War in the pacific to atomic bomb

World War II Victory in Asia

Pacific Offensives
Island-hopping
U.S. strategy to only attack strategic Japanese Islands instead of all of them
Began in November 1943 in the Gilbert Islands
Island of Tarawa
More difficult to capture due to highly fortified coral reef surrounding the island
Used as a vital airstrip for future landings

Saipan & Guam
Faced fierce Japanese defenders
U.S. forces suffered high casualties (16,000 injured, 3,400 dead)
Important U.S. victories, they provided strategic airfields to launch bombing missions from.

Recapturing the Philippines
MacArthur led U.S. and Australian forces in June of 1943
Fall 1944- the U.S. was ready to invade the Philippines
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The last and largest naval engagement by the Japanese
They lost 4 aircraft carriers, two battleships, and several cruisers
Filipinos assisted allied troops as the troops fanned out across the Philippines
MacArthur and the allies entered Manila in Feb. 1945

Victory in the Pacific
U.S. captured Japanese islands that they used as airbases
March 1945 Tokyo was bombed which caused major destruction to the city
Japan’s military leaders would still not surrender

The Battle of Iwo Jima
February 1945
Lasted 6 weeks
U.S. troops faced fierce resistance
Several thousand U.S. troops were killed
20,000 Japanese soldiers died
U.S. Marines struggled to take Mount Suribachi
Famous photo of Marines planting flag taken by Joe Rosendahl

The Battle of Iwo Jima

The Battle of Okinawa
April 1945- the largest landing force in the Pacific invaded Okinawa
Japan chose to retreat to the southern tip of the island and wait
U.S. Marines captured one airfield in 5 hours without a shot being fired
FIVE DAYS LATER

700 Japanese planes attacked the beach and the navy off-shore
350 of the 700 planes were “kamikaze” or suicide planes
Six U.S. ships were sunk
135 kamikaze pilots were killed
Admiral Nimitz stated that the only thing surprising about the war was the tactics of the kamikaze pilots

Probably the bloodiest battle of the war in the Pacific
Japanese hid in caves and fought till the very end
U.S. troops used flamethrowers to clear the caves
49,000 U.S. troops were killed or wounded
100,000 Japanese died in the fighting

The Death of Roosevelt
Occurred on April 12, 1945
Harry Truman becomes President
Truman faces the huge decision on how to deal with the Japanese
Despite repeated bombings in Japan, they are still strong and will fight to the end
Truman will be the one who makes the decision to use the atomic bomb

The Atomic Bomb
Manhattan Project led by Leslie Groves
Other participants
Albert Einstein
Enrico Fermi (Italian physicist) –created first atomic chain reaction in 1942
J. Robert Oppenheimer- director of Los Alamos lab in New Mexico
His team worked on building the 1 st atomic bomb
Successfully tested on July 15, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico

Reasons for using the atomic bomb
Truman saw that the Japanese were still capable of fighting after Iwo Jima and Okinawa
A full scale invasion of Japan would cost many U.S. lives and Japanese lives
Estimates projected up to 1 million U.S. lives could be lost
The atomic bomb would bring a quick end to the war.
Truman wanted an unconditional surrender
The use of the atomic bomb may have been show of force to the Soviet Union

The Dropping of the Bomb
August 6, 1945
The Enola Gay flown by Paul Tibbits dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima
Hiroshima was flattened and the bomb killed 75,000 people
August 9, 1945
A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing approximately 125,000 people

HIROSHIMA

Nagasaki

Japan’s Surrender
After seeing the destruction caused by the two bombs, Japan decides to surrender.
V-J Day August 15, 1945
The formal surrender took place aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945

What Do You Think?
Was Truman’s decision a good one?
Should we have launched a full-scale invasion of Japan?
What are your feelings?

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War in the pacific to atomic bomb

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