Island Hopping Strategy devised by General Mac Arthur

Island Hopping • Strategy devised by General Mac. Arthur and Admiral Nimitz • Objective: Attack strategic Islands – build airstrips, cut enemy supplies. By -pass strong Japanese positions - get to Japan.

Back to the Philippines Battle of Leyte Gulf: disaster for Japan; largest air & naval battle – New tactic – KAMIKAZE – Allows US to re-conquer the Philippines January – August 1945 – Americans fight the Japanese for the island of Luzon; Manila is re-captured in March- 100, 000 Filipino civilians killed. – US: 10, 000 killed; 36, 000 wounded - Japan: 230, 000 killed wounded or MIA

Iwo Jima Feb 1945 - Battle of Iwo Jima • Small volcanic island adjacent to Japan • Critical as base - planes can reach Japan • Met w/FIERCE resistance – tunnels/caves • 6, 000 marines die; of 20, 700 Japanese, approx 1, 000 taken prisoner • Mount Suribachi

Okinawa – April 1945 • Last island to be seized • Ferocious fighting – heavy casualties on both sides • B June 1945: – 7, 600 Americans – 110, 000 Japanese • Invasion of Japan?

The Manhattan Project (1942 -45) • J. Robert Oppenheimer: research director of project • July 16, 1945 - A-bomb tested in New Mexico desert – Los Alamos – Trinity Test • July 26, 1945 - Potsdam Declaration: warning sent to Japan

Hiroshima and Nagasaki • Pres. Truman: orders military to drop 2 atomic bombs on Japan Hiroshima • August 6, 1945 - 9: 15 am Paul Tibbits & Enola Gay drop bomb on Hiroshima, major military center – • 4. 5 ton bomb: 75, 000 dead- 70, 000 injured • Soviet Union declares war on Japanoccupy northern Korea.

Hiroshima in Ruins

V-J Day n n September 2, 1945: Japan officially surrenders. World War II ends. US begins occupation of Japan.

Why the bomb was needed or Why the bomb was not justified: needed, or unjustified: The Japanese had demonstrated nearfanatical resistance, fighting to almost the last man on Pacific islands, committing mass suicide on Saipan and unleashing kamikaze attacks at Okinawa. Fire bombing had killed 100, 000 in Tokyo with no discernible political effect. Only the atomic bomb could jolt Japan's leadership to surrender. With only two bombs ready (and a third on the way by late August 1945) it was too risky to "waste" one in a demonstration over an unpopulated area. An invasion of Japan would have caused casualties on both sides that could easily have exceeded the toll at Japan was ready to call it quits anyway. More than 60 of its cities had been destroyed by conventional bombing, the home islands were being blockaded by the American Navy, and the Soviet Union entered the war by attacking Japanese troops in Manchuria. American refusal to modify its "unconditional surrender" demand to allow the Japanese to keep their emperor needlessly prolonged Japan's resistance. A demonstration explosion over Tokyo harbor would have convinced Japan's leaders to quit without killing many people.