1. The War in the PacificThe War in the Pacific
1941-1945

3. The Players
 United States
 England
 Australia
 New Zealand
 China
Philippines
 Japan

4. Background
 Japanese imperial expansion begins in
1931
 Need for oil and other natural resources
 Japan Attacks the US at Pearl Harbor
crippling the US pacific fleet Dec 7th 1941

5. Japanese War Mentality
 Death before surrender
 Boshito Code
 If you surrender you disgrace your family
and ancestors
 All other Asians are inferior

6. Dec 1941
 Attack on Pearl Harbor
Dec 7th
 Dec 8th
Japan invades US
held territory of the
Philippines
 The US has only one
hope: the aircraft carrier
(3 survived Pearl Harbor)

8. Early 1942
 Japan invades various
other Pacific Islands
 US garrison in the
Philippines surrenders
to Japanese forces in
April 1942
 Bataan Death March:
 60 miles
 76,000 POW
 12,000 are Americans
 5,000 die in a week

11. US/Allied Strategy
 Reclaim the Pacific:
Island hopping Campaign: one island at a
time, clear it and use it as a base of
operations for the next island.
Must clear the oceans of the Japanese Navy
first!
(Large challenge with a crippled Navy and
only 3 Aircraft carriers!)

15. Japanese Strategy
 Make the war so horrible the US will give
up
 They dug into tropical islands, built
underground bunkers and fortresses.
 heavy artillery, suicide attacks
 Bleed the enemy dry, Japanese rarely
surrender but die to the last man!

17. Early 1942: The US strikes back
 Doolittle raid
 May 1942: Battle of
Coral Sea, first ever
carrier vs. carrier
battle- US looses an
Aircraft carrier
 TURNING POINT:
Battle of Midway June
1942

20. Midway June 4, 1942
 US lost one of two
carriers
 Japanese lost four
irreplaceable aircraft
carriers in five
minutes!
 The Japanese would
be on the defensive
for the rest of the war.

21. Island Hoping: The first step:
Guadalcanal
 Invaded by the US
Navy and Marines
August 1942
Took the Marines 6
months to take the
island from Japan
Allies lost 1,492 killed
Japan Lost 15,000

23. A list of “D-Days”
 Nov 1943 Bouganville
 Nov 1943 “ Bloody” Tarawa
 June 1944 Siapan
 July 1944 Guam and Tinian
 Oct 1944 Allies invade the Philippines
 Feb 1945 Iwo Jima
 April 1945 Okinawa (falls in June)

25. Soldier’s Lives
 HARSH
 Subtropical diseases
 Humid, sticky, and
always hot.
 Average age was 19
 Death was around
every corner.

31. Japan’s desperation
 Oct 1944 U.S. warships in
Leyte Gulf faced their first
Kamikaze attacks
 2,257 Japanese aircraft
were destroyed in these
suicide missions during
the war.
 Kamikaze: Devine Wind

32. A most famous Photo
 Taken on Iwo Jima
 February 23, 1945
 On March 16, when
Iwo Jima was declared
secured, 6,821
Americans and 21,000
Japanese (the entire
force) had died

36. Planning for the end
 May 1945 Allied forces
plan Operation Olympic,
the invasion of Japan
itself in Nov.
 US planners feared
casualty estimates of one
million!
 Japan was desperate but
unwilling to surrender!

39. QuickTime™ and a
mpeg4 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

50. “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” are
unleashed
 August 6, 1945- Hiroshima
 August 9, 1945 - Nagasaki
 killed an estimated
110,000 Japanese
 injured another
130,000.
 By 1950, another
230,000 Japanese had
died from injuries or
radiation.

51. VJ Day
 August 14, 1945 -
Japanese accepts
unconditional
surrender
 Celebration parties
erupt throughout
every allied country!

55. The End
 September 2, 1945 -
Formal Japanese
surrender ceremony
on board the
MISSOURI in Tokyo
Bay as 1,000 carrier-
based planes fly
overhead.

58.  The most destructive
conflict in human or
world history ends.
 The world is forever
changed.
 Millions have died.
 100s of cities
destroyed
 Millions are homeless
 US & USSR are
WORLD powers