 1945

• General Kuribayashi– Brilliant; western educated

• Japanese Strategy– Fought entire battle

underground (16 mi. of tunnel; 1500 rooms)

– Strategy called for no Japanese survivors; planned to die

– Kill 10 Americans before they’re killed

"You must not expect my survival," General Kuribayashi wrote to his wife long before the invasion came. “

Americans Raise Flag at Iwo Jima

• 1st time Americans had more killed/wounded than Japanese

“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. ”

Mount Suribachi

Okinawa--April 1-June 22, 1945• Casualties:

– Allies: 40,000 +– Japanese: 100,000+– Civilians: 10s of 1,000s

• Objectives– Destroy Japan’s

merchant fleet– Estbl. US Air Bases to

target Jap. Industry– Create American supply

base

• “Typhoon of Steele”– Massive Allied Invasion– Ferocity of fighting and

kamikaze attacks… influences US decision to drop the bomb…why?

Okinawa

Discussion Prompt 1

• How did the intense fighting at Iwo Jima and Okinawa influence the U.S. decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Firebombing Japan (March 1945)• Target largest industrial

areas of Japan– Nearly every major

Japanese city firebombed

• Massive Civilian Casualties• Tokyo

– 80,000 die– 250,000 buildings

destroyed

Firebombing Discussion Prompts

• Why did General Curtis LeMay implement the use of firebombing against Japan?

• What impact did this have on the cities and populations of Japan? Give specific examples.

• Can the use of firebombing against Japanese civilian populations be justified?

An Eyewitness Account to the Firebombing of Japan

“Stacked up corpses were being hauled away on lorries. Everywhere there was the stench of the dead and of smoke. I saw the places on the pavement where people had been roasted to death. At last I comprehended first-hand what an air-raid meant. I turned back, sick and scared. Later I learned that 40% of Tokyo was burned that night, that there had been 100,000 casualties and 375,000 left homeless.”

  “A month after the March raid, while I was on a visit to Honjo on a particularly beautiful cherry-blossom day, I saw bloated and charred corpses surfacing in the Sumida River. I felt nauseated and even more scared than before.”

  “We ourselves were burned out in the fire raid of May 25th 1945. As I ran I kept my eyes on the sky. It was like a fireworks display as the incendiaries exploded. People were aflame, rolling and writhing in agony, screaming piteously for help, but beyond all mortal assistance.”  Fusako Sasaki

Japan Firebombing: A Path of Destruction

Name of Japanese city firebombed

Percentage of thecity destroyed

Equivalent in size to the following American city

Yokohama 58 Cleveland

Tokyo 51 New York

Toyama 99 Chattanooga

Nagoya 40 Los Angeles

Osaka 35.1 Chicago

Nishinomiya 11.9 Cambridge

Siumonoseki 37.6 San Diego

Kure 41.9 Toledo

Kobe 55.7 Baltimore

Omuta 35.8 Miami

Wakayama 50 Salt Lake City

Kawasaki 36.2 Portland

Okayama 68.9 Long Beach

Discussion Prompt 2

• What was Einstein requesting of FDR’s administration in his letter?

• Why do you think Einstein was making such a request, despite being a pacifist?

Manhattan Project (1942-1945)

• What?• Code-name for the U.S. program

to develop an atomic bomb• Leaders

– General Leslie Groves– J. Robert Oppenheimer

• Why Use It on Japan?– Estimate of US Casualties– Cost of Project– Intimidate Soviets– Retaliation for Pearl Harbor and

Bataan Death March

Los Alamos: July 16, 1945

Reflections on the Bomb: Los Alamos, July 16, 1945

• We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all felt that one way or another. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Reflections on the Bomb

• At Los Alamos during World War II there was no moral issue with respect to working on the atomic bomb. Everyone was agreed on the necessity of stopping Hitler and the Japanese from destroying the free world. It was not an academic question ‚ our friends and relatives were being killed and we, ourselves, were desperately afraid. -Joseph O. Hirschfelder, chemist

