In education, sharing is caring! This is a World War 2 Powerpoint I edited using my information and those of other educators (Anonymous) on the Pacific Front of World War 2. Japan and American's battles can be found here.

1. UNITED STATES
HISTORY
World War 2

3. ISTHE DRESS BLUEOR
WHITE?

4. Bell ringer:
Which war had the most cause to be fought?
Which war do you think had the most justification for being
fought?
From America’s perspective, which war would you have been
for our involvement in?
World War 1 or World War 2?
See who in the class shares your perspective. Formulate your
reason and share with the class.

7. THE PACIFIC FRONT
Pacific Front

8. The Pacific Theater
• Within 6 months of Pearl Harbor, Japan had
a new empire.
– Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
• Japanese racial purity and supremacy
– Treated Chinese and Koreans with brutality.
• “Rape of Nanjing”- Japanese slaughtered at
least 100,000 civilians and raped thousands of
women in the Chinese capital between Dec. 1937
and Feb. 1938.
– Could have consolidated
– “victory disease”
• After Pearl Harbor, American military leaders
focused on halting the Japanese advance
and mobilizing the whole nation for war.

9. The War in the Pacific
• 1942 Japan Occupied: Korea, Eastern
China, the Philippines, British Burma,
Malaya, French Indochina, Indonesia, many
islands west of Midway Island
• May 7 – 8, 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea
• Japan threatens New Zealand and
Australia, looking to maintain a stranglehold
on the Solomon Islands
• United States and Australia hold off the
Japanese attack.
• No real victor, sets the stage for Midway

10. The Pacific Theater:
Early Battles
• American Forces halted the Japanese advances
in two decisive naval battles.
– Coral Sea (May 1942)
• U.S. stopped a fleet convoying Japanese troops to
New Guinea
• Japanese designs on Australia ended
– Midway (June 1942)
• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto hoped to capture
Midway Island as a base to attack Pearl Harbor
again
• U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz caught the Japanese
by surprise and sank 3 of the 4 aircraft carriers,
332 planes, and 3500 men.
– American cryptanalysts

11. Importance of Midway
• The Japanese defeat at Midway was
the turning point in the Pacific.
– Japanese advances stopped.
– U.S. assumes initiative.
– Japanese have shortage of able pilots.
• Censorship and Propaganda
– News of the defeat was kept from the
Japanese public.

12. The War in the Pacific
• Island Hopping Campaign- isolate Japanese strongholds using
Naval and air power, seize strategic islands along the Japanese
supply line.
• Begins August 1942, Marines land at Guadalcanal, Solomon
Islands, Gilbert and Marshall Islands,
• 23-26 October 1944 Invasion of the Philippines, Battle of Leyte
Gulf, Japanese navy just about destroyed
• February and March 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, Mount Suribachi,
U.S. Casualties 6,821 dead19,000 wounded Japanese
Casualties 20,500 dead 200 captured
• Battle of Okinawa, March – June 1945, largest sea-land battle
in history, Last major battle of the war. U.S. Casualties: 12,500
killed or missing 38,000 wounded 33,096 non-combat wounded
38 ships lost 763 aircraft lost Japanese Casualties: 110,000
killed
7,455 captured 16 ships lost 7,800 aircraft lost

13. The Beginning of the End in the Pacific
• Yamamoto is assassinated by the U.S. (April
1943)
• Loss of Saipan (August 1944)
– “the naval and military heart and brain of
Japanese defense strategy”
– Political crisis in Japan
• The government could no longer hide the fact
that they were losing the war.
• Tōjō resigns on July 18, 1944
• Intensive air raids over Japan
– Iwo Jima (February, 1945)
• American marines invaded this island, which
was needed to provide fighter escort for
bombings over Japan

14. Iwo Jima
• D-Day 9 Feb 1945
• Airfields again the objectives.
• 450 ships
• Pre-invasion bombardment shortened from 12 to 3 days.
– Weather limited effectiveness of even this.
• Southern half of island in US hands by D+2.
– Takes 34 more days to secure remainder of island (8 square
miles total).
• Nothing fancy; simple but costly.
– “Throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete.”
• 36 days, 26k US casualties including 6k KIA.
– 1 of every 3 US personnel that went ashore was wounded or
killed.
• 1k of 20k defenders survived
• 2400 B-29s w/ 27k crewmen made unscheduled landings on
island by the time the war ended.
• 27 Medals of Honor awarded.

15. A Grinding War in the Pacific
• In 1945, the U.S. began targeting people in
order to coerce Japan to surrender
– 66 major Japanese cities bombed
– 500,000 civilians killed
• Battle for Leyte Gulf
– Total blockade of Japan
– Japanese navy virtually destroyed
– Kamikaze (divine wind) flights begin
• Okinawa (April, 1945)
– All 110,000 Japanese defenders killed
– U.S. invaded this island, which would provide a
staging area for the invasion of the Japanese islands.
– If it is this bad at Okinawa, how bad will it get in
Japan?