1. Course of the
War
Pacific/Asian
Theater

2. Japan’s Military Might
• JAP leaders were encouraged by GER’s rapid
victories in the 1940s.
• JAP received permission from GER to occupy
French Indochina.
• Pres. Roosevelt froze all JAP assets in U.S. &
stopped shipping oil to them.
• U.S. demanded JAP withdraw from China and
Indochina.
• While negotiating with U.S. the JAP planned a surpris

3. December 7, 1941
• Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor
– Americans in Hawaii are unprepared for attack.
– Japanese invasion seems inevitable.
• The Battle of Wake Island began simultaneously w/ the
attack on Pearl Harbor
• JAP also hit Philippines & pushed toward Malaya (BR
colony)
• Soon invaded Dutch Indies
• Spring 1942 – almost all SE Asia & much of W Pacific in
Japanese control
• JAP leaders - hoped lightening strike at American bases
would destroy US Pacific fleet
• U.S. enters the war
– joined European nations & nationalist China to defeat Japan

5. • Historic sites of Pearl Harbor
– http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2256300/7106820
• Hitler - declared war on U.S., thought U.S.
couldn’t fight in Pacific & Europe
• The battles of Bataan & Corregidor fought in
the Philippines were 2 of America’s greatest
losses to Japan at beginning of WWII.
• Battle of Bataan
– American/Filipino losses: 10,000 men, 20,000
wounded, 75,000 prisoners
– Bataan Death March

6. Battle of Coral Sea
• May 7 & 8, 1942 – Battle of Coral Sea
– US navy stopped Japanese advance & saved
Australia from invasion
• JAP losses: Approximately 3500 men, 2 aircraft
carriers, 2 destroyers, numerous other vessels,
about 100 planes
• U.S. losses: 540 personnel, the aircraft carrier
Lexington, 65 planes, the destroyer Sims, and the
aircraft carrier Yorktown was damaged

7. Battle of Midway Island
• June 4 – Battle of Midway Island
– Turning Point in the Pacific
• Showing that the Japanese had greatly underestimated the
U.S. Navy
– U.S. planes destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft carriers
• U.S. losses: 307 personnel, 1 carrier, 1 destroyer,
98 planes
• JAP losses: 3,057 men, 4 carriers, 1 cruiser,
248 planes
• Losses permanently weakened the Imperial Japanese Navy
– U.S. established naval superiority in Pacific

8. • Fall 1942 – Allied forces gathering for 2
operations
– 1. MacArthur – to Philippines through New
Guinea & South Pacific
– 2. Move across Pacific w/ U.S. Army,
Marines & Navy attacks on Japanese held-
island.
• (d) island hopping – tactic of capturing
some and bypassing other Japanese held-
islands
• 1943 – U.S. forces on offensive,
advancing across Pacific

9. Gen. Douglas MacArthur
• US commander in Pacific
– “old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

10. The Battle of Iwo Jima
• Feb. – March 1945
• One of the bloodiest engagements of the
entire war.
– JAP losses: 21,000
– U.S. losses: 6,821

11. The least you need to know:
• Dec 7, 1941 – A day that will live in infamy
– Pearl Harbor not the only place attacked
– Kamakazi
• Battle of Coral Sea
– Saved Australia
• Midway Island
– Turning point in the Pacific
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur
– US Commander in Pacific
• Harry Truman- Us Pres. After FDR’s death

12. Harry Truman
• Harry Truman – U.S. Pres after FDR dies
– Has to decide if U.S. should use atomic
bomb

13. Atomic Bomb
• Use of Atomic Bomb
– Allow U.S. to avoid invasion of Japan
• Estimated 90% casualty rate to invade JAP
– Aug 6 – 1st bomb dropped on Hiroshima
– Aug 9 – 2nd bomb dropped on Nagasaki
• Both cities leveled
• Hiroshima: 71,379 instantly killed, 70,000 die
later from radiation poisoning.
• Nagasaki: 25,000 instantly killed, 45,000 die
by end of year from radiation poisoning

14. Atomic Bomb cont.
• Almost everything within a one-mile radius
of the explosion’s center spontaneously
combusted.
• Granite stone melted
• People vaporized left ghostly images
imprinted on stone walls & sidewalks.
*Information from Everything World War II

15. End of the War
• Aug 14 – Emperor Hirohito surrendered
– 17 million dead in battle
– 20 million dead civilians
– Some estimate total dead 50 million
– Immediately after the war, Russia and the
U.S. went their separate ways
– This rivalry between east & west was known
as the Cold War