Pacific Theater of World War II
September 1931 - August 14, 1945
Prewar
Japan invades Manchuria
• September 1931• Start of World War II
1932
1937
1940
Axis Powers Formed
• September 1940 – Germany– Italy– Japan
Flying Tigers
• December 1941 – July 1942 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG)
• Secretly recruited from US Air Corps, Navy, and Marines• Approved by President Roosevelt to fight for China• Paid salary PLUS $500.00 bonus for each Japanese
plane taken out• Early success against Japanese fighters provided a key
morale boost to the Allies after Pearl Harbor.• Brought down 286 Japanese Aircraft in six months of
operations, with only 23 loses.
1941
Dec 8/7 1941
Attack on Pearl HarbourDec 7, 1941. “A day that will live in infamy”
Dec 8, 1941. United States declares war on Japan
1941
Philippines• US Commander General Douglas
MacArthur• December 9, 1941
– Japanese troops land on the Philippines
– MacArthur and US troops retreat to Bataan Peninsula
• February 22, 1942– Roosevelt orders Mac Arthur to
Australia– MacArthur vows to return to the
Philippines• April 9, 1942
– Remaining defenders of Bataan surrender to Japanese
Bataan Death March April 1942– 78,000 Prisoners
of War captured– 12,000 Americans
walked 60 miles to a POW camp
– No food or water– 5,000 died
May 1942• The last remaining forces in
the Philippines surrender.
Doolittle Raids• The Plan
– B52’s were put on an aircraft carrier (could take off but not land on carrier)
– Fly off carrier – Drop bombs on Tokyo– Land in China
• What really happened– Japanese saw carrier– Planes took off too soon– Dropped bombs on Tokyo– Not enough fuel to make it to
Chinese airfields– Crews crash landed or bailed out (71
of 80 crew members did not survive)
• The Effect– Boost to American morale as
it was the 1st time American bombs fell on Japan
– Japanese embarrassed and vowed to destroy the remains of US fleet.
1942
Code breakers broke the Japanese secret code and discovered
• March 1942• Japanese are unaware that US has broken code• Plan two different attacks on US
1. Attack on New Guinea2. Attack on Midway Island
• US sends two carriers to intercept the Japanese on their way to New Guinea in the Coral Sea
Battle of Coral Sea• May 7, 1942
• First naval battle carried out entirely by aircraft.
• USS Lexington and USS Yorktown damaged
• Result - Strategic Allied victory—halted the Japanese advance on Australia (to stop supply line)
The Battle Of MidwayJune 4-7 1942
Turning Point of the War for US
Yamamoto seeks to capture Midway atoll and thus confront and destroy the US Navy’s carrier forces.
Plan of Attack
The Battle of Midway• Japan still unaware that US has broken code• US is waiting for Japanese as they approach
Midway
The Battle of Midway
US forces:
3 carriers, 1 lost
~50 support ships, 1 destroyer lost
360 aircraft, 98 lost
307 dead
Japanese forces:
4 carriers, 4 lost
7 battleships, 0 lost
~150 support ships, 1 cruiser lost
264 aircraft, 228 lost
3058 dead
1943-1944
Two Pronged Attack
• Pacific Fleet advances through central Pacific– Led by Admiral Chester
Nimitz– Island-Hopping Warfare
• Troops advance from Solomon Islands to Philippines– Led by General Douglas
MacArthur
Tarawa
• 20 ships ran aground due to running into coral reef
• 5,000 Marines had to wade to beach– Only 1 in 3 made it ashore– 1,000 Marines died
• Result of Tarawa– Discovered that the one amphtrac made it ashore
and delivered Marines to the shore– More amphtracs were purchased
Marshall Islands
• Marines used Amphtracs to get ashore• A lot less casualities• Captured the Marshall Islands
Mariana Islands (Saipan, Tinian, Guam)
• Goal– Build a base for B-29s. They could bomb Japan
from the islands. • Captured August 1944• Bombing of Japan started a few months later
– Bombs kept missing their targets because they didn’t have enough fuel to adjust when they got to Japan
Iwo Jima
• February 1945• Mariana Islands air base was too far to bomb
with accuracy. Iwo Jima was halfway between Japan and Mariana Islands– 60,000Marines landed on Iwo Jima– 6,800 Marines killed in the capture of Iwo Jima
• Nimitz quoted as saying, “uncommon valor was a common virtue”
Bombing of Tokyo
• March 1945• Dropped firebombs
– Napalm (a jellied gas) that is designed to start fires.
• 80,000 civilians killed• 250,000 buildings
destroyed
Okinawa
• Why invaded Okinawa? – There was no sign the
Japanese were going to surrender
– Needed a base close enough to launch invasion of mainland Japan
• Captured June 22, 1945• More than 12,000 US soldiers
killed
MacArthur’s March from Solomon Islands to Philippines
• Guadalcanal• New Guinea• Molokai• Philippines
– Battle of Leyte• Largest naval battle in history• Japanese used Kamikaze
attacks by deliberately crashing planes into American ships.
– Long and grueling battle• >80,000 Japanese soldiers
killed• <1,000 surrendered• 100,000 Filipino civilians killed
• MacArthur returns to Philippines, “People of the Philippines, I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil.”
April 4, 1945
Manhattan Project
• Albert Einstein warns Roosevelt in 1939, that by using uranium “extremely powerful bombs of a new type may …be constructed.”
• Atomic Bomb program headed by General Leslie Groves.
• Secret laboratory set up in Los Alamos, NM headed by Robert Oppenheimer
• July 6, 1945, the 1st atomic bomb detonated in New Mexico.
Dropping of the Atomic Bomb • Hiroshima
• 90,000 to 100,000 persons were killed immediately
• 145,000 persons perish from the bombing by the end of 1945.
• Nagasaki• Leveled Area: 6.7 million square meters• Casualties
• Killed------73,884• Injured-----74,909• Total------148,793
• (Large numbers of people died in the following years from the effects of radioactive poisoning.)
Dropping the Bomb• Pros1. The drop of atomic bomb triggered
Japan to surrender and this ended the war faster.
2. This gave US superior strength since they have control over the atomic bomb.
3. This incident saves thousands of lives of American soldiers.
4. US become powerful and it has maintained peace with the atomic bomb as the needed leverage.
5. Many nations have witnessed the devastation brought by atomic bomb and this encouraged them to talk about peace talks rather than war.
• Cons1. Dropping the atomic bomb enable other countries
to start with their nuclear weapon buildup.2. This incident has destroyed countless Japanese
citizens who are innocent and has plagued radiation and serious medical condition like cancer.
3. Millions were spent in the development of the atomic bomb, a larger amount of money that can be use for further priorities should they decide not to allocate this on the atomic bomb preparation and development.
4. Firebombing also cause serious amount of damage.5. Japan has made serious sacrifices for their power
and for the lives of their people.6. Dropping the bomb also built a wall that divides
citizens of both nations.7. o one can control the means on how the bomb
caused devastation and the people that will be killed.
8. The incident has revealed the power that a nuclear weapon can do giving them the idea to utilize this weapon for battle.
Nuclear Strikes
Aug 6, 1945. Uranium bomb “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima, killing 140,000
Aug 9, 1945. Plutonium bomb “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki, killing 74,000
The Cost
The Cost