Island Hopping

1
Island Hopping

• a. August 1942 September 1945
• U.S. forces gained Guadalcanal and some area in
  the Solomon Islands.
• b. New strategy was adopted by the U.S. Navy,
  Marine, and Army divisions Leapfrogging or
  Island Hopping the Japanese Islands U.S. forces
  bypassed the most heavily fortified Japanese
  posts, captured nearby islands and set up
  airfields then heavily bombed enemy bases.

2
THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

• The Americans did not celebrate long, as Japan
  was busy conquering an empire that dwarfed
  Hitlers Third Reich.
• Japan had conquered much of southeast Asia
  including the Dutch East Indies, Guam, and most
  of China.

3
BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA

• The main Allied forces in the Pacific were
  Americans and Australians.
• In May 1942 they succeeded in stopping the
  Japanese drive toward Australia in the five-day
  Battle of the Coral Sea.

4
(30) THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY

• Japans next thrust was toward Midway Island a
  strategic U.S. Island northwest of Hawaii.
• Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Commander of American
  Naval forces in the Pacific, moved to defend the
  Island.
• The Americans won a decisive victory a turning
  point as their planes destroyed 4 Japanese
  aircraft carriers and 250 planes.

5
June 4 - 7 1942, The Battle of Midway was a
turning point in the war soon the Allies were
island hopping toward Japan.
6
KAMIKAZE PILOTS ATTACK ALLIES

• The Americans continued leapfrogging across the
  Pacific toward Japan.
• Japanese countered by employing a new tactic
  Kamikaze (divine wind) attacks.
• Pilots in small bomb-laden planes would crash
  into Allied ships.

In the Battle for the Philippines, 424 Kamikaze
pilots sank 16 ships and damaged 80 more.
7
Americans are celebrating V-E Day in New York
City May 8, 1945 while the US forces begin an
attack on Japan.
8
4 under TrumanThe Potsdam Conference July
16-Aug 2, 1945 The Beginning of the end for
Japan
Truman (FDR died), Stalin and Attlee (Churchill
had been voted out as Prime Minister).
At the conference - They planned for the end of
the war- that Japan surrender OR face complete
and utter destruction .
9
General Douglas MacArthurHeeesss Baaack!
10
Japan, Philippines, Hawaii
11
(No Transcript)
12
IWO JIMA February 19 March 26, 1945

• General MacArthur and the Allies next turned to
  the Island of Iwo Jima.
• The island was critical to the Allies as a base
  for an attack on Japan.
• It was called the most heavily defended spot on
  earth.
• Allied and Japanese forces suffered heavy
  casualties.

American soldiers plant the flag on the Island of
Iwo Jima after their victory.
13
THE BATTLE FOR OKINAWA

• In April - June 1945, U.S. marines invaded
  Okinawa.
• The Japanese unleashed 1,900 Kamikaze attacks
  sinking 30 ships and killing 5,000 seamen.
• Okinawa cost the Americans 7,600 marines and the
  Japanese 110,000 soldiers.

14
INVADE JAPAN???
Okinawa

• After Okinawa, MacArthur predicted that a
  Normandy type amphibious invasion of Japan would
  result in 1,500,000 Allied deaths.
• President Truman saw only one way to avoid an
  invasion of Japan.

The loss of life at Iwo Jima and Okinawa
convinced Allied leaders that an invasion of
Japan was not the best idea.
15
The ATOMIC BOMB

• Japan had a huge army that would defend every
  inch of the Japanese mainland.
• So Truman decided to use a powerful new weapon
  developed by scientists working on the Manhattan
  Project the Atomic Bomb.

16
U.S. DROPS TWO ATOMIC BOMBS ON JAPAN

• Remember
• Truman warned Surrender or face complete and
  utter destruction.

17

• August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay a B-29 bomber
  dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan. They dropped a
  9,000-pound bomb (called Little Boy) with a
  destructive power of 20,000 tons on the Japanese
  city of Hiroshima the mushroom cloud reached
  55,000 feet, 60 of Hiroshima disappeared,
  100,000 people died instantly and many more
  perished in later days, weeks, and years from
  radiation (140,000 total estimate killed).
• August 9 - Nagasaki (Fat Man) (80,000
  estimated killed).

The plane and crew that dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan.
A replication of Little Boy.
(5 Truman) 220,000 killed- Forced the Japanese
to surrender
18
August 6, 1945 Atomic bombing of HIROSHIMA
19
August 9, 1945 Atomic bombing of NAGASAKI
20
(6 Truman) JAPAN SURRENDERS

• Japan surrendered days after the second atomic
  bomb was dropped - August 14, 1945.

