Part 2 of Chapter 25

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
• Learn about Post-War Europe and the World
• Evaluate the beginning of the Cold 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
• 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 first in 1949)
• The government of the US was larger than it had ever been, and would
never be the same again (When did this growth start?)
• New technologies developed in wartime would soon find their way into
civilian life (microwaves, radar, jet engines, Jeeps, synthetic rubber,
super-glue, plastics)
• Changing roles on the home front during the war would become the
roots of the feminist movement and the civil rights movement

14. After the War (Starting Ch. 27)
• Japan is occupied from 1945-1952
• Wrote a new constitution (modeled after the US) - 1946
• They are limited to a small defense force which is not allowed to leave Japan
• Women gain the right to vote
• Korea is divided into the North (occupied by the USSR) and the South
(occupied by the US) – more on this to come
• While at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 it became clear to
Truman that Stalin had no intentions of allowing free elections in
Eastern Europe
• Europe would be divided along east/west lines throughout the Cold
War

15. Changing Borders and
Occupations

16. The Early Cold War
• The “Long Telegram”
• George F. Kennan, expert on the USSR working in
the embassy in Moscow
• Asked to give insight into Soviet strategy/intentions
• February 22, 1946 - 5,000 words
• Recommended a policy of containment towards
Soviet expansionism
• Believed that the Soviets, viewing democratic
capitalism as fundamentally opposed to
communism, would continue to build their military
strength and attempt to subvert capitalist
democracies all over the world
• Also believed that the economic potential of
capitalism was the best way to combat Soviet
expansion, and that this would eventually lead to
Soviet collapse (foreshadowing)
Divided Berlin
Why was it called the Cold War?

17. The Early Cold War
• The Truman Doctrine
• A civil war started in Greece in 1946 between Monarchists and Communists
• By 1947 Great Britain could no longer afford to help the Monarchists and asked
the US for help
• Truman, acting on the ideas of containment from Kennan, needed to gain public
support for helping Greece
• He used the idea of a “domino theory” to strike fear into the hearts of Americans
• The more aggressive form of containment envisioned by Truman would influence
policy for the next half-century (against communism)
• For all its force it was, in fact, very vague and much less of an actual foreign policy
• Many saw this as potentially getting the US into conflicts all over the world, and
forcing the US to ally with less-than-ideal governments and movements, just
because they were anti-communist
• His posturing was successful, though, and Congress passed aid to help Greece

18. The Marshall Plan
• A plan developed by George C. Marshall, Secretary of State, in 1947
• Used ideas of Kennan and others to suggest using heavy US financial and
technical assistance to rebuild Europe
• By this time it was apparent that all of the European states were struggling to
rebuild (physically and economically)
• Was not just because of the goodness of our hearts, it was also strategic
• Kennan’s ideas about subverting communist beliefs by showing how good life could be
under capitalism, with goods (particularly American goods) making life better
• Also connected participating countries to a broader economic system, driven by the US
• Soviet Union (and the Eastern Bloc) declined to participate
• Between 1948-1951 $13 billion was poured into European countries

20. The Berlin Blockade – June 1948-May 1949
• The Marshall Plan enabled the British/French/American sectors of
Germany (and Berlin) to unite into a formalized government with their
own currency and economy
• Stalin did not want to allow West German currency to be used in West
Berlin and stopped allowing vehicles and trains to cross East Germany
to get into West Berlin
• The US and UK bypassed this blockade by flying in supplies
• Known as the Berlin Airlift
• Lasted 321 days
• Eventually the Soviets lift the blockade
• In 1949 West Germany and East Germany officially
became separate countries

21. International Treaties and Reorganization at Home
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Military pact to defend member states from military attack
• Initially joined by 12 countries in 1949
• Included the US and Canada
• Greece and Turkey joined in 1952
• West Germany joined in 1955
• National Security Act (1947)
• Created the Department of Defense
• Secretary of Defense - Cabinet
• Joint Chiefs of Staff (Military Branches)
• National Security Council
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Tasked with intelligence gathering abroad