VE Day and VJ Day 11.7 Students analyze America’s participation in World War II. 2. Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles.

VE Day and VJ Day

11.7 Students analyze America’s participation in World War II.2. Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles of Midway,

Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the Bulge.3. Identify the roles and sacrifices of individual American soldiers, as well as the

unique contributions of the special fighting forces (e.g., the Tuskegee Airmen, the442nd Regimental Combat team, the Navajo Code Talkers).

7. Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision(Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Vocabulary

• V-E Day

• Island Hopping

• Kamikaze pilots

• Manhattan Project

• Hiroshima

• Nagasaki

Overall losses

• United States – Men sent to WWII 16,112,566 – KIA 291,557 – Wounded 670,846

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004619.html

D Day

Dwight D Eisenhower plans an invasion on the coast of France

Normandy, France

21 American divisions

26 British, Canadian and Polish

Goal: convince Germans that the Allied attack come to Calais

June 6, 1944

• 11,000 planes prepared the way

• The attack allowed for a foothold to be taken

• Next goal: capture Berlin

Battle of the Bulge

• German counter attack almost successful

• Germans caught Allies by surprise

• Battle of the Bulge instead crippled Germany

VE Day

• Germany had a two front war

• Soviets made it to Berlin by January

• April 1945 Mussolini fled to Switzerland– U.S forces closed in on the West side of

Berlin– May 7, 1945 Germany surrendered

Island Hopping Casualties

• Battle of Midway – USA: <1,000

• Iwo Jima, World War II (19 Feb.-9 April 1945) 28 000

• Gilbert, History of the Twentieth Century – Japanese soldiers: 20,000 – US: 6,821 marines + 900 sailors

• Johnson, Modern Times – US: 4,917 d. – Japanese: >18,000 k.

Costs of Pacific Theater

Guadalcanal •US: 1,592 fatalities •Japanese: 25,000 lost

Okinawa•US: 1,592 fatalities •Japanese: 25,000 lost•http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/battles.htm#Okinawa

War in Pacific continued

• Island hopping U.S. strategy

• Japanese fought hard and bravely

• New threat: kamikaze pilots

• 3,000 kamikaze pilots died

• Fight for Iwo Jima the bloodiest

Manhattan Project

• Secret code name for the development of the atomic bomb in a top secret site in Los Alamos, New Mexico

• Project leader: Robert Oppenheimer

• July 16, 1945 first test of A bomb

Truman Decides

Harry Truman decided to use the bomb

What he knew:– Ethical consequences of using the bomb on

civilians– Axis nuclear scientists were working on a

similar bomb– Military Advisors estimated 1,000,000

casualties if we kept Island Hopping

Hiroshima

• August 6, 1945• In 2 minutes 60,000

civilians dead

Nagasaki Destruction

Nagasaki

• August 9, 1945• Soviets declare war

on Japan• Second A bomb

dropped• 35,000 dead initially

VJ Day

• Emperor Hirohito surrendered

• August 15, 1945• Radio address: first

time people ever heard his voice

• Official surrender September 2