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The War in the Pacific

Chapter 27

Lesson 5

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The Pacific Front

  • Japan attacked airfields in Philippines and Pearl Harbor
  • Invaded Thailand, Malaya, Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong
  • Mid-December, landed in Philippines, captured Manilla
  • Gen. Douglas MacArthur forced to retreat to Bataan Peninsula

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General Douglas MacArthur

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Japanese Take the Philippines

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  • Battle raged on Bataan for months
  • April 9, 1942 - Allied troops surrendered
  • Japanese forced prisoners to march to a prison camp 60 miles away
  • 76,000 prisoners started, 54,000 reached camp alive
  • FDR ordered MacArthur to leave before the surrender
  • “I shall return”

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The Island hopping Strategy

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  • American morale in Pacific sank
  • U.S. bombed Tokyo in April 1942
    • James Doolittle
  • May 1942, U.S. battleships defeated Japan
    • Battle of the Coral Sea
  • June, 1942, Battle of Midway
    • Destroyed aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes
  • U.S. now prepared to go on offensive

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The Island hopping Strategy (Cont.)

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  • U.S. would attack and control key islands as base for attacking others
  • Eventually work way back to Japan and Philippines
  • August 1942-Feb. 1943 - Guadalcanal
  • June 1944-Guam and other nearby islands
    • Gave U.S. a base to reach targets in Japan
  • Oct. 1944 destroyed Japanese fleet at Leyte Gulf in Philippines

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On Toward Japan

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  • U.S. closing in on Japan
  • March 1945 - Iwo Jima
  • June - Okinawa
  • Battles were very costly
    • Thousands of casualties
  • Japan’s air force destroyed
  • Tokyo bombed regularly
  • Japan unleashed kamikazes
    • Japanese pilots

intentionally crash planes

into U.S. ships

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The Atomic Bomb Ends the War

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  • Japan refused to surrender - fight to the death
  • FDR gathered group of scientist to study atom bomb technology
  • Britain had also been researching
  • Top-secret Manhattan Project
  • 1942-scientists at U of Chicago built first nuclear reactor
  • Secret lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico built an atomic bomb
  • July 16, 1945, tested bomb in Alamogordo, NM

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Deciding to Use the A-Bomb

  • U.S. official debated on whether to use bomb
  • President Truman would decide
  • Advisors warned a conventional invasion have high casualties
  • Allies warned Japanese
  • Japan ignored warning
  • Truman ordered use of bomb

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Japan Surrenders

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  • Aug. 6th, 1945, B29 bomber, Enola Gay, Hiroshima bomb
  • 3 days later-Nagasaki
  • Between 100,000-190,000 killed
  • Emperor Hirohito surrendered
  • Aug. 15, 1945 - V-J Day
  • Allies put top German and Japanese leaders on trial for war crimes
  • Nuremberg, Germany and Tokyo, Japan

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Costs of War

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  • World War II was most destructive conflict in history
  • More than 55 million dead
    • Mostly civilians
  • 332,000 Americans dead, 800,000 wounded
  • Rebuilding of the world’s nations would take time
  • World order had to be resestablished