The U.S. in World War II

1
The U.S. in World War II
http//www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images
/ww2-05.jpg
http//www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images
/ww2-06.jpg
http//www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images
/ww2-02.jpg
http//www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

• Section 1 Mobilizing for Defense
• Section 2 The War for Europe and North Africa
• Section 3 The War in the Pacific
• Section 4 The Home Front

2
Japanese Advances

• Japan dominates the Pacific Theatre and takes
  over many Allied territories
• Guam
• Wake Island
• Hong Kong
• Singapore
• Burma
• Indonesia
• Thailand
• Many other places

http//www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwa
r/timeline.htm
3
Siege of the Philippines

• Japan invades the Philippine Islands
• General Douglas MacArthur commander of Allied
  forces in the Pacific
• 80,000 U.S. and Filipino troops battled Japanese
  forces
• Troops were fighting in Bataan when MacArthur was
  ordered to leave
• MacArthur promised to return and liberate the
  Philippines I shall return!

4
Fall of Bataan and the Bataan Death March

• April 1942 the U.S. and Filipino troops
  surrendered
• It marked the largest capitulation in the history
  of an American military command
• 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops were marched a
  week with little to no food or water
• Those who fell behind were killed
• Many atrocities committed
• ¼ are believed not to have survived the journey

Prisoners on the march from Bataan to the prison
camp, May 1942. (National Archives)
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March
5
Fall of Corregidor

• Island fortress in Manila Bay
• Wainwright withdraws to island to hold out
  against the Japanese
• 11,000 troops endured constant bombardment
• Corregidor surrendered in May 1942

The island stronghold of Corregidor at the
entrance to Manila Bay has fallen after a lengthy
siege and Japanese troops lower the American
flag.
6
Doolittles Raid

• Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led 16 bomber
  in the attack on Tokyo on April 18, 1942
• Took off from aircraft carriers in B-25s
• Hit at the heart of Japan
• Improved U.S. morale
• Hurt Japanese morale

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Doolittle
Lt Col James H. Doolittle, USAAF (front), leader
of the raiding force, wires a Japanese medal to a
500-pound bomb, during ceremonies on the flight
deck of USS Hornet (CV-8), shortly before his
force of sixteen B-25B bombers took off for
Japan. The planes were launched on April 18,
1942.
7
Battle of the Coral Sea

• May 1942
• 1st time the ships in battle did not fire at each
  other
• Entire battle fought in the air
• Stopped Japan from planned attack of Australia

View of USS Lexingtons flight deck http//www.his
tory.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/coralsea/cora
lsea.htm
8
Battle of Midway

• June 1942
• 1st major Japanese defeat of the Navy
• Turning Point of the War
• Admiral Chester Nimitz
• Commander of the American Naval Forces in the
  Pacific
• flag ship the U.S.S. Missouri
• U.S. intercepted Japanese message and ambushed
  them near Midway Island

http//www.nimitz-museum.org/nimitzbio.htm
U.S.S. Yorktown afire after being hit by Japanese
bombs http//www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/ww
ii-pac/midway/midway.htm
9
Guadalcanal

• August 1942, U.S. Marines launched the 1st major
  Allied land offensive in the Pacific
• Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands was a
  strategic location for air support
• Called the Island of Death by the Japanese
• Marked Japans first defeat on land
• It kept Japan from being able to hit Allied
  shipping lanes and Allied held islands
• Concluded in February 1943

10
Cairo Conference and Declaration

• Nov. 1943
• Meeting between Churchill, FDR, and Chiang
  Kai-Shek of China
• Agree to terms of war concerning Japan
• Unconditional Surrender
• Deprive Japan of all territory acquired since
  1914
• Return all land to China
• Korea would be free and independent

11
U.S. Strategy in the Pacific

• Leapfrogging
• U.S. would jump from island to island, missing
  the more fortified ones, as they moved closer and
  closer to Japan

12
Yalta Conference

• Feb. 1945
• Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin (Big Three)
• Met at Yalta Southern Crimea Peninsula on the
  Black Sea
• Discuss Postwar Issues
• At this time the outcome in Europe was
  predictable, but the war in the Pacific was very
  questionable

13
Yalta Agreement

• Stalin agrees to enter the war against Japan 3
  months after German surrender in return for land
  in the Far East
• For the Eastern half of Poland, Stalin agreed to
  free elections in Eastern Europe
• Germany would be divided into 4 occupation zones
• Berlin would also be divided
• France and China would sponsor the conference to
  found the United Nations

14
Battle of Leyte Gulf

• MacArthur returns to the Philippines in Oct. 1944
  with 178,000 troops and 738 ships
• Japanese begin to use Kamikaze Pilots in this
  battle
• Kamikaze Suicide plane
• 424 Kamikaze pilots sank 16 ships and damaged 80
• Battle a total disaster for the Japanese in that
  they lost most of their navy and would not be
  much of a threat for the rest of the war

