The U.S. in World War II

Section 1: Mobilizing for Defense

Section 2: The War for Europe and North Africa

Section 3: The War in the Pacific

Section 4: The Home Front

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http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

Japanese Advances

• Japan dominates the Pacific Theatre and takes over many Allied territories– Guam– Wake Island– Hong Kong– Singapore– Burma– Indonesia– Thailand– Many other places

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/timeline.htm

Siege of the Philippines

• Japan invades the Philippine Islands• General Douglas MacArthur – commander

of Allied forces in the Pacific• 80,000 U.S. and Filipino troops battled

Japanese forces• Troops were fighting in Bataan when

MacArthur was ordered to leave• MacArthur promised to return and liberate

the Philippines “I shall return!”

Fall of Bataan and the Bataan Death March

• April 1942 the U.S. and Filipino troops surrendered

• It marked the largest capitulation in the history of an American military command

• 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops were marched a week with little to no food or water

• Those who fell behind were killed

• Many atrocities committed• ¼ are believed not to have

survived the journey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March

Prisoners on the march from Bataan to the prison camp, May 1942. (National Archives)

Fall of Corregidor

• Island fortress in Manila Bay

• Wainwright withdraws to island to hold out against the Japanese

• 11,000 troops endured constant bombardment

• Corregidor surrendered in May 1942

The island stronghold of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay has fallen after a lengthy siege and Japanese

troops lower the American flag.

Doolittle’s Raid

• Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led 16 bomber in the attack on Tokyo on April 18, 1942

• Took off from aircraft carriers in B-25s

• Hit at the heart of Japan

• Improved U.S. morale

• Hurt Japanese morale

Lt Col James H. Doolittle, USAAF (front), leader of the raiding force, wires a Japanese medal to a 500-pound bomb, during ceremonies on the flight deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), shortly before his force of sixteen B-25B bombers took off for Japan. The planes were launched on April 18, 1942.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Doolittle

Battle of the Coral Sea

• May 1942• 1st time the ships in

battle did not fire at each other

• Entire battle fought in the air

• Stopped Japan from planned attack of Australia

View of USS Lexington’s flight deckhttp://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/coralsea/coralsea.htm

Battle of Midway

• June 1942• 1st major Japanese defeat of the

Navy• Turning Point of the War• Admiral Chester Nimitz –

– Commander of the American Naval Forces in the Pacific

– flag ship the U.S.S. Missouri

• U.S. intercepted Japanese message and ambushed them near Midway Island

http://www.nimitz-museum.org/nimitzbio.htm

U.S.S. Yorktown afire after being hit by Japanese bombshttp://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/midway/midway.htm

Guadalcanal

• August 1942, U.S. Marines launched the 1st major Allied land offensive in the Pacific

• Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands was a strategic location for air support

• Called the ‘Island of Death’ by the Japanese• Marked Japan’s first defeat on land• It kept Japan from being able to hit Allied

shipping lanes and Allied held islands• Concluded in February 1943

Cairo Conference and Declaration

• Nov. 1943• Meeting between Churchill, FDR, and

Chiang Kai-Shek of China• Agree to terms of war concerning Japan

– Unconditional Surrender– Deprive Japan of all territory acquired since

1914– Return all land to China– Korea would be free and independent

U.S. Strategy in the Pacific

• Leapfrogging

• U.S. would jump from island to island, missing the more fortified ones, as they moved closer and closer to Japan

Yalta Conference

• Feb. 1945• Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin (Big Three)• Met at Yalta – Southern Crimea Peninsula on the Black Sea• Discuss Postwar Issues• At this time the outcome in Europe was predictable, but the war

in the Pacific was very questionable

Yalta Agreement

• Stalin agrees to enter the war against Japan 3 months after German surrender in return for land in the Far East

• For the Eastern half of Poland, Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe

• Germany would be divided into 4 occupation zones

• Berlin would also be divided• France and China would sponsor the conference

to found the United Nations

Battle of Leyte Gulf

• MacArthur returns to the Philippines in Oct. 1944 with 178,000 troops and 738 ships

• Japanese begin to use Kamikaze Pilots in this battle

• Kamikaze – Suicide plane• 424 Kamikaze pilots sank 16 ships and

damaged 80• Battle a total disaster for the Japanese in that

they lost most of their navy and would not be much of a threat for the rest of the war

Iwo Jima

• Feb. 1945• U.S. needed Iwo Jima in order to launch heavily loaded bombers at Japan• Heavily defended by the Japanese

