War in the Pacific War in the Pacific

War in the Pacific

War in the Pacific Remember the invasion of Manchuria (1931) and China (1937)? Japanese foreign policy objectives • Access to raw materials • Win new foreign markets • Gain an outlet for surplus population

War in the Pacific Remember the invasion of Manchuria (1931) and China (1937)? Japanese foreign policy objectives • Access to raw materials • Win new foreign markets • Gain an outlet for surplus population

War in the Pacific Japan foreign policy brought the country into conflict with the United States 1937: Japanese invasion of China Ø 1939: United States imposed economic sanctions on Japan § Japanese industries depended on American petroleum, steel, iron and industrial machinery 1940: Japan occupied part of Indochina (Vietnam) Ø United States moved the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 1941: U. S. imposed sanctions on aviation fuel, iron and scrap metal § § Japan announces the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere which called for Japanese control of all resources in Southeast Asia Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the U. S. and ended all trade between the two countries

War in the Pacific Japan lacked the resources to continue the war in China. Ø Japanese leaders faced the choice: to negotiate or fight and seize resource rich territories in Southeast Asia.

Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941 A date which will live in infamy!

Pacific Theater of Operations

Singapore Surrenders [February, 1942]

U. S. Surrenders at Corregidor, the Philippines [March, 1942]

Axis Powers in 1942 Height of Control

Japanese strategy Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto "I can run wild for six months … after that, I have no expectation of success"

Farthest Extent of Japanese Conquests

Battle of Midway Island: June 4 -6, 1942

Allied Counter-Offensive: “Island-Hopping”

War in the Pacific Japanese strategy fundamentally flawed Ø Technological and industrial capacity of the United States

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: First U. S. Raids on Tokyo, 1942

US Marines on Mt. Surbachi, Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]

Dropping of Atomic Bomb • Question: Was the U. S. justified in using the A-Bomb?

Tinian Island, 1945 Little Boy Fat Man Enola Gay Crew

Hiroshima – August 6, 1945 © 70, 000 killed immediately. © 48, 000 buildings. destroyed. © 100, 000 s died of radiation poisoning & cancer later.

The Beginning of the Atomic Age

Nagasaki – August 9, 1945 © 40, 000 killed immediately. © 60, 000 injured. © 100, 000 s died of radiation poisoning & cancer later.

Japanese A-Bomb Survivors

Hiroshima Memorials