2. Objectives
• Summarize the course of the war and identify and explain
the significance of the most important military
engagements.
• Explore the reasons that President Truman decided to
use the atomic bomb against Japan.
• Articulate the reasons behind the Japanese surrender,
and the role the atomic bomb played in that decision .
3. Terms and People
•Manhattan Project – code name of the project that
developed the atomic bomb.
•Atomic Bomb – nuclear weapon used in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
•Hiroshima – Seaport in Japan where the first atom bomb
was dropped.
•VJ Day – Victory in Japan, August 15, 1945
•United Nations - Organization founded in 1945 to promote
peace.
4. What was the nature of the fighting in Asia and the
Pacific? How did America’s involvement end the
Second World War?
The war in the Pacific was ongoing since Pearl Harbor. It
was not until later in the war when we would reach the
first islands of Japan and brutally fight to victory.
After hundreds of thousands of lives were ruthlessly
killed, Truman made the decision to drop atomic bombs
on Japan, ultimately ending the war.
5. Post Pearl Harbor, War still raged in the Pacific, where
the Allies were fighting their way toward Japan.
• Battles during the island-hopping campaign were
fierce, with high casualties on both sides.
• Kamikazes crashed into American ships. Japanese
troops fought to the death.
• An intense bombing campaign leveled much of Tokyo.
Still, Japan refused to surrender.
7. Iwo Jima
• The battle for Iwo Jima took place in February of
1945.
▫ The capture of Iwo Jima was part of a three-point
plan the Americans had for winning the war in the
Far East.
8. Despite its size, Iwo Jima was considered to have great tactical
importance. There were two airfields on the island:
Under American control, the
airfields could be used as
Under Japan’s control; they emergency landing bases for
could be used by Japanese damaged airplanes in the
fighter planes to attack bombing raids. They could
American bombers on their also be used for American
flights to Japan. fighter planes to escort the
bombers, as they needed
smaller runways for take-off.
9. The Fight
• The battle was marked by some of the fiercest
fighting of the War. The Imperial Japanese
Army positions on the island were heavily fortified,
with vast bunkers, hidden artillery, and 11 miles of
tunnels
• The battle was the first U.S. attack on the
Japanese Home Islands
• Ended a month later on March 26th.
10.
11. The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific…
• Okinawa: April 1945
• The U.S. military wanted
Okinawa for three reasons:
▫ American medium bombers
could reach the Japanese home
islands from Okinawa,
▫ its seizure would sever the
remaining southwest supply
lines to resource-hungry Japan,
▫ and Okinawa could be used as
a support base for the
scheduled November invasion
of Japan.
12. • Okinawa was the largest
amphibious invasion of
the Pacific campaign.
• It was the last major
campaign of the Pacific
War.
• More people died during
the Battle of Okinawa than
all those killed during the
atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
13. Early in the war, The top secret The bomb was
FDR had program was code- successfully
authorized named the tested in July
scientists to Manhattan 1945.
develop an atomic Project.
bomb.
Now it was up to Truman to decide if and when to use it.
15. Design of Two Bombs
• The Manhattan Project produced two different
types of atomic bombs
▫ code-named Fat Man and Little Boy
• Fat Man= Nagasaki, nuclear implosion
• Little Boy= Hiroshima, nuclear explosion
16. The
Japanese An invasion of Japan could cost
refused to up to 1,000,000 American lives.
surrender.
Truman’s chief priority was to save American
lives.
17. On August 6, 1945, U.S. pilots
dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima.
Three days later, they dropped a
second bomb on Nagasaki.
18. Immediate Aftermath
• In less than one second, the fireball had
expanded to 900 feet.
• The blast wave shattered windows for a distance
of ten miles and was felt as far away as 37 miles.
• Over two-thirds of Hiroshima's buildings were
demolished.
• The hundreds of fires, ignited by the thermal
pulse, combined to produce a firestorm that had
incinerated everything within about 4.4 miles of
ground zero.
• “Black Rain”
19.
20. Physical Effects
• The survivors, known as hibakusha, sought relief
from their injuries.
• 90 percent of all medical personnel were killed
or disabled, and the remaining medical supplies
quickly ran out.
• Their symptoms ranged from nausea, bleeding
and loss of hair, to death.
• Flash burns, a susceptibility to leukemia,
cataracts and malignant tumors were some of
the other effects.
21.
22. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito surrendered.
The Allies celebrated V-J Day, marking victory in Japan.
The most costly war in history was finally over.
