The United States in World War II

The United States in World War II 24.3 The War in the Pacific

A Slow Start for the Allies • The attack on Pearl Harbor was a tremendous success for Japan • The damage to the Pacific fleet combined with the Allied focus on destroying the Axis Powers would - for a time - limit the ability of the U.S. to strike back

Japanese Advances • Although Japan’s admiral warned against preemptive celebration, the Japanese did not heed his advice • The Japanese forces won a string of impressive victories which only exacerbated their cockiness • Wake Island • Guam • Hong Kong • Singapore • Indonesia • Borneo • Burma • Both America and Great Britain were stunned by the Japanese advance; they had under-estimated their military

The Philippines • The long string of attacks on Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia were part of a larger offensive that had one other major target • The U.S. controlled Philippine islands • General Douglas MacArthur • Commanded a small force of Americans plus a number of poorly trained and equipped Filipino soldiers; they were no match for Japanese forces who came ashore in December of 1941 • The Bataan Peninsula • MacArthur and his men retreated; they hoped to hold off the Japanese from the Bataan Peninsula • When they arrived there, they realized supplies, food, and medicine were terribly low; Allied Powers deemed it to risky to attempt to replenish their supplies and left MacArthur and his men to die • In March of 1942, MacArthur was ordered to leave his men; he did so reluctantly, and less than a week later 10,000 Americans and 60,000 Filipino soldiers surrendered

The Philippines • The fighting was over, but the suffering for the soldiers had just begun . . . • For five days, Japanese forced the already starving and sick soldiers to march through the steaming forests of Bataan • Those who dropped out of line or fell were beaten or shot; thousands of sliders died in this so-called Bataan Death March

Fortunes Shift in the Pacific • While losing the Philippines was a low point for the United States; their luck was about to change • Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle conducted an air raid of Tokyo and several other Japanese cities • Doolittle’s Raid • Something American soldiers could celebrate • Angered and worried the Japanese leaders • Their outrage would soon begin to cloud their judgment

The Battle of Coral Sea • In May of 1942, American aircraft carriers attacked Japanese forces preparing to invade Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea • In the battle that followed, both the Japanese and the Americans had significant losses, but the attack was successful in preventing the Japanese attack on New Guinea

The Battle of Midway • Japanese military planners decided to try and lure the Americans into a large sea battle • The first step would be to attack the American-held Midway Island which sat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean • They hoped the attack would pull the American fleet into the area • The Japanese had a large advantage in the number of ships and carriers they had; but the U.S had one great advantage • They had cracked a Japanese code and learned about the plans ahead of time; despite flaws in the plan, the Japanese seemed to feel incorrectly that they were invincible

The Battle of Midway • On June 4, 1942, the Japanese launched their attack; the first stage was an air attack • The attacking Japanese planes took off from a group of aircraft carriers that were leading the assault on Midway • American air defenses were waiting; not only did they fight them off, but they followed them back to the aircraft carriers when they needed to re-fuel and destroyed all four • The Americans won a decisive victory; Japanese control of the Pacific was no more

Guadalcanal“Before that we weren’t looking for the Japanese, they were looking for us . . . but from there on out, the Japanese were on the run.” • The first step of the Americans after the Battle of Midway was to take over the Solomon Islands • The Japanese had moved into these islands in the spring of 1942, threatening nearby Australia which was fighting alongside the Allies in the Pacific • Key goal: Capture an island called Guadalcanal; the Japanese had nearly completed an airfield there, making it a tempting target • American forces came ashore in August of 1942 • For the next six months, they fought in bloody combat with Japanese forces • February 1943: Japanese forces fled the island

The Allies Press On • The victory at Guadalcanal set a pattern that was repeated in the coming months • The Allies used a powerful combination of land, sea, and air forces to capture key islands • These became the stepping stones for future attacks • In 1944, the Allies captured locations in the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana islands • By skipping over Japanese strongholds, they created a string of victories and caused immense damage to Japanese ships and aircraft

The Allies Press On • As the tides began to turn in Europe, more troops and supplies were made available for the war in the Pacific • Other Advances • Code talkers – Navajo Indians translated messages into coded versions or their native language; a language so complex the Japanese were never able to figure it out

Back to the Philippines • By the middle of 1944, Allied forces had fought to within striking distance of the Philippines • The first major action took place on the seas at the Battle of Leyte Gulf • Nearly 300 ships took part in the largest naval battle ever fought • By this time the Allies held a huge advantage in numbers of ships, and what little was left of the Japanese fleet by the end of the battle played no major role in the rest of the war

Kamikaze Attacks The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the first battle in which suicide bombing techniques were utilized; Japanese pilots loaded their crafts with explosives and deliberately crashed them into American ships in an effort to ensure maximum damage

The End of the Battle of Leyte Gulf • Despite the fear these suicide attacks instilled, they did not change the outcome of the battle • In October of 1944, MacArthur waded ashore to fulfill his promise to return to the Philippines

Iwo Jima & Okinawa Iwo Jima Okinawa • Americans needed a better base from which to conduct bombing raids • Iwo Jima, 700 miles south of Tokyo, was the perfect locale • Fighting raged there for several weeks; by the time it was over, 7,000 Americans were dead . . . but the Japanese lost 19,000 of 20,000 troops • Americans now had control over a portion of Japan • Okinawa, only 350 miles from Japan, was to be the launching pad for the final invasion of Japan itself • The battle that was waged in Okinawa was the bloodiest the American would face in the Pacific • Allied troops invaded on April 1, 1945; Japanese soldiers hid in caves and tunnels and launched deadly assaults • 12,000 Americans died in the battle, but the Japanese lost a staggering 110,000 troops • By June, Americans had control over Okinawa

Reviewing Ideas, Terms, and People: Quiz (Pg. 792) • How did the fighting in Europe affect events taking place in the Pacific? • At Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Japanese forces suffered great losses, but refused to surrender . . . how might this affect the end of the war? • Describe the significance of the following: • Code talkers • Kamikaze pilots

The United States in World War II