Review

What were the two turning points of the war?

How was the German Army defeated in the Soviet Union?

What was the Normandy Invasion?Which countries made up the “Big Three”?

What is appeasement?

EQ: (1) How did the atomic bomb affect the outcome of the war? (2) Was it justified?

Background: War in the Pacific

Mainly the U.S. vs JapanAfter Pearl Harbor, US’s strategy is “island hopping” Take over Japanese held islands and move closer to the country of Japan

U.S. soldier describes islands in the Pacific

“Hell was furry red spiders as big as your fist, giant lizards as long as your leg, leeches falling from the trees to suck your 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 foul smelling, humid jungle that entrapped its occupants.”

Japanese get Desperate

Use Kamikaze (“divine wind”) – suicide pilots would crash into the enemy

Tell troops to fight to the death

Death toll increases on both sides

Manhattan Project

Top secret project to design a new powerful weapon: an atomic bomb

Headed by J. R. Oppenheimer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppgdBI31-lo

Dropping the Atomic Bombs

After bloody battles, U.S. chooses to use its atomic bombs against Japan

Otherwise the U.S. would have to invade Japan

Atomic Bombs are dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t19kvUiH

vAE “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” were the

codenames for the bombs Equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT

Aftermath

110,000 – 120,000 die instantly in the two citiesThousands more from radiation

Japan surrenders on September 2, 1945

The world enters the “Nuclear Age”US emerges as world’s first superpower