WWII parts of Chapter 30

2. The End of WWII and the beginning
of the Cold War
• Today we will:
• Look at the War in the Pacific
• Examine the use of the Atomic Bombs
• Look at the global cost of human life during the war
• Up Next:
• Review #3

3. The War in the Pacific – Halting Japanese Expansion
• After Pearl Harbor, Japan continued to expand in Asia
• Hong Kong, Burma, Malaya, and Singapore (all UK territories)
• Solidified control of Indochina (present day Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (French
territories)
• They then attacked the Philippines with ground troops
• 12,000 US troops and 66,000 Filipino troops were captured and forced to march 65 miles in 6
days in what was called the “Bataan Death March,” with anyone who fell out of line being
shot or bayonetted. This was in the Spring of 1942.
• By mid-1942 Japan was fighting the British in Eastern India and UK/Australian forces
in New Guinea
• Battle of Coral Sea
• The Japanese then turned towards
taking Australia (UK territory)
• May 2-6, 1942, US warships and warplanes
defeat the Japanese near New Guinea,
sinking an aircraft carrier and destroying 70
Japanese planes

4. The War in the Pacific – A Change in Strategy
• Midway – June 1942
• After Coral Sea, the Americans cracked the Japanese communication codes and
learned that large portion of the Japanese fleet was heading to the island of Midway,
intending to take it, then use it as a launching point to attack Hawaii again.
• The Japanese took heavy losses on their initial aerial assault, and did not take the
island. The US Central Pacific Fleet (under Admiral Chester Nimitz) then counter-
attacked, defeating the Japanese and halting the push towards HI.
• Guadalcanal and the begin of Island Hopping (Leapfrogging) – Aug. 1942
• General Douglas MacArthur commanded US Marines and ground forces from UK
territories while Admiral Nimitz led the combined Naval forces
• After landing almost 20,000 men on the Solomon Island of Guadalcanal, US forces faced fierce
resistance from the Japanese, and it took over 6 months to take the island, which is roughly
the size of Delaware. Japanese losses were nearly 20,000, compared to 1752 American
casualties.
• After such a long battle for a small island, Allied strategy shifted to focus only on the most
important islands, bypassing others, leaving the Japanese on those islands to “wither on the
vine,” (according to Nimitz) without resupply.

5. The War in the Pacific – Return to the Philippines/Guam
• Mariana Islands (Guam, Saipan, Tinian) – June 1944
• Strategically important because Saipan was large enough for an airfield that
B-29 Superfortress Bombers could use
• Japan lost another 20,000 troops, while the US lost 3500 in three weeks of
fighting
• Another 7000 Japanese committed suicide on the orders of their general,
rather than disgrace themselves with surrender
• Leyte Gulf – October 1944
• Largest naval engagement in history
• 216 Allied ships, 64 Japanese ships
• The first time kamikaze attacks were
used against US warships
• Marked the beginning of a long
battle to retake the Philippines

6. The War in the Pacific – Strategy to end the War
• Iwo Jima – Feb. 1945
• While bombers could use Saipan in the Mariana Islands launch bombing raids,
their fighter escorts needed airstrips closer to Japan
• Iwo Jima is an 8 square mile island 760 miles from Tokyo
• It took 6 weeks to secure the island, with 21,000 Japanese casualties and nearly 7000
US deaths, the air base was never actually built
• Okinawa – April 1945
• 400sq.mi. island about 400 miles from mainland Japan
• Strategic as the launching point for a potential US ground invasion of Japan
• Fighting went on for 3 months, 49,000 Americans died, and more than 150,000
Japanese soldiers died. 1/3 of US pilots died, 1/4 of submariners
• There is still a US Naval and Marine base in Okinawa today
• A new strategy of heavily bombing the Japanese mainland was
decided upon in mid-1944 with the hopes of forcing surrender, or at
least making an invasion easier
• These “firebombing” raids occurred in 66 Japanese cities, including Tokyo
• Estimates place the death toll at over 200,000 (this is before the atomic bombs)

7. The Atomic Bombs
• As the war continued, it was estimated that it would cost 500,000 US
lives to take Japan by invasion, to say nothing of the potential Japanese
casualties
• In July 1945 the Manhattan Project had its first successful test of an
Atomic Bomb in New Mexico
• “Trinity” test site in central New Mexico
• “The Gadget” was detonated on July 16, 1945
• J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos Laboratory
• Said the successful test brought to his mind verses from the Bhagavad Gita, a (probably)
second century BCE Hindu text:
• “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the
splendor of the mighty one…” – Bhagavad Gita, XI, 12
• “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” - Bhagavad Gita, XI, 32
• John R. Lugo, a Navy pilot flying west toward Albuquerque, NM recalled:
• “My first impression was, like, the sun was coming up in the south. What a ball of fire!”

8. The Atomic Bombs
• Whether or not to use the bomb was a topic of heavy debate, but
ultimately President Harry Truman (who had become president when
FDR died) thought that the projected casualties of using the bomb
(20,000) were far more acceptable than the projected losses of an
invasion
• After meeting in Potsdam, Germany, in July 1945 the allies (GB, US,
and USSR) issued the Potsdam Declaration, which promised Japan a
devastating attack if they did not surrender by August 3rd.

9. The Atomic Bombs
• “Little Boy,” a ten foot long uranium bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on
August 6th, 1945 (Hiroshima was the Army headquarters of southern Japan)
• The initial blast and firestorm killed 78,000 people, within a year 140,000 had died because of
the effects of radiation poisoning
• The Soviet Union, honoring their commitment to the other Allies, entered
Manchuria on August 8th.
• Japan still refused to surrender, and so on August 9th a second bomb, “Fat Man,”
this one using Plutonium, was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan (a major shipyard city)
• An estimate 71,000 people died
• Five days later, the Japanese Emperor agreed to an unconditional surrender, which
was signed on September 2, 1945

10. Discussion: The Decision to Drop the Bomb
• What do you see in the photos?
• From what perspective were they
taken?
• Do they glorify or condemn the
power of the bombs?
• Do they remove the emotional
impact of the destruction of the
bombs?

11. Discussion: The Decision to Drop the Bomb
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
The cities before the war

12. Discussion: The Decision to Drop the Bomb
• How do these photos differ from the last
two?
• What other reasons might the US have had
to drop the bombs?
• Placing yourselves shortly after the bombings
in 1945, do you think we should have used
the bombs? Why or why not?
Nagasaki
Hiroshima

13. A New World
• 50 million civilians died during the war years, as did 22 million
servicemen and servicewomen worldwide (see next slide)
• The US lost 292,000 in combat, and another 114,000 servicemen
died in non-combat related deaths during the war
• The US and the USSR emerged as the two major world powers
• Nuclear warfare was now a reality (USSR tests their first in 1949)
• A new “Cold War” was on the horizon
• In the US, changing roles on the home front during the war would
become the roots of the feminist movement and the civil rights
movement
• The fight against Nazi Imperialism made other empires reconsider
their role in global imperial systems, leading to decolonization

14. An Immense Human Cost