After the attack at Pearl Harbor, American citizens wanted revenge against the Japanese.

General Douglas MacArthur fought to defend the Philippines against Japan but was forced to abandon the islands but promised to return.

 American and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese at the Philippines but were not treated humanely.

 The POWs were marched for 80 miles over 5 days with little food or water and many of them perished during the Bataan Death March.

Island Hopping and Chester Nimitz

 Admiral Chester Nimitz was commander of U.S. naval forces in the Pacific.

The Battle of Midway was an important turning point in the war in the Pacific where Allied forces devastated a Japanese invasion force headed back to Hawaii.

Important Battles to Remember

Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands August 1942 (Called the Island of Death)

Hell was red furry spiders as big as your fist, giant lizards as long as your leg, leeches falling from trees to suck blood, armies of white ants with bites of fire, scurrying scorpions inflamming any flesh they touched enormous rats and bats everywhere and rivers with waiting crocodiles.

Battle of Leyte Gulf October 1944 Japanese first use of kamikaze suicide bombers. (means divine wind in Japanese)

 Firebombing the capital of Japan, Tokyo caused massive amount of civilian deaths. (3/9/45)

80k 130k civilians were killed

Battle of Iwo Jima (Feb -1945) Only 22k Japanese held the tiny island due to its tactical importance to supplying and protecting the main island of Japan.

Only 212 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner the rest died fighting for the island some even committed hari kari

Battle for Okinawa June 1945- over 1,900 kamikaze attacks against the allies. Japanese lost over 100,00 soldiers defending the island.

The Americans lost 36 ships. 368 ships were also damaged. 763 aircraft were destroyed.

To bomb or not to bomb?

U.S.S. Indianapolis was the ship that brought the bombs to the Pactific

Enola Gay was the place that dropped the bombs

Hiroshima (Aug 6th 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug 9th)

Little Boy

Fat Man

Hiroshima - before

After