25:3 War in the Pacific

Bell Ringer: Skillbuilder pg. 786

U.S. Pacific Fleet

• 9 battleships • 3 aircraft carriers • 12 heavy cruisers • 8 light cruisers • 50 destroyers • 33 submarines • 100 patrol

bombers

Japan’s Asian Empire

Philippines 1941

• General Douglas MacArthur

• 80,000 defended against 200,000

• Bataan Peninsula• “I shall return”

Bataan Death March

• 75,000• Conditions and

casualties

“Tokyo bombed. Doolittle Do’od it” 1942

• Japan’s main island• Bombing raid military/industrial targets• moral

Battle of the Coral Sea 1942

• Aircraft carriers• Japanese want Port Moresby then Australia• Who won?

Battle of Midway June 1942Most important battle of the Pacific

• Turning point in Pacific Theater• Refueling station for ships and aircraft• Nimitz foils a “surprise” Jap invasion

Battle of Midway 1942

• Jap navy never recovered• U.S. moves toward Japan• 4 Jap Aircraft carriers v. 1 US carrier

Island Hopping

• Leapfrogging• Less fortified islands• Cut supply and communication lines• Move closer to Japan

Guadalcanal August 1942-February 1943

• Solomon Islands: air, land, sea• 1st major allied offensive• Henderson field• U.S. supplies to Australia/New Zealand

• 19,000 marines• 7100 casualties to 31,000• Turning point in the Pacific

Battle for Leyte Gulf October 1944

• MacArthur reclaims the Philippines• “People of the Philippines, I have returned”• Kamikaze attacks• Imperial Navy

Iwo Jima February 1945

• Critical location• Heavily defended• Mount Suribachi• casualties

Okinawa April 1945

• Casualties• Civilian population• significance

Manhattan Project

• J. Robert Oppenheimer• Atomic bomb• Pros and cons

Hiroshima

• August 6, 1945

• B-29 Enola Gay

• “Little Boy”

Nagasaki

• August 9, 1945• “Fat man”

VJ Day

• September 2, 1945• USS Missouri

Yalta ConferenceThe Big ThreeFebruary 1945

• FDR, Churchill, Stalin• Divide Germany into occupation zones• Free elections in Poland and eastern Europe• Creation of United Nations

Nuremberg War Trials

• Nazis on trial for crimes against humanity• Established important principle

Occupation of Japan

• General MacArthur• War trials: Hideki Tojo• Free market revolution• Democratic government• MacArthur Constitution