History Through Literature

1
History Through Literature

• Chapter 8 The War in the Pacific

2
Imperial Japan

• 1931 invades Manchuria
• 1934 withdraws from the Washington Naval Treaty
• 1935 leaves the League of Nations
• 1937 invades rest of China
• 1940 invades French Indo-China (Vietnam)
• US places oil embargo on Japan
• Led be Emperor Hirohito (d1989) and PM Toja -
  Militarism

3
Henderson Field

• Located on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon
  Islands
• Japanese building airfield which would be a
  threat to Australia.
• 6 months of fighting until Japanese gave up

4
Zero

• Superior fighter for the Japanese Navy until mid
  1943 when US finally designed better fighters
• Had great rate of turn.
• Japanese never replaced it.
• Nicknamed Zeke US had to have quick code
  words for Japanese planes
• Males names fighters female names - bombers

5
Kamikazes

• Divine Wind
• Typhoons that saved Japan in 1274 and 1281
  destroying Mongolian invasion fleets
• Was going to save Japan from US invasion fleet
• Suicide attacks
• Funerals held with family before pilots got in
  plane.

6
Island Battles

• Guam part of the Mariana Islands, attacked on
  the 7th, US territory.
• Saipan Northern Mariana Islands, 3 week battle,
  civilians threw themselves off cliffs
• Tinian - sister Island to the south of Saipan
  US built 2 huge runways there Enola Gay took
  off from there.
• Iwo Jima fierce fighting flag raising
• Okinawa tremendous fighting, 150,00 civilians
  died - 340 miles from Japan largest amphibious
  landing ever (D-Day)
• Peleliu needed for an airfield to protect
  McArthur in the Philippines highest casualty
  rate in the war.

7
US Marines

• Semper Fi
• Semper Fidelis always faithful
• Marine Corp Motto
• Best fighting force in WWII the US Marines
• Army close second
• Force projection from sea under Navy
• Army, airforce, and navy
• elite

8
Battered Bastards of Bataan

• 60 mile death march of the survivors of the
  Philippine surrender of US forces
• 75,000 men (Filipino)
• Close to 20,000 didnt make it
• No food, sip of water 6 day march in tropic
  heat
• If you fell you were stabbed, if you stopped to
  help someone, you were shot some decapitated

9
Potsdam Conference

• July 1945
• Churchill, Stalin, and new President Truman meet
  near Berlin
• Issue a stern ultimatum (Potsdam Ultimatum) to
  the Japanese surrender or be destroyed
• Unconditional Surrender lose the Emperor
• August 6th Hiroshima
• August 9th Nagasaki
• Beginning of the Cold War

10
The Atomic Bomb

• I have become Death the destroyer of Worlds
  Oppenheimer
• Manhattan Project 2 billion dollars
• 3 bombs Los Alamos then Japan
• August 10th We will surrender if the Emperor
  can stay Truman accepted on August 14th
• Sept 2nd 1945 official surrender