Dropping the Atomic Bomb• Hiroshima—Aug. 6, 1945

– Paul Tibbits the “Enola Gay” and “Little Boy”– 71,000 + killed

• Nagasaki—Aug. 9, 1945– Neil Bocks—”Boc’s Car” and “Fat Man”– 42,000+ killed

Japan’s Surrender--1945

• V-J Day: September 2, 1945

The Decision to Drop the Bomb

Socratic Seminar

Zinn…Acknowledging History• Was all this bloodshed and deceit-from Columbus to

Cortes, Pizarro, the Puritans-a necessity for the human race to progress from savagery to civilization? Was Morison right in burying the story of genocide inside a more important story of human progress? Perhaps a persuasive argument can be made-as it was made by Stalin when he killed peasants for industrial progress in the Soviet Union, as it was made by Churchill explaining the bombings of Dresden and Hamburg, and Truman explaining Hiroshima. But how can the judgment be made if the benefits and losses cannot be balanced because the losses are either unmentioned or mentioned quickly? Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States.

Socratic Seminar Tips: Inner Circle• Refer to the text, your research, paper, etc. when needed during the discussion.

This is not a test of memory. You are not "learning a subject;” your goal is to understand the ideas, issues, and values reflected in the text.

• Build on what others say: – Ask questions to probe deeper, clarify, paraphrase and add/synthesize a

variety of different views in your own summary. – Questions drive the discussion!

• Clarify: – “I think what Stephanie is trying to say is...”or “I’m not sure I understand what

you are saying, Jeff. What is....”• Paraphrase and add:

– “Lupe said that.... I agree with her and also think....”• Synthesize:

– “Based on the ideas from Tim, Sally, and Maya, it seems like we all think that Truman was....”

• Use your best active listening skills: – Nod, make eye contact, lean forward, provide feedback, and listen carefully

to others. • Participate:

– When you would like to speak, flip one of your talking chips into the center• Support your responses with evidence!• Speak up so that all can hear you.• Talk to each other, not the teacher.

Socratic Seminar: Outer Cirle• Take Notes on the Seminar:

– What was your partner doing when someone else was talking? Take notes.

– What were the major ideas being discussed in the seminar? (Did it remain focused on one or two?) Note the ideas that were discussed.

– How many times were direct references made to the text, notes, research, or essays? Note examples.

– How many times did your partner ask a question of another participant? Make note of a few of these questions.

– How many times did a participant respond to or build on the comment of another seminar participant? Did anyone ask another participant to clarify or explain something that someone said? Note examples.

– Was there any evidence that a participant changed his or her opinion or position as a result of what was discussed in the seminar? Make note of instances.

– How many times did your partner speak?– Tips/Suggestions for your partner.

• Post Reflective Questions for the Inner Circle on Padlet (min. 1 per person): http://padlet.com/jziegler1/abomb

Question #1

“Was the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan justified? Explain your answer.”

Question #2

“What were the consequences of the use of the atomic bombs both on Japan and the developing Cold War?”

Additional Discussion Prompts• Did it save lives on both sides?• Did it show the world how devastating the bomb was, discouraging future

use?• Since its use, we have spent $5.5 trillion on nuclear energy/bombs, could

this money have been used in other areas more effectively?• Did racism play a role in its use against the Japanese? What was the

difference between this and attack on Pearl Harbor? • Were there alternate solutions?• Was Japan a threat to the U.S. at this point in the war (especially w/ it

sanctions on Japanese trade)?• Were American terms unreasonable? If Japan had been allowed to keep

their emperor in power than would the bomb have been necessary?...• Should the U.S. have waited longer to drop the 2nd bomb? How much of a

role did the Soviet Union entrance into the war play in the decision to drop the 2nd bomb?

• How much of this was an attempt to intimidate the Soviets?• Is a nation safer with the bomb?

