War in the Pacific

1931 invasion of Manchuria with plans to take southeast Asia

1937 capture Nanking, embarking on deadly rampage killing 200,000 Chinese

1941 Japan intended to invade Dutch East Indies for its resources to build military

1941 Roosevelt announced a trade embargo against Japan to stop its military build up

Japanese expansion until 1941

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941, Sunday morning

183 Japanese aircraftSank or disabled 18 ships,

including all battleshipsKilled 2,400 AmericansWounded 1,000

Attack on Pearl Harbor“a date that will live in infamy.”

USS Arizona and aerial photo taken by a Japanese pilot

December 8, 1941 Congress declared war on Japan

December 11, 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the US in support of Japan because of the pact of 1940

“Tripartite Pact” a defensive alliance 1940

Declaration of War

General Hideki Tojo

Japanese general, a militarist who seized control of government in October 1941. He has been considered most influential in attacking Pearl Harbor.

Emperor Hirohito

Royal Emperor of Japan

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Japan’s leading military strategist who urged quick action to take the South Pacific before America could act

If Japan captured the Philippines early in the war, it would dominate the entire South Pacific, expanding its goal of a Japan-controlled Asia.

Japan assaulted the Philippines early in 1942. American commander General Douglas

MacArthur was forced to retreat to Australia. He left behind part of his army who, along

with Filipino soldiers, were captured

Philippines

General Douglas MacArthur

Began on April 9, 1942 when 70,000 Filipino and American troops surrendered to Japanese troops on the Bataan Peninsula.

General MacArthur left thousands of troops behind.

The 65-mile march to a concentration camp cost an unknown number of lives.

16,000 died in the camp

The Bataan Death March

Bataan Death March

1. Recapture Philippine Islands and help China combat the Japanese

2. Island hopping, one by one to get close enough to attack Japan itself

US strategy in the Pacific

Battle of Midway, June 1942 Guadalcanal August 7, 1942 and February

9, 1943 New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Gilbert and

Marshall Islands, Tarawa 23 to 26 October 1944, Allies invaded

Philippines, three-day Battle of Leyte Gulf, generally considered to be the largest naval battle of WWII, and perhaps in history; objective of allies was to deprive its Japan of vital oil supplies;

Iwo Jima, February 19 – March 26, 1945; Okinawa; carried out organized kamikaze

attacks;

Islands

Reversed the balance of naval power in the Pacific, and put Japanese at a disadvantage for the rest of the war

Japan lost four aircraft carriers, one cruiser, two destroyers

US lost one aircraft carrier and one destroyer

This battle turned the tide of the war toward the US

Japan never recovered its Naval power

Midway, June 3-6, 1942

Battle of Midwayflight deck of the USS Yorktown

USS Enterprise

GuadalcanalUSS Wasp, hit by Japanese torpedo

Objective: deny the Japanese the use of islands as bases because it threatened supply routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand;

marked the transition by the Allies from defensive operations to the strategic offensive in that theater

From defense to offense

GuadalcanalUS Marines

US marine, Saipan

Leyte Gulf

Battle of Leyte Gulf

Iwo Jima, 1945

The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. The picture became the iconic image of the battle and has been heavily reproduced.

Iwo Jima

Hiroshima, rare photo taken after the atomic bomb had been

dropped