Bellringer

1.Which of the following

was a key turning point in 2.What Axis country
Germany’s invasion of the surrendered in 1943?
Soviet Union?
a)Blitz
b)Battle of the Bulge
c)Battle of El Alamein
d)Battle of Stalingrad
 Bellringer
1.Which of the following 2.What Axis country
was a key turning point in surrendered in 1943?
Germany’s invasion of the Italy
Soviet Union?
a)Blitz
b)Battle of the Bulge
c)Battle of El Alamein
d)Battle of Stalingrad
 Terms and People

• Bataan Death March – 65-mile march suffered by American and Filipino

prisoners of the Japanese
• Douglas MacArthur – American general who led U.S. forces in the battles to
defeat Japan
• island-hopping – the act of recapturing some Japanese-held islands while
bypassing others
• kamikaze – Japanese pilot who undertook a suicide mission
• Manhattan Project – code name for a collaboration of Allied scientists who
raced to test the first atomic bomb
• Hiroshima – city in Japan where the first atomic bomb was dropped in August
1945
• Nagasaki – city in Japan where the second atomic bomb was dropped in
August 1945
 Terms and People )
• Battle of Guadalcanal- First Allied Counterattack against Japanese forces.
Allied victory forced Japan to abandon the island
• Battle of Midway- Pacific naval battle. Americans broke the Japanese code &
knew the location & date of the attack. Major American victory and turning
point of the Pacific war.
• Battle of Iwo Jima- 1945 Battle between Japan & invading US troops. Island
needed for airplanes and bombing raids against Japan
• Battle of Okinawa- 1945 WWII victory for Allied troops that resulted in
deaths of 10,000 Japanese defenders and 12,000 Americans.
While the war was coming to an end in Europe, the
Allies continued to fight the Japanese in the Pacific
Japanese Aggression
• When Japan invaded
Manchuria in 1931,
the League of
Nations condemned
the action, which led
to Japan’s
withdrawal from the
League.

• Japan attacked
China again in
1937, starting
the Second Sino-
Japanese War.
 • By 1939, Japan controlled
a quarter of China
including all of its
seaports.

Nanjing Massacre
 Chinese Resistance
• Japanese aggression spurs
“United Front” policy between
Chinese Communists and
Nationalists
• Guerilla warfare ties down half
of the Japanese army
• Yet continued clashes between
Communists and Nationalists
– Communists gain popular
support, upper hand by end
of the war

8
• World War II broke
out in Europe in
1939. The
following year,
Japan signed the
Tripartite Pact
with Germany and
Italy, cementing
the alliance known
as the Axis Powers.
 US Involvement in WWII before Pearl Harbor
• US initiates “cash and carry”
policy to supply Allies with
arms
• “lend-lease” program: US
lends war goods to Allies,
leases naval bases in return
• US freezes Japanese assets
in US
• US places embargo on oil
shipments to Japan
• Japanese Defense Minister
Tojo Hideki (1884-1948)
plans for war with US
11
Japanese Defense Minister Tojo Hideki
• Japanese nationalist & general. He took
control of Japan during WWII. Later executed
for war crimes.
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941

A date which will live in infamy!

The Japanese
attack on Pearl
Harbor brought
the United States
into World War II.

As the United
States mobilized for
war, Japan
expanded deeper
into Asia.
 Fleet Admiral Yamamoto
Commander of the Japanese Fleet.
Planned the attack on Pearl Harbor

“The US fleet is a dagger pointed at

our throat and must be destroyed.”
“I can run wild for six months,after
that, I have no expectation of success.”
- Yamamoto, during discussions on the
planned Pearl Harbour Attack

Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

 Dec 1941
• Attack on Pearl Harbor
Dec 7th
• Dec 8th Japan invades US
held territory of the
Philippines
• The US has only one
hope: the aircraft carrier
(3 survived Pearl Harbor)
 Japan conquers: Singapore, Hong
Kong, Burma, Philippines and other
Pacific Islands
• General Douglas •MacArthur Escapes but
MacArthur led a vows to
group of Americans & Return to the Philippines
Filipinos in a doomed
defense.
 Bataan Death March
• May 1942 – Japan
Gained control of
the Philippines
• Forced March.
Several hundred
U.S. soldiers and
10,000 Filipino
soldiers died
 Bataan Death March
• “. . . A macabre litany of heat, dust,
starvation, thirst, flies, filth, stench, murder,
torture, corpses, and wholesale brutality
that numbs the memory.”
 General Douglas MacArthur
• Commander of US
troops in the southwest
Pacific during World
War II. Later
administered Japan
after the war.
 Japanese Victories

• Japan
• Establishes
“Greater
East Asia Co-
23
Prosperity
Sphere”
World War II in Asia and the Pacific

24
 US/Allied Strategy
• Reclaim the Pacific:
Island hopping Campaign: one island at a
time, clear it and use it as a base of
operations for the next island.
Must clear the oceans of the Japanese Navy
first!
(Large challenge with a crippled
Navy and only 3 Aircraft carriers!)
 Japanese Strategy
• Make the war so horrible the US will give up
• They dug into tropical islands, built
underground bunkers and fortresses.
• heavy artillery, suicide attacks
• Bleed the enemy dry, Japanese rarely
surrender but die to the last man!
Early 1942: The US strikes back
• Doolittle raid-Bombs
Tokyo
• May 1942: Battle of
Coral Sea, first ever
carrier vs. carrier
battle- US looses an
Aircraft carrier
 Battle of Coral Sea
•May 7, 1942
•Strategic Allied
victory—halted the
Japanese advance on
Australia
First naval battle
carried out entirely by
aircraft.
The enemy ships never
even came into contact
with each other
American naval victories in the
Pacific also turned the tide of the war.

• The Battle of Midway

in June 1942 was fought
entirely by air.

• U.S. bombers launched

from aircraft carriers
destroyed four Japanese
carriers and 250 planes.

• After Midway, Japan

made no further
advances in the Pacific.
Midway June 4, 1942
• US lost one of two
carriers
• Japanese lost four
irreplaceable aircraft
carriers in five minutes!
• The Japanese would be
on the defensive for the
rest of the war.
• Turning point of the
Pacific war
 Admiral Chester Nimitz
• Commander in
Chief, United
States Pacific Fleet
 Japan did not play by traditional rules in war

“Kamikaze” pilots flew Japanese soldiers refused

planes into battleships to surrender & tortured
& aircraft carriers Allied prisoners of war
 Island Hoping: The first step:
• Invaded by the US Guadalcanal
Navy and Marines
August 1942
Took the Marines 6
months to take the
island from Japan
Allies lost 2000 killed
Japan Lost 25,000
 The problem for the
Allies was the time &
troops it would cost to
retake the thousands of
islands the Japanese
controlled in the Pacific
The U.S. developed an
island-hopping strategy
to skip the heavily
defended islands & seize
islands close to Japan
From 1943 to 1945,
the Allies took back
the Philippines & were
movingtook
The fight for Guadalcanal in on Japan
6 months
& cost 25,000 Japanese & 2,000 U.S. lives
 A list of “D-Days”
• Nov 1943 Bouganville
• Nov 1943 “ Bloody” Tarawa
• June 1944 Siapan
• July 1944 Guam and Tinian
• Oct 1944 Allies invade the Philippines
• Feb 1945 Iwo Jima
• April 1945 Okinawa
(falls in June)
 Oct 1944 Allies invade the Philippines

• MacArthur Returns • Battle of Leyete Gulf-

• The US retakes the largest naval battle of
Philippines WWII.
“I shall return”
 Kamikazes
• Japanese suicide pilots
who loaded their planes
with bombs and
crashed them into
enemy ships.
Soldier’s Lives
• HARSH
• Subtropical diseases
• Humid, sticky, and
always hot.
• Average age was 19
• Death was around
every corner.
 In 1945, the Allies
won the islands of
Iwo Jima & Okinawa
From these islands, the
U.S. began firebombing
Japanese cities
 Battle of Iwo Jima