WWII…Setting the Stage for the Cold War…

Tehran Conference (Nov. 1943)• 1st major meeting of FDR, Churchill, and

Stalin (the Big 3)– Soviets agree to launch offensive on

Eastern Front as US/Brits launch invasion of France (1944)

– Soviets pledge to aid in war against Japan after Germany defeated

– Stalin agrees to formation of U.N. after the war

– FDR/Stalin discuss division Germany after the war

– Begin discussing fate of E. Europe… FDR calls for free elections if Baltic states were to join Soviet Union…Stalin pushes back on this…why?

Yalta: February 1945• 2nd mtg. of FDR, Churchill, Stalin• Soviets agree to join war v. Japan,

in exchange…– Soviet sphere of influence in

Manchuria; Sakhalin; and Kurile Islands

• FDR and Churchill concede E. European nations bordering USSR should be “Soviet friendly,” in exchange…– Soviets pledge free elections in all

land liberated from Nazi Germany• FDR & Stalin divided and weak

Germany– Churchill wants a strong

Germany…why?• Lay out framework for United

Nations (5 member Security Council)

Potsdam: July 1945Major Changes Since Yalta (5 Mos.)

• FDR dead, Churchill replaced as PM during conference.• Stalin only original…meet to discuss post-war Europe

– Truman very suspicious of Stalin; Ardent anti-communist• The United States reveals it has the A-bomb…

– Who might Truman have been trying to intimidate?• Allies agree Germany is to be divided into 4

occupation zones (US, GB, FR, & Soviet zones)– But disagree over issue of reparations…

• Revise German, Poland, Soviet border to benefit Soviets• Tensions high b/n U.S. & Soviets

Clement Atlee; Harry Truman; Joseph Stalin

United Nations• United Nations:

– International Peacekeeping Org.

– Regulate Atomic Energy

– Security Council– Difference between

League of Nations and United Nations?

Consequences of WWII--Europe

• Division of Germany and Europe and creation of “Iron Curtain”– Germany ÷ into a western (US, GB, FR) and eastern

sector (Soviet) as was Berlin– Stalin installs pro-Soviet governments in Bulgaria,

Hungary, and Romania– Stalin supports communist governments in Albania

and Yugoslavia– Stalin bars free elections in Poland…– Winston Churchill: “An Iron Curtain has descended

across the continent”

Consequences of WWII--Europe

• The creation of two visions of the post war world: – American/Western Vision: UN to deter aggression

• Collective security = NOT appease future aggressor nations.

• Establish “friendly” governments– USSR: Treated as major power

• Disarm/weaken Germany• Russia would be surrounded by "friendly" governments

in Eastern Europe

Consequences of WWII--Europe• The Cold War Begins: US & USSR emerge as 2

superpowers

Consequences of WWII--Europe

• Introduction of Nuclear Weaponry and the arms race

Conference Summary Questions• Summarize the major agreements made at the…

– Tehran Conference– Yalta Conference– Potsdam Conference

• How did the relationship between the 3 major powers change over the course of the 3 meetings?

• In what ways did the Potsdam Conference foreshadow the coming Cold War?

• What might be meant by a Cold War?• Why do you think the U.S. and Soviet Union

emerged from WWII as the sole superpowers?

Summary Questions

• How was the Potsdam Conference a sign of the growing tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union and the coming Cold War.

• Why do you think the U.S. and Soviet Union emerged from WWII as the sole superpowers? What might be meant by a Cold War?

Potsdam: Setting up the Nuremberg Trials

• “… War criminals and those who have participated in planning or carrying out Nazi enterprises involving or resulting in atrocities or war crimes shall be arrested and brought to judgment. Nazi leaders, influential Nazi supporters and high officials of Nazi organizations and institutions and any other persons dangerous to the occupation or its objectives shall be arrested and interned.…”

• — Protocol of the Proceedings, Potsdam Conference, August 1945

Immediate Consequences of WWII

• U.S. and Soviet Union establish themselves as dominant powers: bipolar world

• Initiates start of the Cold War; “Iron Curtain”– Division of the world into US/Soviet Spheres

• Nuclear Arms Race• United Nations• Nuremberg Trials• Massive human/economic costs

– Why does US offer to help rebuild Europe/Japan