The War isn’t over yet...

The Pacific Campaign

VE Day did not mean WWII was over – there was still the issue of the war against Japan.

The Soviets refused to help, as they were in ruins – so it was essentially up to the Americans to finish the job with the war in the Pacific.

The USA must go it alone

The Pacific Campaign was difficult as there were numerous heavily fortified islands that had to be conquered one by

one, which made American successes very slow. Going from island to island was nicknamed ‘Island hopping’ & took a

large toll on the Americans & there were huge causalities.

What would make this difficult?

Step 1 – Loading everyone onto an amphibious vehicle

Step 2 – Wading Ashore

Step 2 – Wading Ashore

Step 2 – Wading Ashore

Step 2 – Wading Ashore

Step 3 – Actually fighting

Step 3 – Actually fighting

Step 4 - Reinforcing

Essentially ‘island hopping’ wasn’t going to be easy—the Americans realized that if they continued to island hop they would face increasingly large causalities.

The American people were tired of the war & frustrated about hearing of the loss of life on the daily news...

The USA begins a new air-born bombing tactic against Japan called the Firebombing of Tokyo.

So....

America began using bombers to pound the Japanese into submission

The Bombing to Tokyo, Japan had started...

Bombing of Tokyo

Bombing of Tokyo

Bombing of Tokyo

Towards the end of the war as the role of strategic bombing became more important, a new command for the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific was created to oversee all US strategic bombing in the hemisphere, under USAAF General Curtis LeMay.

Japanese cities suffered greatly from air attacks by US bombers. On March 9-10 1945 alone, about 100,000 people were killed in a fire caused by the attack on Tokyo.

Japanese causalities

Hard-fought battles at Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, & others resulted in horrific casualties on both sides, but finally produced a Japanese retreat.

The bombing of Tokyo also put the US on the winning side.

Faced with the loss of most of their experienced pilots, the Japanese resorted to kamikaze tactics in an attempt to slow the US advance.

Japan begins to start fading

Kamakaze pilots

The American military & public realized Japan is not going to surrender easily...

...which means there will continue to be huge causalities of American soldiers.....

...& America is not looking forward to this loss of American lives.

Until.... ....a group of scientists take US President ‘Give

‘em hell Harry’ Truman into a top secret meeting to discuss a weapon they’d been working on called ‘The Manhattan Project’.

Modern warfare would be changed forever...

So...