Pacific Theatre inWorld War II

GeneralHiddeki Tojo

• Prime Minister of Japan during World War II

• led country to war with the U.S.

Because of the distraction of

fighting Germany in Europe, the

Japanese viewed British weakness as an opportunity for

expansion into Southeast Asia.

[Image source: http://www.library.vcu.edu/pdfgif/speccoll/sykes/sykes005.jpg]

The Japanese biggest obstacleto realizing their

dream of a Greater East Asia

Co-Prosperity Sphere was the United States of

America.

AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto

• Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy

• architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor

“In the first twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.”

- Admiral Yamamoto to a memberof the Cabinet in 1940

Britain gives Yamamoto the idea that a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is possible.

“If all men are brothers, then why do the wind and the waves rage?”

Haiku sent by Emperor Hirohito to the Cabineton the eve of war with the United States

Following a period of prevarication,

Ambassador Nomura was

directed by his government to

deliver a formal declaration of war to

the United States minutes before the

attack on Pearl Harbor.

As negotiations progressed

supposedly aimed at averting war, Vice-AdmiralNagumo had

already set-sail with an armadato attack Pearl

Harbor.

“Climb Mount Niitaka.”

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida

trained and commanded the

Pearl Harbor strike force.

Pearl Harbor,7th December 1941

“Tora, Tora, Tora!”

U. S. S. Arizona

1,104 men were killed when a bomb blew up the forward magazine.

U. S. S. West Virginia

The Japanese declaration of war arrived after the attack on Pearl Harbor had begun.

America found itself embroiled in a new kind of war requiring a new set of rules-of-engagement.

“We have awakened a sleeping giant and instilled

in it a terrible resolve.”

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Many Americans

viewed Japan’s behaviour as treacherous and wantedto extract revenge.

“We have awakened a

sleeping giant and instilled

in it a terrible resolve.”

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Doolittle’s Raid provided a much-needed boost to morale.

The United States

suddenly found itself having to

mobilize for war on a

global scale.[Image source: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USNatWar/USN-King-1.html]

Japanese treatment of

American POWs only reinforced

stereotyping and the vilification of an entire people, heightening the

desire for revenge.

With the U.S. Navy neutralized, Japan quickly conquered large portions of Asia and the Pacific.

MidwayIsland

The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the Pacific War.

At the battle of Midway, the Japanese lost four of the six carriers

that had attacked Pearl Harbor.

The victory at Midway allowed the United States to go on the offensive.

American forces fought in the jungles of Guadalcanal, Papua-

New Guinea, and Burma.

Navajo Indians, known as “code-talkers”, often operated as radiomen, their transmissions

confounding Japanese Intelligence.

American forces pursued a campaign of island-hopping through the central and southern Pacific.

Japan, like her erstwhile-ally

Germany, had an Achilles Heel:

a two-front war; she had the bulk

of her army committed to

conquering China.

Many peoples saw World War II as more than a war to combat fascism.

Many of these pilots were trained to fly kamikaze suicide attacks on American warships.

As the war progressed, out of desperation,

the Japanese were forced to

use younger and younger pilots.

When the Marines captured Iwo

Jima, the end of the war was near.

The United States hastened the end of the war when it dropped atomic bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The resulting carnage convinced Japan that continued resistance was futile.

The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.