1. WWII IN THE PACIFIC
By Nick Badcock, Octavio Vasquez and Luca
Tosolini
2. INTRODUCTION
Japan attack Manchuria and China (1931, 1937)
Japanese fleet spread into the pacific.
Japan flood French Indochina (currently known as Vietnam) with
troops in 1941.
By 1942 japan furthermore expanded to Papua new guinea the
Dutch east indies and the Philippines.
Japan attack’s pearl harbour in an attempt to knock out
America’s presence in the pacific and buy themselves time.
America retaliates and through a series of “island hopping's”
pushed Japan out and gained control of the pacific
3. CHINA AND MANCHURIA
Japan attack Manchuria 1931
Japan invade china 1937
Minimal resistance was shown to the Japanese as the only battle
was at Nenjiang Bridge
Although it wasn’t in the pacific it had a large impact on the
Japanese campaign
4. LEAD UP TO THE PACIFIC WAR
The Japanese’s first invasion was Manchuria on September the 19th,
1931. This was when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan had
control over Japan and its military. After a successful invasion Japan
had higher hopes to increase their power and planned an invasion
on China in 1937.
In 1937 they then invaded China with the help of Germany, the
Soviet Union and America. However once they had taken over
Japan then continued to take over more countries to increase the
amount of land they owned, and by 1942 Japan had expanded to
Papua New Guinea, The Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.
Japan Then believed that the US would attempt to stop them from
taking over more countries, this then led to Japans attack on Pearl
Harbour.
5. ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOUR
The attack on pearl harbor was a unprovoked attack by the Japanese
on the Naval Base of Pearl harbor near Hawaii. The attack was intended
to destroy all of the U.S aircraft carriers and battleships, thus knocking the
U.S out of the Pacific and buying japan valuable time to spread their
influence in this area. Roughly 350 Japanese planes over 2 waves
targeted the ships in the harbor as their primary target, but also bombed
munitions and fuel depots in further attempts to stunt the U.S’ spread into
the pacific. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, four were
sunk. All but one were later recovered, to add to this, three cruisers,
three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188
U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178
others were wounded.
6. AMERICA’S RETALIATION
After the attack on Pearl Harbour the Americans swiftly fought
back across the pacific islands through a series of island hopping
attacks that involved heavy battery on island before an invasion
of land forces. This allowed the Americans to minimise casualties
whilst still driving the Japanese off the islands.
The endpoint of the counter-attack by the Americans was the
dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This
was the first use of atomic warfare which led to a very quick
surrender from the Japanese.
