America and WWII
Pacific Theater
14.2 The Early Battles (Appleby 494-496)
14.3 Japanese American Relocation (Appleby 504)
14.4 Driving Japan Back (Appleby 513-515)
14.5 Japan is Defeated (Appleby 520-524)
Today’s Agenda
• Total War Slide Show
• Homework
• Unit Test on WWII Tuesday next week
Describe the fall of the Philippines.• Japan invaded 2 days after
Pearl Harbor• American troops held out for 3
months under Douglas MacArthur
• Soldiers suffered from hunger, disease, insects
• FDR ordered MacArthur to evacuate himself
• “I shall return.”• 78 thousand Americans
surrendered in April 1942
What was the Bataan Death March?• 60 mile week-long forced
march by Japanese soldiers on American and Filipino soldiers
• Characterized by extreme extreme cruelty cruelty by Japanese soldiers– Beheading, shooting,
stabbing by bayonet, rape, disembowelment, rifle-butt beating, and deliberate starvation
– Falling down may mean a death sentence
– Nearly 25 thousand died during 60 mile march to prison camp
What was the Doolittle Raid?• FDR wanted to raise US
morale by hitting Japan back
• US navy placed long range bombers on the aircraft carrier, Hornet
• James Doolittle led raid• Successfully bombed
Japan• Did little damage• Changed psyche of the war
– Made Japanese feel vulnerable
Click for Clip 2:30 -9
The Doolittle Raid
What was the Battle of Midway?• Yamamoto planned
– to lure US fleet into battle & destroy it– Invade New Guinea & cut off supply
lines• US code breakers had broken Japanese
coded messages• US carriers Lexington and Yorktown
intercepted Japanese fleet & prevented invasion of New Guinea
• Admiral Nimitz ambushed Japanese at Midway Island
• US planes caught Japanese aircraft carriers with fuel, bombs on deck
• 4 carriers destroyed• Turning point of Pacific War Click for Clip
Describe the attitude Americans had toward the Japanese after Pearl Harbor & Bataan.
• Viewed as “A Fifth Column”
– Disloyal group who clandestinely aids the enemy by infiltrating a group or nation
• Backstabbers
• “A Jap's a Jap. The only good one is a dead one!”
Click for Bugs Bunny Cartoon
What was Executive Order 9066? • Presidential order to
remove & relocate any person considered dangerous from living near military bases
– 100 miles from W. coast
• Allowed them to relocated 120 thousand Japanese-Americans into Internment Camps
Describe the Internment Camps• Army placed them in
“assembly centers” or War Relocation Centers
• Usually in remote areas
• Manned by armed guards
• Sites lacked basic sanitation
• tar paper-covered barracks without plumbing or cooking facilities
• Some only allotted $.45 for food per person, per day
Describe the Korematsu v. US case.• Frederick Korematsu
– Japanese-American was arrested & convicted for evading Executive Order 9066
– Appealed decision to Supreme Court
• Supreme Court – ruled 6-3 that the
Executive Order was constitutional
– held that need to protect against espionage outweighed Korematsu's individual rights
What was “island hopping”?• Technique of US navy
to defeat Japan by taking one island at a time
• Secured island could be used as base to land bombing raids of Japan’s main islands
• Characterized by increasingly intense fighting as US drew closer to Japan See The Century 1941-45 minute 37-
39
Describe the Battle of Iwo Jima.• B-29 Bombers had difficulty
reaching Tokyo • Iwo Jima
– Small volcanic island perfect for air base
– Rugged terrain, numerous caves
– 60 thousand marines invaded in Feb. 1945
– Nearly 7 thousand marines died in brutal fighting but were victorious
– Now US could bomb Japan at will
Describe Japanese willingness to fight to the Death.
• Believed emperor was a god– students taught to die
for emperor• propaganda claimed
Americans killed babies, murdered civilians– Civilians of Saipan
committed suicide by hundreds
• Japanese soldiers would not surrender at Iwo Jima or Okinawa (over 80 thousand killed)
Play Century Civilians at War from 40-50
2:14-2:20
Saipan
Describe the fire bombing of Tokyo (March 1945).
