Chapter 18 Section 4

1. Chapter 18Section 4 Victory In Asia

2. Pacific Offences • After the win at Guadalcanal the Allies had gone on the offensive • {The U.S. adopted a strategy of island-hopping, meaning that they would only attack certain strategic Japanese held islands} so that the other islands would be cut off from supplies and troop reinforcements • The island-hopping offensive began in November 1943 in the Gilbert Islands • The island of Tarawa was a hard island to take. Troops had to wade up to the beach with no protection because it was surrounded by a coral reef • Almost 1,000 marines lost their lives and over 2,000 were wounded before the island was secured • The island gave the U.S. control of an important airstrip and a midpoint for forces to convene

4. Saipan • The U.S. then moved on to the Marshall Islands and from there they began bombing the Truk Islands, where the headquarters of the Japanese force was located • By the summer of 1944, Allied forces advanced to the Mariana Islands and dropped off 127,000 troops in Saipan. • The Japanese gathered their troops and went to stop the invasion • In the air, the Japanese lost 350 aircraft and suffered great losses. The U.S. lost only 30 aircraft, but because of lack of fuel 80 U.S. pilots had to crash their planes into the ocean, nearly all the pilots were rescued

6. Meanwhile…. • Saipan’s 32,000 ground troops were waging a heck of a fight against the Allied troops. • In the end the Allies won but they suffered great losses • Allied forced experienced similar troubles while trying to take the island of Guam • These Allied victories were important because they provided airstrips for U.S. bombers to begin launching missions against the main island of Japan

7. U.S. soldiers landing on the island of Guam

8. Recapturing the Philippines • Despite their setbacks, the Japanese resistance was strong when the Allies began their New Guinea-Philippines campaign in June 1943 • General Douglas MacArthur led U.S. and Australian force along the northern coast of New Guinea gaining victory after victory • By the fall of 1944 MacArthur made his way to the Philippines and landed on the beaches of the island of Leyte. • The result was the last, largest and most vital naval battle in the Pacific, The Battle of Leyte Gulf. In which the Japanese suffered great losses and were no longer seen as naval threat throughout the rest of the war • {Aided by Filipino rebels the Allied troops overcame the Japanese opposition in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and General MacArthur took back the Philippines}

9. General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines

10. Iwo Jima • These victories gave the Allies the ability to begin air strikes on the mainland of Japan • At the same time MacArthur was securing the Philippines the U.S. marines attacked the island of Iwo Jima, where they met a fierce resistance • The Battle of Iwo Jima lasted six weeks • Several thousand marines and more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed • The marines struggled to take Mount Suribachi which the Japanese defended with a system of tunnels and underground bunkers. S • Once the marines got to the top of the volcanic structure they planted the U.S. flag in the rocky ground

12. Okinawa • On April 1, 1945, the largest landing force in Pacific history landed on the small island of Okinawa. • The Japanese forces decided not to fight the landing and the island was won without a single shot ever being fired • Five days later the Japanese attacked they sent 700 planes to the island, 350 of which were kamikaze, or suicide planes • The Battle of Okinawa was probably the bloodiest of the Pacific battles. • The Japanese hid in caves that dotted the islands. U.S. troops had to attack and secure each cave individually, often with the use of flamethrowers • About 49,000 U.S. troops were killed or wounded in the battle and over 100,000 Japanese died in the fighting

14. The Death of Roosevelt Unfortunately President Roosevelt never got to see the end of the war. He died suddenly on April 12, 1945 of complications due to his polio. He was sitting for a portrait when he claimed to have a terrible headache. {Shortly after being helped upstairs he collapsed. Roosevelt suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage His vice-president Harry S. Truman took over as president.}

15. The Atomic Bomb • {A new weapon was developed in the U.S. by the top-secret Manhattan Project} • In the 30’s many European Jewish scientists followed Albert Einstein’s examples of atom splitting • In August 1939, Einstein wrote to Roosevelt and warned him of the capability of the research and essentially explained an atomic bomb • The race was on to be the first nation to build one • {We tested the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, NM on July 16,1945.} • The nest day Truman met with Allied leaders and on the 26th the Allies asked for Japan’s complete surrender • Japan refused

16. Continued…. • {Truman gave the order to use atomic weapons on Japan} • {At 8:15am on August 6, 1945 a U.S. B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima} • Following the fire and the mushroom cloud the crew was horrified at the scene that lay before them. Co-pilot Robert Lewis later wrote in his journal “My God, what have we done?” • The A-bomb killed some 75,000 people • Three days later we dropped another bomb on Nagasaki • The blast vaporized people, melted stones and ignited everything flammable within a mile radius • Japan estimated the deaths at 200,000 between the two bombs • Japan’s formal surrender was signed September 2, 1945.