27
War in the Pacific
War in the Pacific
Pacific Theater• In addition to Pearl Harbor, Japan
attacks Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island, and the Philippines (where the Americans are stationed under Gen. MacArthur)
Philippines - Bataan Death March
• MacArthur ordered to relinquish command; escaped to Australia
• 25,000 Americans and Filipinos died on the 60 mi. Bataan Death March to captivity
• Beheadings, shootings, slit throats, rapes, bayonet stabbings, disembowelments, denial of food and water
Bataan Death March– “I was questioned by a
Japanese officer who found out that I had been in a Philippine Scout Battalion. The Japanese hated the scouts….Anyway, they took me outside and I was forced to watch as they buried six of my scouts alive. They made the men dig their own graves, and then they had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the head with shovels to stun them and piled the earth on top of them.”
1942 – Allies gain control in Pacific
Greatest Extent of Japan’s Sphere of Influence
Battle of the Coral Sea• America/
Australia v. Japan– New kind of
naval warfare• Not a shot fired
from the ships (all from planes)
• Battle was a draw (Allies lose more ships, but halt Japanese expansion)
Battle of Midway - 1942• Was a key American airfield• Japan had largest naval force ever assembled;
outnumbers U.S. 4 to 1 • Japan’s goal: finish off U.S. fleet• U.S. cracks Japanese code• U.S. surprises Japan and wins• “The Americans had avenged Pearl Harbor” – Yamamoto• Turning point
Allies go on the offensive• Island hopping
– Taking one island at a time closer and closer to Japan
– Skip the Japanese strongpoints
– Douglas Macarthur (U.S.)
Battle of Guadalcanal • Base of Japanese
air force• U.S./Australia v.
Japan• Took 6 months• Japan’s 1st defeat
on land• Japanese lose
23,000 out of 36,000
• “island of death”
Battle of Guadalcanal• “Hell was furry red spiders
as big as your fist, giant lizards as long as your leg, leeches falling from trees to suck blood, armies of white ants with bites of fire, scurrying scorpions inflaming any flesh they touched, enormous rats and bats everywhere, and rivers with waiting crocodiles. Hell was the sour, foul smell of the squishy jungle, humidity that rotted a body within hours….Hell was an enemy…..so fanatic that it used its own dead as booby traps.”
“I shall return” – MacArthurU.S. Retakes Philippines, 1944
U.S. bombs Japan, Wake Island• Use Saipan and
Tinian as bombing bases
Pacific/Japan• Japanese keep
retreating but won’t surrender
• Have no hope of winning but begin kamikaze missions against allies – Leyte Gulf
Iwo Jima and Okinawa• “Sulfur Island”• 20,700 Japanese• 6000 US Marines killed• 20,500 Japanese killed
- 1900 Kamikaze- 12,000 Americans killed (49,000 casualties)
- 110,000 Japanese killed- Ready for Japanese invasion?
Plan to Invade Japan• US planned to
invade Japan with eleven Army and Marine divisions (650,000 troops)
• Casualty estimates for the operation were as high as 1,400,000
• Truman must decide to invade
A-Bombs on JapanTruman learns of A-Bomb at
Potsdam Conferenceissues warning to Japan (really a warning to USSR?)
ignored (by both)August 6 – dropped on
Hiroshima73,000 out of 365,000
dieno surrender
August 9 – dropped on Nagasaki
37,000 out of 200,000 die
Japan surrenders (V-J Day)
Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the plane (named after his mother) that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima
A-Bomb in Hiroshima
• Ground temperature = 7,000 degrees F
• Winds = 980 miles per hour• Energy released= 20,000 tons
of TNT• 62,000 buildings destroyed• 70,000 killed immediately• 140,000 dead by the end of
the year• 200,000 related deaths to
bomb in Hiroshima