• General Curtis LeMay– Armed B-29 with
napalm• Meant to start fires
• started huge firestorms– Most of the buildings
were made of wood, fire spread very quickly
• Killed 80,000 civilians, left over 100,000 homeless
• 66 other cities firebombed
• Still Japan showed no signs of surrender
Tokyo after firebombing
10:30-14:00
"Everything combustible would be consumed, …In some cases the heat would soften the asphalt in the streets, so that fire equipment mired down and was lost to the flames. Water sprayed on the fire would simply vaporize; glass panes would soften and drip from metal window frames. Here and there, incredibly, concrete melted. No living thing could survive in such an atmosphere."
Firebombing Tokyo
Capture: Tokyo firebombing
Describe the invasion of Okinawa.• US need base from which to
launch invasion of main islands of Japan
• Okinawa just 350 miles away• US invaded April ‘45• Japanese hid in rugged
mountains• 12 thousand Americans killed
in invasion– Kamikaze
• Planes, packed with explosives, intentionally crashed into battleships, carriers
• Few Japanese soldiers surrendered
58:25-1:04
By 1944, Japan was losing the war.
What is Total War?• A war in which
Governments– make any sacrifice in
order to achieve victory
– Direct all resources and economic activity towards war effort
– Place No distinction between soldiers and civilians
– specifically target civilians as a way to demoralize enemy
Victims in the Dresden Bombing
What is the Manhattan Project?• Secret government operation to
develop 1st nuclear weapon• Initiated after letter from Einstein
and Leo Szilard warned FDR of Nazi initiatives
• Meant to be used on Nazi Germany
• Headed by Robert Oppenheimer• Involved over 130 thousand
scientists, physicists, engineers, etc.
• Based in Los Alamos, NM• Harry S. Truman
– Vice President had no knowledge until he became president in April ‘45
• Trinity- first successful detonation
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" (line from Hindu scripture quoted by Robert Oppenheimer when he observed the test.) Photos are of tower in New Mexico and experimental blast
Truman Becomes President
How does nuclear energy work?• fission, or 'splitting' of
an atom
– Split atom strikes other atoms and starts chain reaction
– Results in release of tremendous amounts of energy
– Also results in Fallout
• Radioactive particles lifted into atmosphere descend back to earth
Trinitite. The bomb melted the sand into this greenish glass. It was named trinitite after Trinity.
Describe the bombing of Hiroshima.• August 6, 1945• Enola Gay dropped
atomic bomb on Hiroshima
• Heat reached 3 thousand degrees Fahrenheit
• Killed at least 75,000 people
• Over the years more died from radiation
• When no surrender came, Nagasaki bombed Aug. 9 killing 50 thousand more
• Japan formally surrendered Sept. 2 on USS Missouri
Click pic for clipBegin at 1 minute
7-12
2:21-
Hiroshima
“The homes of many of us have been destroyed, and the lives of old and young have been taken. There's scarcely a household that hasn't been struck to the heart. Why, in all conscience, should these be the ones to suffer?.....Are these our soldiers? Are these our fighters? Why should they be sacrificed? I shall tell you why. Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform, it is a war of the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield but in the cities and in the villages, in the factories, and on the farms, in the home and in the heart of every man, woman, and child who loves freedom. This is a peoples war, it is our war, we are the fighters, fight it, then. Fight it with all that is in us. And may God defend the right.”– Closing sermon of Mrs. Miniver
Nagasaki
The explosion created a supersonic shock wave which was responsible for destroying most of the
buildings in the blast zone. Fully half of the bomb's released energy was released in the form of
this wind, which spread out at 440 meters per second (1600 km/hr or 1000 miles/hr; the speed of
sound is 330 meters per second). It not only knocked things down, it also filled the air with debris. The section of concrete wall below has
numerous glass shards embedded in it, even though it was 2200 meters (one and a half miles) from the hypocenter, and sheltered from the blast
by a low hill.
Nagasaki before Attack
Nagasaki after
Hiroshima (Before and After Aug. 6, 1945)
Seizo Yamada's ground level photo
taken from approximately 7 km
northeast of Hiroshima.
The Survivors
Was Truman correct/justified in using the atomic bomb?
play clip from minute 41• Truman’s Options
– Invade Japan– Wait for Soviet Help– Compromise (allow Emperor Hirohitto to
remain)– Drop Bomb
