PEARL HARBOR TO

HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

THE PACIFIC THEATRE OF WORLD WAR II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lIm06JOBtw
December 7, 1941 - Pearl Harbor Timeline:
First wave of Japanese planes take off toward Hawaii
US radar station detects the planes moving in. Warning
disregarded.
Japanese aircraft reach Oahu. Attack begins shortly after.
The attack lasted a little over an hour and involved
torpedo and air assaults.
USS Arizona explodes and sinks after a torpedo hits a
magazine hold the ship.
Second wave of enemy planes attack the damaged fleet.
The entire attack lasted a little over an hour before
Japanese planes withdrew back to their carriers.
Six ships and over 160 US planes were destroyed by the
Japanese.
An estimated total of 2,400 US servicemen and civilians
died in the attack.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on
Japan the following day, December 8 1941.
Prelude to War

Japan experienced a rapid transition from centuries old customs to modernization in the mid to late 19 th century, which strengthened its economic and military capabilities.

Military victories in the early 20 t h century encouraged Japan’s imperial ambitions.

The Great Depression that began in 1929 and carried on through most of the 1930’s, caused economic tensions between the United S tates and Japan.

Japanese expansion into Chinese territory, which began in 1931, worsened its relationship with the United States and other members of the League of Nations (formed after World War I).

Economic sanctions, trade embargos on oil and the Tripartite P act.

Japan, Italy and Germany became known as the Axis Powers.

Japanese Victories in the Pacific Following Pearl Harbor
Invasion of the island nation of the Philippines and capture of major cities and US naval bases.

The invasion and capture of US territories including Wake Island and Guam.

Japan captures Hong Kong.

General Douglas MacArthur ordered to withdrawal from the Philippines, leaving thousands of US soldiers stranded.

Strategic islands and small nations fall under the control of the Japanese Empire, paving the way for an invasion of Australia that they believed would end the war in the Pacific if successful.

Bombing campaigns begin on Australian ports and Indonesian Islands are invaded.

Atrocities throughout Japanese Occupied territories continue, including the deaths of thousands of US soldiers in Bataan (the “Death March”).

The Battle of the Coral Sea and naval engagements at Midway begin to turn the tide of the war !!!
Allied Campaigns of the Pacific Theatre
The Doolittle Bombing Raid on Tokyo

Battle of Midway

The Marine Corps uses the “Island Hopping” strategy to capture Japanese held territories

Guadalcanal

Peleliu

Iwo Jima

Okinawa

The United States Drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Doolittle Raid
In April of 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led
an air raid on Tokyo and although the air attack was successful, it failed to have any significant impact on
Japan’s ability to continue their war effort.

After major losses at Pearl Harbor and throughout

many of their territories in the Pacific, the United States
needed a victory to boost much needed morale, both for the military and for the American people back
home. The Doolittle Raid also exposed Japan’s vulnerability over air and sea superiority in the Pacific.
Battle of Midway: June 1942
A month after Japanese and US naval forces clashed at the Battle of Coral Sea, the two sides
met again at Midway Atoll. Although their previous engagement had ended in a strategic
victory for US and Australian forces, the Japanese fleet retreated from the Battle of Coral Sea
with their main aircraft carriers still intact. Midway was a different outcome.

Before the US Navy surprised and ambushed the Japanese fleet at sea, navy intelligence had
found a way to break Japanese codes and a way to trick the enemy into believing that US
ships were somewhere other than where they really were. Before the Japanese fleet had a
chance to realize that they had been deceived, they were attacked from the air by a variety of
US war planes and from battleships at sea.

Although US forces sustained much damage in the battle, the Japanese fleet faired far worse.
Japan lost aircraft carriers and many planes in the Battle of Midway that were crucial to
sustaining air superiority in the Pacific. Without this air support, Japanese ground troops
would be left without the back up that had made their previous campaigns successful.
“Island Hopping” Strategy Used Against Japan
GUADALCANAL: August 1942 – February 1943
Considered to be the first major US offensive of the Pacific
Theatre and battle fought on land against Japanese forces.

Although Guadalcanal resulted in a victory for the United

States, the battle proved how difficult warfare on the islands
was going to be.

US Marines faced an enemy unlike any other during World

War II. The rules of war for Japanese soldiers was far
different than the way Germans and other European soldiers
fought against their enemies.

Diseases such as Malaria, dangerous jungle terrain and

tropical weather conditions including heavy rains and
extreme heat, were also major concerns for the men who
fought in the Pacific and led to many non-combat related
casualties.
Peleliu: September – November 1944
US intelligence miscalculated the number of Japanese soldiers defending the island. The fighting was estimated to be over within a few days but lasted over two months.

The Battle of Peleliu introduced a type of fighting strategy that allowed Japanese soldiers to hide in caves and view their enemy from above, without being seen. Tunnels were dug by the soldiers and connected the caves in which they hid,
virtually converting the entire island into an underground fortress.

These caves provided cover from US warships that shelled the island mercilessly before the landing assault began.

This type of warfare proved to be a successful strategy by outnumbered Japanese soldiers, who inflicted incredible damage on US forces throughout the remainder of the war.

The battle was one of the costliest amphibious landing assaults of the entire Pacific Theatre, resulting in over 1,500 soldiers killed in action and almost 7,000 wounded.
Iwo Jima: February – March 1945
One of the bloodiest battles in the history of the US Marine Corps,
Iwo Jima proved that the Japanese were willing to fight till the last man.

Both sides had learned lessons from previous battles fought on the islands in the Pacific, including on Peleliu where the Japanese had fortified the island with underground tunnels and caves.
Again, the Japanese forces turned the small volcanic Island of Iwo Jima into an underground fortress, seeking cover inside of their tunnels during the naval bombardments before US troops
stormed the beaches.

Mount Suribachi, the scene of perhaps the most iconic photo taken during the Pacific Theatre of World War II, was also the location where Japanese forces unleashed relentless assaults on US
troops on the beaches below them. Hidden in bunkers below the sand on the beaches and in caves on the mountain above, the entrenched Japanese allowed the Marines to land on the shores
and after many waves of troops had arrived and began to crowd the beaches, they opened fire with machine guns and artillery shells.

The battle lasted a little over a month and cost approximately 6,800 US soldiers their lives. The cost of life on the Japanese side was far higher, leaving only about 200 soldiers of the original
Okinawa: April – June 1945
The final battle of the Pacific Theatre was one of the bloodiest for the Marine Corps and in terms of civilian deaths as well.

Local inhabitants of Okinawa were convinced by the Japanese that if American troops took the island, they would kill all the men, women and children who
survived. As a result, those who were not killed in the crossfire between Japanese and US forces, took their own lives. In some reported incidences, mothers held
their children in their arms as they jumped from the high cliffs above the sea. The battle lasted almost three months and after it had ended, over 100,000 civilians
had died.

Okinawa was the closest that US troops would come to invading the Japanese mainland.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
First formed in 1939, the Manhattan Project
was the codename given to the top-secret plan to develop
the atomic bomb. After six years of bitter fighting that
stretched the globe, the United States used the first atomic
bomb named “Little Boy”, which was dropped on the
Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

The United States hoped that the bombing of Hiroshima

would bring a swift end to the war, but Japan did not
immediately surrender. Three days later, another atomic
bomb code named “Fat Man” was dropped on the city of
Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

Japan officially surrendered to General MacArthur aboard

the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, bringing an end
to the bloodiest war in human history.
JAPAN SURRENDERS