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Chapter 17 Section 3. The War in the Pacific. After Pearl Harbor. Although Nazi defeat was the first priority, we did not wait until after V-E Day to move against Japan.
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Chapter 17 Section 3 The War in the Pacific
After Pearl Harbor • Although Nazi defeat was the first priority, we did not wait until after V-E Day to move against Japan. • For 6 months after Pearl Harbor Japan conquered an empire larger than Hitler’s: most of China, Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Dutch East Indies, Guam, Wake Island, Solomon Islands, some Aleutian islands…
Philippines • Spanish-American War: we fight with the Filipinos against Spain. • Philippine-American War: we fight against the Filipinos because they still want independence. They are not granted independence until 1946. • In the mean time they are occupied by the U.S. with General Douglas MacArthur in charge. • December 1941: Japan invades the Philippines, 80,000 American and Filipino troops fight and lose. • March 11, 1942: MacArthur is forced to leave, but promises to return.
Bataan Death March • Prisoners needed to be moved from the South (could only be accomplished by marching about 25 miles per day), but the Japanese were not prepared for how many prisoners (there were over 70,000 not 25,000) and the condition of the prisoners (malnourished and exhausted). • Many were executed, others died along the way of starvation and heat exhaustion or were beaten, bayoneted or run over if they fell behind, some were also beheaded for practice with Samurai swords.
POW Camps • Once the survivors made it to the camp they were treated horribly. • Unsanitary conditions led to the spread of dysentery. • Bug infested food was given to the prisoners when they were fed at all. • Sometimes the prisoners were mass murdered at the camps. • Cultural Differences makes those who surrender unhuman.
Doolittle’s Raid • April 18, 1942 • Bombing of Tokyo led Colonel James Doolittle • Although a city and civilians, we had to bomb it because they don’t have bases like us • 16 Bombers • Lifted American spirits, dampened Japanese
Battle of the Coral Sea • Japan was advancing on Australia in May 1942. • They were stopped in the five day Battle of the Coral Sea where all of the fighting took place from bombers launched from airplanes. • First time since Pearl Harbor a Japanese invasion has been stopped and turned back.
Battle of Midway • Broke Japanese code and knew Midway was the next target. • June 3, 1942 we find their fleet and bomb the crap out of it with torpedo planes and dive bombers. • Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers, a cruiser and 250 planes.
Allied Offensive • Begin island hopping and reconquering territory back from Japan. • Guadalcanal: August 1942. Lasted 6 months. • Fighting over “hell”. • Japan’s first defeat on land. • October 1944 we invade Leyte Gulf in the Philippines and MacArthur was able to keep his promise. • “Hell was red fury spiders as big as your fist, giant lizards as long as your leg, leeches falling from trees to suck your blood, armies of white ants with a bite of fire, scurrying scorpions inflaming any flesh they touched, enormous rats and bats everywhere, and rivers with waiting crocodiles…”
Japanese Defensive • Kamikaze: suicide pilots “Divine Wind” • 424 used in the Philippines, sinking 16 ships and damaging 80. • However, they lost 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers and 500 planes.
Iwo Jima • Means “Sulfur Island” • “An ugly, smelly glob of cold lava squatting in a surly ocean.” • Penultimate goal before Japanese invasion. • 20,700 Japanese defend the island by hiding in caves and tunnels and all but 200 die. • 6000 Marine casualties.
Okinawa • April 1945. • 1900 kamikaze attacks • Sink 30 ships damage 300 more