• Feb. 1945, 35,000 Marines land in

one day on this tiny island.
• 36 days of combat; 7,000
Americans lost, 22,000 Japanese
lost.
• Bombardment of Japanese
factories and military bases can
begin.
• Japan lost almost of all of its
territory.
A most famous Photo
• Taken on Iwo Jima
• February 23, 1945
• On March 16, when
Iwo Jima was declared
secured, 6,821
Americans and 21,000
Japanese (the entire
force) had died
 Battle of Okinawa
• April of 1945, more than
180,000 Americans landed
on this island.
• They face a Japanese army
half their size
• The Japanese fight to the
end, losing over 110,000
soldiers.
 Despite losing control of
the Pacific & withstanding
firebomb attacks, Japan
refused to surrender
By May 1945, the war
in Europe was over &
U.S. began preparing for
a land invasion of Japan

…But, perhaps a land invasion was not necessary…

 Planning for the
end
• May 1945 Allied forces
plan Operation Olympic,
the invasion of Japan
itself in Nov.
• US planners feared
casualty estimates of one
million for the Allies!
• Japan was desperate but
unwilling to surrender!
In April 1945, FDR died & his VP Harry Truman
had to decide how to end the war in the Pacific
 In July 1945, the Truman learned the atomic
Big Three met at the bomb was ready & issued the
Potsdam Conference to Potsdam Declaration to Japan:
discuss the end of WWII “surrender or face destruction”
 Manhattan Project
• Allied scientists
discovered how to
harness the energy
released when
atoms are split
• President Truman
makes the decision
to use the atomic
bombs
 The Manhattan Project:
Los Alamos,
NM

I am become
Major General death,
Lesley R. Groves
the shatterer
of worlds!
Dr. Robert
Oppenheimer
 Tinian Island, 1945

Little Boy Fat Man

Enola Gay Crew

Hiroshima – August 6, 1945

© 70,000 killed
immediately.
© 48,000 buildings.
destroyed.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning &
cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945

© 40,000 killed
immediately.
© 60,000 injured.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning
& cancer later.
Hiroshima after the Bomb

57
World War II was over
VJ Day
• August 14, 1945 -
Japanese accepts
unconditional
surrender
• Celebration parties
erupt throughout
every allied country!
 The End
• September 2, 1945 -
Formal Japanese
surrender ceremony
on board the
MISSOURI in Tokyo
Bay as 1,000 carrier-
based planes fly
overhead.
 Geographical and chronological scope

1937-1941 Japanese
expansion 1945-51 End of the
Conflict & Occupation of
Japan
1937-42
Japanese
expansion and
push through SE
Asia

1942-1945
Allied strategies
against Japan

M Esterman 2009 63
 Cost of War

• Germany- 3 million combat deaths (3/4ths on the

eastern front)
• Japan – over 1.5 combat deaths; 900,000 civilians dead
• Soviet Union - 13 million combat deaths, 15 million
civilian dead
• U.S. – 300,000 combat deaths, over 100,000 other
deaths
• When you include all combat and civilian deaths,
World War II becomes the most destructive war in
history with estimates as high as 60 million, including
25 million Russians.
 Estimated Casualties
of World War II

Military Military Civilian

Dead Wounded Dead
Allies
Britain 264,000 277,000 93,000
France 213,000 400,000 350,000
China 1,310,000 1,753,000 1,000,000
Soviet Union 7,500,000 14,012,000 15,000,000
United States 292,000 672,000 6,000
Axis Powers
Germany 3,500,000 5,000,000 780,000
Italy 242,000 66,000 153,000
Japan 1,300,000 4,000,000 672,000
Whether to Drop the Atomic Bomb:
Critical Thinking Decision C