29.4Victory in Europe and the Pacific

Objective 1: Summarize how the Allies began to push back Japan in the Pacific.Objective 2: Describe the reasons for the final defeat of the Axis.

Dresden

Surrender• Dresden “total war”

episode part of unconditional surrender. Necessary?

• 3 million allies from southwest, 6 million Russians from east.

• Hitler kills himself 4/30, Berlin falls 5/2.

• May 8, 1945. V-E Day.

Pacific Tactics and Aftermath

• Japanese used harsh tactics and followed bushido code.

• Bataan, Philippines surrender 80,000 US troops in Feb. after harsh fighting and shortages.

• Bataan Death March

Prison Camps• Tojo's orders regarding POWs was

very clear. Guards, "must supervise their charges rigidly, taking care not to become obsessed with mistaken ideas of humanitarianism or swayed by personal feelings toward prisoners that might grow over a long incarceration." (50) Rarely did top government officials visit any Japanese prison camps. Therefore, the local commanders could do as they wished without reprimand. However, considering the indoctrination of Japanese troops, reprimand was highly unlikely. If the commander wished, he could make anything, even whistling, a crime and inflict any type of punishment, including execution. (51)

Prisoners

THE PACIFIC CAMPAIGN

• Who leads the way?– U.S. Navy (w/ Marines): Adm. Chester W. Nimitz– U.S. Army: Gen. Douglas MacArthur

• Strategy:– 2-Pronged Strategy: • Strangle Japanese shipping• Isolate & Eliminate Japanese–held islands

– Additional 3rd Element:• Bombing campaign against Japanese mainland

MacArthur’s Plan• Looked to go on offensive after

initial victories.• Looked to move towards Japan

by “island hopping” and cutting supply lines.

Japanese Retreat

• MacArthur retakes Philippines (“I have returned”)• Battle of Leyte Gulf last gamble and loss for

Japanese. Wiped out Navy.• Army, kamikaze only options left. • Bloody fighting at Iwo Jima (26,000 US v. 22,000

Japanese) • Okinawa (Japan 100,000 v. 50,000 US)

Kamikaze• “Divine Wind”• Used in Battle of Leyte Gulf,

Philippines• 424 kamikaze pilots sunk 16

ships, damaged 80• Similar suicidal resistance

shown by Japanese army on Iwo Jima, Okinawa

• Okinawa: 1900 kamikaze attacks sink 30 ships, damage 300, kill 5,000 sailors

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Iwo Jima

Atomic Bomb• Tokyo firebombing and

others means?• Manhattan Project

-First successful test in July 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico

• Truman decides to drop bomb for which reason?

• August 6, Hiroshima=73,000 dead.

• Aug. 9 Nagasaki, 37,500 dead

• Surrender to MacArthur Sep. 2. (V-J Day)

Japanese Surrender

DETONATION SEQUENCE

NAGASAKI BOMBINGAUGUST 9, 1945

Nagasaki Before and After

Hiroshima Aftermath

Allies Military Dead Military Wounded Civilian Dead

France 213,000 400,000 350,000

Britain 264,000 277,000 93,000

United States 292,000 672,000 6,000

Soviet Union 7,500,000 14,012,000 15,000,000

Axis Military Dead Military Wounded Civilian Dead

Italy 242,000 66,000 153,000

Japan 1,300,000 4,000,000 672,000

Germany 3,500,000 5,000,000 780,000