15
Iwo Jima

• Feb. 1945
• U.S. needed Iwo Jima in order
• to launch heavily loaded bombers at
• Japan
• Heavily defended by the Japanese
• 20,700 Japanese troops entrenched
• U.S. attacked with 70,000 Marines
• U.S. death toll 6,000 Marines
• Japanese death toll 20,500
• (Only 200 survive)
• Iwo Jima famous for the picture of U.S. troops
  raising the Flag on top of Mt. Suribachi

http//www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm
16
Okinawa

• April 1945
• Marines attack and 1,900 Kamikaze pilots sink 30
  ships, and damage more than 300
• Once on shore the battle would last until June
  21, 1945
• U.S. Causalities
• 5,000 Seamen
• 7,600 Troops
• Japanese Causalities
• 110,000 Troops
• Showed the U.S. how terrible an invasion of the
  main islands of Japan would be

17
Manhattan Project
Click for Manhattan Project Site
http//www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/index.htm

• Project to develop an atomic bomb
• J. Robert Oppenheimer Project Director
• 600,000 Americans were involved in the project,
  but did not know its purpose
• Very Top Secret
• Project had started when Albert Einstein had sent
  a letter to Roosevelt warning him of German
  scientist attempts at splitting atoms

18
Using the Atomic Bomb

• As the war still rages in the Pacific, experts
  predict that an invasion of Japan would result in
  1,000,000 U.S. lives and many more Japanese lives
• A proposal to use this new destructive weapon is
  considered by Truman
• Truman did not know about the Manhattan Project
  until after he became President

19
Atomic Bombs

• Little Boy Uranium 235 Core
• Fat Man 1 Plutonium Core (not sure it will
  work)
• Fat Man 2 Created to Test

The actual Little Boy bomb ready to be loaded
aboard the Enola Gay.
The actual Fat Man bomb on Tinian.
http//www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/LBFM/index.sht
ml
20
Testing the Fat Man
See Video _at_ http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_t
est

• July 1945
• Alamogordo, New Mexico
• Fat Man was detonated on a platform

http//nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Trinity.
html
Assembly of Fat Man on platform
Trinity test site a few weeks after detonation.
21
Dropping the Bomb

• The U.S. warned the Japanese that if they didnt
  surrender a destructive force would strike
• Official Reason It would save more lives in the
  long run
• Enola Gay B29 Bomber
• Pilot Colonel Tibbets
• Dropped the Little Boy on Hiroshima, August 6,
  1945

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay
Check out Hiroshima site http//www.city.hiroshi
ma.jp/e/peace.html
http//www.enolagay.org/
22
Japan Doesnt Surrender

• Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945
• Real Reason for dropping the atomic bombs may
  have something to do the Soviet Union
• Agreements made at the Yalta Conference
• May 8, 1945 V-E Day
• August 6, 1945 1st Bomb dropped
• Why would the U.S. want to prevent Soviet
  participation in the Pacific?
• What could we have done instead of dropping the
  bombs?

23
NagasakiBefore and After
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hi
roshima_and_Nagasaki
Panoramic view of the monument marking the
hypocentre, or ground zero, of the atomic bomb
explosion over Nagasaki.
24
Japan Surrenders

• September 2, 1945
• Surrender signed aboard the U.S.S. Missouri
• MacArthur and Nimitz present

25
Occupation of Japan

• U.S. occupied Japan for seven years
• General MacArthur commander
• General Tojo and others were tried for war crimes
  and executed
• Japans economy was reshaped using free-market
  practices
• New Constitution Instituted
• Women suffrage
• Guaranteed basic freedoms
• Forever denounce war

26
Casualty Map Each symbol indicates 100,000 dead
in the appropriate theater of operations
http//users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-loss.htm
27
Casualty Map Each symbol indicates 100,000 dead
in the appropriate theater of operations
http//users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-loss.htm
28
United Nations
http//www.un.org/english/

• General Assembly
• Security Council
• Economic and Social Council
• International Court of Justice
• Trusteeship Council
• Secretariat

http//users.erols.com/mwhite28/un.htm
29
General Assembly

• Policy Making Body of the U.N.
• All member nations belong
• All member nations have 1 vote each

30
Security Council

• Settles Diplomatic, Political, and Military
  Disputes
• 5 permanent members
• U.S.
• United Kingdom
• Russia
• France
• China
• 11 members total (other 6 serve 2 year terms)

31
Other Bodies of U.N.

• Economic and Social Council
• 18 members
• Deals with human welfare and fundamental rights
  and freedoms
• Has many groups including UNICF and the World
  Bank
• International Court of Justice
• 15 Judges
• Deal with questions and disputes of International
  Law
• Trusteeship Council
• Promotes welfare of people in colonial
  territories and help them toward self-government
• Secretariat
• Deal with the day-to-day organizational and
  administrative concerns

Organizational Chart of U.N. http//www.un.org/abo
utun/chart_en.pdf