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Pearl Harbor
Japan and America had earlier come into conflict over French Indochina. Japan had also forged an alliance with Germany and Japan's new prime minister, Hideki Tojo, was hostile toward the United States. In December 1941, America's forces at the base were unready to defend it. This was in part because no single commander was in charge of Pear Harbor's defenses. Routine defensive steps were not in place. The Japanese attack was able to approach Pearl Harbor undetected. -
Pearl Harbor (continued)
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese stuck Pearl Harbor. The raid was a complete surprise to the Americans. Most American fighter planes in Hawaii never got off the ground. Hundreds were severely damaged or destroyed where they sat. Japanese bombs and torpedoes took a heavy toll on the American warships in the harbor. The destruction was enormous. Nearly 200 aircraft were destroyed and more were damaged. About 2,400 people died. It was a complete defeat for the United States. -
Loss of Philippines
One of Japan's major targets was the control of the American-contolled Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur led the defense of that island chain. He commanded a small force of Americans, plus a number of poorly trained and equipped Filipino soldiers. MacArthur's troops were no match for the Japanese invaders. As the Japanese gained ground, MacArthur planned a retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. There he hoped to hold the Japanese off as long as possible. -
Loss of Philippines (continued)
Getting his troops into a defensive position took hard fighting and brilliant leadership. The soldiers found that supplies was terribly short. MacArthur urged Allied officials to send ships to help relieve his starving ships. War planners decided that this was too risky. MacArthur and his forces fought on bravely. In March 1942 MacArthur was ordered to leave his men. Japan won. There were about 160,000 casualties. -
Battle of Java Sea
The Japanese were rapidly advancing South through the Dutch Fought in the East Indies, the Allies attempted to mount a defense in Java as an effort to hold the Malay barrier. Overseen by Dutch Vice Admiral COnrad Helfrich, ABDA forces were badly outnumbered and in poor condition for the approaching fight. To take the island, the Japanese formed two major invasion fleets. In this battle, the Japanese caused much damage to the Allied navies;they also conquered many key positions in the S. Pacific. -
Bataan Death March
The fighting in the Philippines was over, but the suffering of the soldiers was just the beginning. For five days and nights, the Japanese forced the already starving and sick soldiers to march through the steaming forests of Bataan. Those who dropped out of line were beaten or shot. Those who fell were left for dead. The Japanese provided little food or water. The US lost. There were around 21,600 casualties. -
Doolittle Raid (continued)
There they were met by friendly village people. One crew landed in the Soviet Union and were immediately interned. 8 airmen were captured by the Japanese and were executed. -
Doolittle Raid
When the surprise of Pearl Harbor subsided, the Americans focused on retaliation. Lt. Colonel James Doolittle came up with an idea to launch B-25 bombers which would be transported by aircraft carrier over Japan at striking distance, and lauched to attack a number of cities. 13 bombers targeted Tokyo, the others targeted Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. After dropping the bomb loads on the assigned targets, they flew until they ran out of fuel. 15 crews landed in Japanese occupied China territory. -
Island Hopping Strategy (continued)
The US did this in fear of a drawn out war with many more casualties. THey achieved this with the world's first Atomic bombs. This island hopping strategy was very costly. The US soldiers were not used to the guerilla style of fighting, and the Japanese had the advantage of controlling many of the islands. Many US soldiers succumbed to illnesses such as Malaria, dysentery, and skin fungus. -
Island Hopping Strategy
"Island hopping" is the phrase given to the strategy employed by the US to gain military bases and secure the small islands. The attack was lead by General DOuglas MacArthur, Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific. The island hopping campaign was successful. It allowed the US to gain control over sufficient islands in the Pacific to get close enough to Japan to launch a mainland invasion. The US made plans to end the war quickly and force Japan's surrender. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea took place as Japanese forces were preparing to invade the British controlled Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea. To prevent this attack, U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz sent two aircraft carriers on the attack. In the battle that followed, the American and Japanese navies both suffered damage. The Americans won. For the first time, the Japanese advance had been halted. -
Battle of Midway
6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of WW2. Partly due to major advances in code breaking, the US was able to acquire and counter Japan's planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the US and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Battle of Midway (continued)
Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, Japanese fleet commander, chose to invade a target relatively close to Pearl Harbor to draw out the American fleet. Chester Nimitz was the American general. -
Guadalcanal (continued)
Possession of a Guadalcanal air base was important to control the sea lines of communication between the US and Australia. By the end of the battle on February 9, 1943, the Japanese had lost two-thirds of the army troops committed to the island, whereas the US Marines and the US Army had lost less than 2,000 soldiers of about 60,000 deployed. After Guadalcanal Japan no longer had a realistic hope of withstanding the counteroffensive of an increasingly powerful United States. -
Guadalcanal
The first major offensive and decisive victory for the Allies in the Pacific theater. With Japanese troops stationed in this section of the Solomon Islands, US marines launched a surprise attack and took control of an air base under construction. The Japanese suffered a far greater toll of casualties, forcing their withdrawal from Guadalcanal by February 1943, the Guadalcanal campaign proved to be the turning point of the Pacific War. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
This WW2 clash followed the Allied landing at the Philippine island of Leyte in October of 1944. The Japanese sought to converge three naval forces on Leyte Gulf, and successfully diverted the US Third Fleet with a decoy. The aerial and naval battle conducted as Allied forces invaded the Philippines began with Leyte Island on October 20. Expecting and invasion, the Japanese fleet command ordered its forces to sea at the very sign of Allied landings. -
Battle of Iwo Jima (continued)
The battle earned a place in American lore with the publication of a photograph showing the US flag being raised in victory. Photographer Joe Rosenthal provided the US Marine Corps with one of its most enduring images with his picture of Americans raising the flag over Mount Suribachi at the southwest corner of Iwo Jima, an image replicated on postage stamps as well as on the memorial statue at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American invasion of Iwo Jima during WW2 stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Following detailed preparatory air and naval bombardment, 3 US marine divisions landed on the island in Feb. 1945. Iwo Jima was defended by about 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from a detailed network of caves, dugouts, tunnels, and underground installations. Despite difficult conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting. -
Battle of Okinawa
The capture of Okinawa was part of a three-point plan the Americans had for winning the war in the Far East. Okinawa was to prove a bloody battle even by the standards of the war in the Far East but it was to be one of the major battles of WW2. The Americans guessed that there were about 65,000 Japanese troops on the island-with the bulk in the southern sector of the island. There were actually over 130,000 Japanese troops on the island. -
Battle of Okinawa (continued)
The American commander was Lieutenant-General Simon Bolivar Buckner. He had 180,000 men under his command. The bay selected for the American landing was Hagushi Bay on the western side of the island. Like Iwo Jima, the landings were preceded by a period of intense bombardment but America's forces were also open to attack from Japanese fighters flying out of Taiwan or Japan itself. -
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
The US became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of WW2, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War. Einstein helped build the bomb. A blast equal to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
Nagasaki was the shipbuilding center, the industry intended for destruction. THe bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 ft above the city. The explosion unleashed an equal force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated between 60,000 and 80,000. "...continuing the war can only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people..." The Japanese Emperor gave permission for surrender. -
VJ Day
After the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was unsure of what to do. Japanese emperor Hirohito favored surrender, but military leaders resisted. Some even tried to overthrow the Japanese government and continue the war. They failed. Finally, on August 15, Hirohito announced the end of the war in a radio broadcast. This day became known as VJ Day.
