WWII: The War in the Pacific

Ends

Admiral Yamamoto

Pearl Harbor from Cockpit of Japanese Pilot

Pearl Harbor: Dec 7th 1941

The Battle of Midway• The Battle of Midway

turned the tide of WWII in the Pacific.

• The Japanese were forced to be on the defensive.

• General MacArthur: “Hit ‘em where they ain’t, let ‘em die on the vine.” He began his island hopping strategy.

General MacArthur

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima and other Pacific Battles

• Guadalcanal (1943)• Leyte Gulf (1944)• Iwo Jima (1945)

– All battles were bloody on both sides. Although the Japanese lost more men, they refused to surrender. The U.S. continued to make their way towards Japan.

American View of Japanese

American View of Japanese

• After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were seen as the enemy.

• Encouraged by government propaganda, even Japanese Americans (that were U.S. citizens and were American born) were viewed as enemies.

Japanese American Internment

• Roosevelt issues the Executive Order 9066: Internment of Japanese and property loss of Japanese.

• From 1941-1946, over 31,000 Japanese/Japanese Americans were interned in 16 locations. Most of them lost their property as well.

• 2/3 of those interned were American citizens.

Japanese Internment

Potsdam Conference• The Potsdam

Declaration was created by Truman, Stalin, and Churchill and called for the surrender of Japan.

• It outlined the terms of surrender for Japan. The agreement stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction".

• Japan ignored the ultimatum.

The U.S. Drops the Atomic Bomb

• On August 6, 1945 the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese city of over 350,000 people. 73,000 people were killed.

• On August 9, 1945 a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. 37,500 people were killed.

• 100,000’s died of radiation poisoning and cancer

• Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945.

The Manhattan Project

• Dr. Robert Oppenheimer

• “I have become death• the shatters of

worlds” death, the shatterer of worlds!

Little Boy and Fat Man

Atomic Bomb

Hiroshima

Ground temperature 7000 degrees

Hurricane force winds 980 miles per hour

Energy released 20,000 tons of TNT

Building destroyed 62,000 buildings

Killed immediately 70,000 people

Dead by the end of 1945 140,000 people

Total deaths related to the A-bomb 210,000 people

How should the atomic bombs have been used to

end the war against Japan? (Fortune Magazine, 1945)

Statement: Percent in Agreement:

We should not have used any atomic bombs at all. 4.5 %

We should have dropped one in an unpopulated region. If they didn’t surrender, we could have dropped the second on a city.

13.8 %

We should have used the two bombs on cities just as we did. 53.5 %

We should have quickly used many more bombs on Japan before they had a chance to surrender.

22.7 %

Don’t know 5.5 %

• MacArthur takes charge of the U.S. occupation of Japan.

• Japan must demilitarize.

• Many leaders were charged as war criminals.

• The U.S. sets up Japan’s democracy.

• Hirohito had to declare that he was not a god—he became a figurehead.

The Effects of the Defeat on Japan

WWII Casualties: Europe

WWII Casualties in Asia