April 22, 2015Wednesday

LT: I will analyze primary sources and use discussion to understand the historical background to US involvement in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Warm-up

What do you know about World War II?

Warm-up, Part II

• Draw and label a triangle map of the world, include the oceans and continents.

Europe 1937-39

• Germany, led by Hitler, kept invading more countries.

• France and Britain tried to appease Hitler by giving land.

• Diplomacy was Failing–Sept 1940: Germany, Italy, and Japan signed

the Tripartite Pact (Axis Powers)

U.S. Neutrality

• Biased?– 1940: WWI destroyers given to Britain– 1941: Lend-Lease Act --> U.S. became the

“Arsenal of Democracy”– 1941: U.S. attempted to stop Japan’s invasion

of China • Sent ultimatum (warning)• Issued a scrap metal and oil embargo

The European Theater

–By Aug. 1941: Indo-China fell to Japan• U.S. began a full trade embargo against Japan• Japan responded by:

–Sending a negotiator to Washington D.C. –Preparing for an attack on the U.S. (decoded

message)

Imperial Japan

• Japan saw the US and others as a threat to its influence in Asia and in 1940 the Japanese began developing plans to destroy the US Navy in Hawaii

• On Dec 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor

In May 1940, the main part of the US fleet was transferred to Pearl

Harbor from the west coast

Pearl Harbor

• Dec 7, 1941– “a date which will live

in infamy”• Americans taken

completely by surprise

• The first attack wave targeted airfields and battleships

• The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities

Tactical Damage

• Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk • Three light cruisers, three destroyers, three

smaller vessels, and 188 aircraft were destroyed• 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed • 1,178 wounded

– 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona were killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.

Broader Results

• In spite of the tactical success, the attack on Pearl Harbor was an operational and strategic failure for the Japanese– The attack failed to destroy

the American aircraft carriers, fleet repair facilities, or fuel reserves

– The “sneak attack” created American support for entry into the war

Plan to Invade Japan

• US planned to invade Japan with eleven Army and Marine divisions (650,000 troops)

• Casualty estimates for the operation were as high as 1,400,000

• Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to avoid such losses

Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo

The Atomic Bomb

• In the early 1940s, America had started an atomic weapons development program code named the “Manhattan Project”

• A successful test was conducted at Alamogordo in New Mexico in July 1945 J. Robert Oppenheimer and

General Leslie Groves at the Trinity Site soon after the test

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945– 90,000 killed

• On Aug 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria the next day

• Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945– 35,000 killed

• Okinawa had been much more costly than Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the plane that dropped the bomb on

Hiroshima

Hiroshima, vicinity of ground zero

Surrender

Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri

Discuss in your groups

• What caused World War II?• Why was the U.S. successful in the Pacific? • Do you think it was necessary for the United States to

drop the atomic bombs on Japan? Explain your position.

Exit Ticket

What effects do you think events in the Pacific had on Washington State?