– 20,700 Japanese troops entrenched

• U.S. attacked with 70,000 Marines• U.S. death toll – 6,000 Marines• Japanese death toll – 20,500

– (Only 200 survive)

• Iwo Jima famous for the picture of U.S. troops raising the Flag on top of Mt. Suribachi

http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm

Okinawa

• April 1945• Marines attack and 1,900 Kamikaze pilots sink

30 ships, and damage more than 300• Once on shore the battle would last until June

21, 1945• U.S. Causalities

– 5,000 Seamen– 7,600 Troops

• Japanese Causalities– 110,000 Troops

• Showed the U.S. how terrible an invasion of the main islands of Japan would be

Manhattan Project

• Project to develop an atomic bomb

• J. Robert Oppenheimer – Project Director

• 600,000 Americans were involved in the project, but did not know its purpose

• Very ‘Top Secret’

• Project had started when Albert Einstein had sent a letter to Roosevelt warning him of German scientist attempts at splitting atoms

Click for Manhattan Project Site: http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/index.htm

Using the Atomic Bomb

• As the war still rages in the Pacific, experts predict that an invasion of Japan would result in 1,000,000 U.S. lives and many more Japanese lives

• A proposal to use this new destructive weapon is considered by Truman

• Truman did not know about the Manhattan Project until after he became President

Atomic Bombs

• Little Boy – Uranium 235 Core

• Fat Man 1 – Plutonium Core (not sure it will work)

• Fat Man 2 – Created to Test

The actual Little Boy bomb ready to be loaded aboard the Enola Gay.

The actual Fat Man bomb on Tinian.

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/LBFM/index.shtml

Testing the Fat Man

• July 1945

• Alamogordo, New Mexico

• Fat Man was detonated on a platform

Trinity test site a few weeks after detonation.

Assembly of Fat Man on platform

See Video @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_test

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Trinity.html

Dropping the Bomb

• The U.S. warned the Japanese that if they didn’t surrender a destructive force would strike

• Official Reason – It would save more lives in the long run

• Enola Gay – B29 Bomber– Pilot Colonel Tibbets

• Dropped the Little Boy on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

http://www.enolagay.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay

Check out Hiroshima site: http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/e/peace.html

Hiroshima

• Before

http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/kids/KPSH_E/frame/hirotop11.html

• After

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

Japan Doesn’t Surrender

• Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945

• Real Reason for dropping the atomic bombs may have something to do the Soviet Union

• Agreements made at the Yalta Conference• May 8, 1945 V-E Day• August 6, 1945 1st Bomb dropped• Why would the U.S. want to prevent Soviet

participation in the Pacific?• What could we have done instead of dropping

the bombs?

NagasakiBefore and After

Panoramic view of the monument marking the hypocentre, or ground zero, of the atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

Japan Surrenders

• September 2, 1945

• Surrender signed aboard the U.S.S. Missouri

• MacArthur and Nimitz present

Occupation of Japan

• U.S. occupied Japan for seven years• General MacArthur commander• General Tojo and others were tried for war

crimes and executed• Japan’s economy was reshaped using free-

market practices• New Constitution Instituted

– Women suffrage– Guaranteed basic freedoms– Forever denounce war

Casualty Map Each symbol indicates 100,000 dead in the appropriate theater of operations

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-loss.htm

Casualty Map Each symbol indicates 100,000 dead in the appropriate theater of operations

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-loss.htm

United Nations

• General Assembly

• Security Council

• Economic and Social Council

• International Court of Justice

• Trusteeship Council

• Secretariat

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/un.htm

http://www.un.org/english/

General Assembly

• Policy Making Body of the U.N.

• All member nations belong

• All member nations have 1 vote each

Security Council

• Settles Diplomatic, Political, and Military Disputes

• 5 permanent members– U.S.– United Kingdom– Russia– France– China

• 11 members total (other 6 serve 2 year terms)

Other Bodies of U.N.

• Economic and Social Council– 18 members– Deals with human welfare and fundamental rights and freedoms– Has many groups including UNICF and the World Bank

• International Court of Justice– 15 Judges– Deal with questions and disputes of International Law

• Trusteeship Council– Promotes welfare of people in colonial territories and help them toward

self-government

• Secretariat – Deal with the day-to-day organizational and administrative concerns

Organizational Chart of U.N. http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart_en.pdf