The War in the Pacific

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The War in the Pacific

• 1941-1945

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1941

• Dec. 7 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
• Dec. 8 US declares war on Japan
• Japan invades Philippines and then seizes
• Guam
• Burma
• Hong Kong

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1942

• Japanese complete takeover of Philippines
• Gen. MacArthur I shall return.
• 76,000 troops captured
• Baatan Death March
• 5,000 Americans die
• 40 of US POWs captured by Japanese die, as
  opposed to 1.2 in Europe
• Japanese-Americans in six states ordered to
  internment camps

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Critical Thinking

• Why were US POW deaths so much greater in the
  Pacific than in Europe?

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1942

• April US air raid on Tokyo
• May Battle of the Coral Sea
• First Japanese defeat
• Air combat from carriers
• June Battle of Midway
• Decisive US naval victory
• Japan seizes Attu Kiska in Aleutian islands
• Aug. US troops land at Guadalcanal

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1943

• Feb. US defeat Japanese at Guadalcanal
• Island Hopping
• US invade Solomon Islands, then Gilbert Islands,
  moving ever closer to Japan
• US recaptures Aleutians
• Emperor Hirohito announces Japanese situation is
  truly grave

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Critical Thinking

• Why did the US follow the island hopping
  strategy rather than attack Japan directly?

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1944

• US starts to capture Marshall Islands
• US invades Saipan
• US begins sustained bombing campaign in Japan
• Recapture of Guam
• Americans begin recapture of Philippines

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1945

• Iwo Jima
• Okinawa
• Aug. 6 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
• Aug. 9 2nd atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
• Aug. 14 Japanese surrender
• Sep. 2 Formal surrender (V-J Day)

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Critical Thinking

• Why do you think Japan did not surrender earlier?