WORLD WAR II. Essential Question: What role did the United States play in fighting in the Pacific during World War II?

WORLD

WAR II

Essential Question:What role did the United States play in fighting in the Pacific during World War II?

While the war was coming to an end in Europe, the Allies continued to fight the Japanese in the

Pacific.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor,

the USA sent troops to the

Pacific theater. The Pacific war revealed a new kind of fighting by using aircraft

carriers.

The Japanese took the Philippines just days after

Pearl Harbor. General MacArthur, vowing to

return, had to evacuate and forces surrendered.

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese launched a major offensive and were able to tae Hong

Kong, Singapore, The Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and invaded Burma.

THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH

After the loss of the Philippines, Allied prisoners were broken into small groups and forced to march to prison camps.

They were treated very cruelly and approximately 10,000 died in the 6-12 day journey through the jungle.

This violated the Geneva Convention, a 1929 international agreement on the treatment of prisoners

The Chinese officially joined the Allies on Dec. 9th.

U.S. sent aid to the Chinese

but they lost to Japanese at Burma and

were forced to retreat.

The Dolittle Raid was in revenge of Pearl Harbor and a symbolic message.

A group of B-25 bombers

launched from an aircraft carrier to

bomb Tokyo in April 1942.

They did little damage and were forced to crash-

land in China, but it did help boost

morale despite all the defeats in the

Pacific.

May 1942: Battle of the Coral Sea: 1st naval battle

fought entirely by airplanes. It was a

tie.

June 1942: The turning point

in the war in the Pacific came at

the Battle of Midway.After Midway,

the Allies began to regain islands

controlled by Japan.

It did stop the Japanese

advance and invasion of Australia.

Most Japanese carriers were

sunk and Japan was put on the

defensive.

Japan did not play by traditional rules in war.

“Kamikaze” pilots flew planes into

battleships & aircraft carriers.

Japanese soldiers refused to surrender &

tortured Allied prisoners of war.

The problem for the Allies was the time & troops it would cost to retake the

thousands of islands the Japanese

controlled in the Pacific.The U.S. developed an

island-hopping strategy to skip the heavily defended

islands & seize islands close to Japan.

From 1943 to 1945, the Allies took back a series of islands

including the Philippines & were

moving in on Japan.

August 1942: The fight for Guadalcanal took 6

months & cost 25,000 Japanese

& 2,000 U.S. lives.

October 1944: MacArthur returned to Philippines and finally conquered Manila in March

1945.

American submarines were

ruining Japan’s fleet, & the firebomb raid

on Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945, killed

83,000 people.

Japan lost sea power in March 1945 with last naval battle of

Leyte Gulf.

In 1945, the Allies won the islands of

Iwo Jima & Okinawa. From these islands, the

U.S. began firebombing Tokyo & other Japanese

cities.

Despite significant damage from

kamikaze pilots

By May 1945, the war in Europe was over & U.S. began preparing for a land

invasion of Japan.

Despite losing control of the Pacific &

withstanding firebomb attacks, Japan refused

to surrender.

…But, perhaps a land invasion was not necessary…

WHETHER TO DROP THE ATOMIC BOMB?

CRITICAL THINKING DECISION A FDR’s

Decision:

BIn 1939, Albert

Einstein wrote U.S. President Franklin

Roosevelt about the potential to build a nuclear

weapon. FDR created a top-secret program

called the Manhattan Project.

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

Robert Oppenheimer

was put in charge of developing the

bomb.From 1942-1945, a number of secret labs across the

country developed

& built the bomb.

Physicist Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago

developed the nuclear reaction

Nuclear plant in Hanford, WA developed the plutonium.

The bomb was constructed in a secret city in Oak Ridge, TN.

In July 1945, the bomb was successfully tested at Los

Alamos, New Mexico during Project Trinity.

In April 1945, FDR died & his VP Harry Truman had to decide how to end the war in the

Pacific.

WHETHER TO DROP THE ATOMIC BOMB: CRITICAL THINKING DECISION B

Truman’s Decision:

C

In July 1945, the Big Three met at the Potsdam Conference to discuss the end of

WWII.

Truman learned the atomic bomb was ready & issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan: “surrender or

face destruction.”

When Japan refused to surrender, Truman

ordered the bombing of Hiroshima on August

6, 1945.

After 3 days, Japan did not surrender

so a 2nd atomic bomb was dropped on

Nagasaki.After the second atomic bomb,

Emperor Hirohito agreed to a surrender.

HiroshimaNagasaki

World War II was over!!!

WHETHER TO DROP THE ATOMIC BOMB: CRITICAL THINKING DECISION C

JUSTIFICATION FOR DROPPING BOMB

• End the war quickly and theoretically save lives

• Revenge for Pearl Harbor• Intimidate the Soviet Union and

other potential enemies• Justify the expense of the Manhattan

Project

CONCLUSIONS: THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR IIWorld War II was the biggest, most deadly,

& most impactful war in world history:Europe was destroyed by the war & lost its place as the epicenter of power in the world

The USA & USSR emerged as super powers & rivals competing for influence in the world

A United Nations was formed to replace the League of Nations to help promote peace

Colonized nations began to demand independence from Europeans

WW2 TIMELINE (ALLIES, AXIS, USSR)

CONCLUSIONSWW2 was the largest & deadliest

war in history & changed the U.S.Wartime industry ended the Great Depression, expanded the size of the federal gov’t, & ushered in affluent decade

The USA emerged as a world superpower, developed a nuclear arsenal, & engaged a Cold War against the USSR