General MacArthur said, Today the guns are
silent. The skies no longer rain death . . .the
entire world is quietly at peace.
Formal document signed on the U.S.S. Missouri
with General MacArthur.
21
(35) September 2, 1945 official day of
surrender Victory in Japan V-J Day.
At the White House, President Harry Truman
announces the Japanese surrender, August 14, 1945.
22
V-J Day KissNew York Times Square
Famous picture of an American soldier
celebrating the end of the war.
23
THE OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

• Japan was occupied by U.S. forces under the
  command of General MacArthur.
• During the seven-year occupation, MacArthur
  reshaped Japans economy by introducing
  free-market practices that led to a remarkable
  economic recovery.
• Additionally, he introduced a liberal
  constitution that to this day is called the
  MacArthur Constitution.

24

• a. Total direct and indirect costs of war may
  have reached as high as 4 trillion
• b. U.S. deaths 400,000

25
NUREMBERG WAR TRIALS
Herman Goering, Hitler's right-hand man and chief
architect of the German war effort, testifies at
his trial. He was found guilty of war crimes but
avoided execution by swallowing potassium
cyanide.

• The discovery of Hitlers death camps led the
  Allies to put 24 surviving Nazi leaders on trial
  for crimes against humanity, crimes against the
  peace, and war crimes.
• The trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany.
• I was only following orders was not an
  acceptable defense as 12 of the 24 were sentenced
  to death and the others to life in prison.

26
(38) GI BILL HELPS RETURNING VETS

• To help returning servicemen ease back into
  civilian life, Congress passed the Servicemens
  Readjustment Act (GI Bill of Rights).
• The act provided education for 7.8 million vets.
• Considered the last piece of New Deal
  legislation.

What was the biggest post-WWI problem facing
returning war veterans? Needing jobs
right? How does the GI Bill of Rights help this?
27
(No Transcript)
28
Registration Day at Harvard after the G.I. Bill
of Rights.
29
INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS

• When the war began, 120,000 Japanese Americans
  lived in the U.S. mostly on the West Coast.
• After Pearl Harbor, many people were suspicious
  of possible spy activity by Japanese Americans.
• In 1942, FDR ordered Japanese Americans into 10
  relocation centers.

Japanese Americans felt the sting of
discrimination during WWII.
30
WRA Relocation Centers
WRA Relocation Centers WRA Relocation Centers WRA Relocation Centers WRA Relocation Centers
Name State Opened Max. Pop'n
Manzanar California March 1942 10,046
Tule Lake California May 1942 18,789
Poston Arizona May 1942 17,814
Gila River Arizona July 1942 13,348
Granada Colorado August 1942 7,318
Heart Mountain Wyoming August 1942 10,767
Minidoka Idaho August 1942 9,397
Topaz Utah September 1942 8,130
Rohwer Arkansas September 1942 8,475
Jerome Arkansas October 1942 8,497
Location of the 10 Internment camps
31
Children at the Weill public school in San
Francisco pledge allegiance to the American flag
in April 1942, prior to the internment of
Japanese Americans.
Jerome camp in Arkansas
32
(40) Korematsu vs The U.S.
The Supreme Court Case that concerned the
constitutionality of Japanese Internment, which
required Japanese-Americans in the western
United States to be excluded from a described
West Coast military area. In a 6-3 decision, the
Court sided with the government, ruling that the
exclusion order was constitutional. The opinion,
written by Supreme Court justice Hugo Black, held
that the need to protect against espionage
outweighed Fred Korematsu's individual rights,
and the rights of Americans of Japanese descent.
Remember Scheneck vs. the US??? Clear and
Present Danger??
33
U.S. PAYS REPARATIONS TO JAPANESE

• In the late 1980s, President Reagan signed into
  law a bill that provided 20,000 to every
  Japanese American sent to a relocation camp
• Checks were mailed in 1990 under George Bush Sr.

We can never fully right the wrongs of the past
. . . we now recognize that serious wrongs were
done to Japanese Americans during WWII.
Today the U.S. is home to more than 1,000,000
Japanese-Americans.
George Daddy Bush
34
Nearly 59 years after the end of World War II,
the National World War II Memorial was dedicated
in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, May 29, 2004 to
honor the 408,680 Americans who died in the
conflict.
35
The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, was the first
air raid by the United States to strike the
Japanese home island of Honshu during World War
II. It demonstrated that the Japanese home
islands were vulnerable to Allied air attack, and
provided an expedient means for U.S. retaliation
for Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December
1941. The Doolittle Raid was the only time that
United States Army Air Forces bombers were
launched from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on a
combat mission. The raid was planned and led by
Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, with
the North American B-25B Mitchell the airplane
selected to carry out the mission. The plan was
to launch them from a carrier, hit military
targets in Japan, and fly on to land in
China. All 16 aircraft were lost on the mission,
and 11 crewmen were either killed or captured.
The crews of 14 aircraft, including one interned
in the Soviet Union for more than a year, were
recovered and returned to the United
States. Doolittle would later recount in his
autobiography that the raid was intended to cause
the Japanese to doubt their leadership and to
raise American morale The Japanese had been told
they were invulnerable. An attack on the Japanese
homeland would cause confusion in the minds of
the Japanese people and sow doubt about the
reliability of their leaders.There was a
second, equally important, psychological reason
for this attack...Americans badly needed a morale
boost.