U.S.A. vs. Japan

The Spark to Pearl HarborGrant, Phil, Ryan

Conflict Begins

• Lend Lease – U.S. Supplied war material to the allied nations between 1941-45 (started nine months before Pearl Harbor).

Japan gets angry….

Unmet Expectations!!!• July 1941 Western

Powers halted trade with Japan

• Japan needed oil and other materials from the East Indies and South Asia

• This made a Pacific war unavaidable

December 7, 1941

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

Attack on U.S.

• December 7,1941, there was a surprise attack on the U.S.

• The Japanese were the attackers• Six Japanese carriers attacked the U.S.

with 183 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, level bombers and fighters

• Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged

The Cost of the Attack

2,403 188

64

29

United States of America Japan

Deaths:

Planes Lost:

• President F.D.R. had transferred the U.S. Fleet to Pearl Harbor

• Five of eight battleships were sunk at pearl Harbor

• Soon after Japanese eliminated American air force in Philippines

• Japanese army ashore in Malaysia

More on Pearl Harbor

• The day after attacks: meeting in congress, sign Declaration of War against Japan

• Led American’s to belive in the war– They woke up to what was going on

U.S. Fights Back!!

The Pacific War was on!!

Inside the War• U.S. could not use Air Force and Navy for

months due to its loss

• Japan gained much momentum while U.S. down, took:– Southeast Asia– Southwest Pacific– Into Indian Ocean

•U.S. power builds up and takes Japan

Battle of MidwayPacific Theater

Midway Atoll

Hawaii

U.S. Gains PowerWins battle of Midway

• Japanese launch 108 planes, sent to Midway

• U.S. knows attack is coming, after they broke Japan’s code

• Japan attacks first and second wave. U.S. dive- bombs Japanese carriers—knocks them out (They were in the water unprotected)

USS Yorktown

• Japan torpedo’s Yorktown• Japan drops out of Battle• U.S. defends land in Pacific, shows they can win

Okinawa: The Last Battle

Battle of Okinawa• Battle began in April 1945 to June 1945• Battle of Okinawa is known as the “Typhoon of

Steel”• The Japanese army attempted to occupy and defend the island

• More ships were used, troops ashore, supplies transported, bombs dropped, naval guns fired, than any other war in the Pacific

• Okinawa was the last major battle of the war

Deaths of Okinawa

• 38,000 Americans wounded and 12,000 killed• 107,000 Japanese and Okinawan soldiers killed• Around 100,000 Okinawan civilian casualties• There were more deaths than all the deaths caused

by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki• 34 ships were sunk by kamikazes, 368 damaged• Around 1/4 of the Okinawan people were killed

Video

Kamikaze’s

• Soldiers would commit suicide by flying planes into ships

• Pilots would try to make as much damage as possible

• Kamikazes were the most common and best-known form of Japanese suicide attack during World War II

Video

Firebombing

Firebomb Tokyo

• The firebombing raid on Tokyo was on February 23-24th where 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile

• U.S. attacked Tokyo again with 334 B-29s on March 9-10th

• Tokyo was in a firestorm• Was the most devastating single raid ever carried out by an aircraft in any war

• 72,489 Japanese died• 16 square miles of Tokyo was destroyed

• They set to work at once, sowing the sky with fire. Bursts of light flashed everywhere in the darkness like Christmas trees, lifting their flame high into the night, then fell back to earth in whistling bouquets of jagged flame. Barely quarter of an hour after the raid started, the fire, whipped by the wind, began to scythe its way through the density of that wooden city. As they fell, cylinders scattered a kind of flaming dew that skidded along the roofs, setting fire to everything it splashed, and spreading a wash of dancing flames everywhere. The first version of napalm. Roofs collapsed under the bombs ﾕ impact, and within minutes the frail houses of wood and paper were aflame, lighted from the inside like paper lanterns.

– Robert Guillain, a French journalist describing the firebombing

Atomic Bomb• The U.S. used Atomic

Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• On August 6th, 1945 the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima

• The bomb “Fat Man” was dropped three days later on Nagasaki

• Approximately 214,000 people died by the atomic bombs

• The U.S. bombed Japan in hopes of them surrendering

Video

Japan Surrenders

Officially ending

World War II.

Bibliography

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_midway

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bomb

• http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9052586

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

THE END