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Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor also had an enormous emotional impact. For the Japanese, it provided a major boost to national pride and encouraged them to continue their assault. For Americans, it inspired a firm resolve to fight. Some Japanese leaders seemed to sense the dual danger of Japanese confidence and American anger. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor had been a tremendous success for the Japanese. They had dealt a blow to the U.S. Pacific Fleet that would take months to overcome. The demage to American sea power-combined with the Allies' decision to focus their energy and resources on defeating the Axis in Europe- would for a time limit the ability of the United States to strike back at the Japanese. -
Battle of Java Sea
At the same time, other Japanese forces were easily taking control of the Dutch East Indies and British Borneo. In the Battle of Java Sea, they caused much damage to the Allied navies. The Japanese also conquered British-controlled Burma as well as a number of key positions in the South Pacific. In this way, they gained control of rich oil reserves, which were vital to their military plans. They also established strategic bases for future operations. -
Loss of Philippines & Bataan Death March
General Douglas MacArthur led the defense of Hong Kong, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, and Burma. He commanded a small force of Americans, plus a number of poorly trained and equipped Filipino soldiers. MacArthur's troops were no match for the Japanese invaders, who came ashore in December 1941. Japan gained ground, MacArthur planned a retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. MacArthur thur urged Allied officials to send ships to help relieve his starving troops. -
Loss of Philippines & Bataan Death March
War palnners thought it was risky. As Secretary of War Henry Stimson grimly noted, "There are times when men have to die." The illness and hunger began to take their toll. March 1942, MacArthur was ordered to leave his men. Less than a month later, 10,000 American and 60,000 Filipino troops on Bataan surrendered. War was over but Japanese forced soldiers to march through Bataan. In Japanese prison camps lacked of food and medicine and killed more American and Filipino lives. -
Doolittle Raid
Loss of Philippines was a low point for U.S. but days later they got good news. Army Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led a group of 16 American bombers on a daring air raid of Tokoyo and other Japanese cities. Doolittle's raid didn't do major damage to the Japanese targets. One was to finally give American people something to celebrate and other was to worry and anger Japan's leaders. Their judgement and lead to major military mistakes in the months ahead. -
Island Hopping Strategy
“Island Hopping” is the phrase given to the strategy employed by the United States to gain military bases and secure the many small islands in the Pacific. The attack was lead by General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of the Allied forces in the South west Pacific, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet. The US troops targeted the islands that were not as strongly defended by the Japanese. -
Island Hopping Strategy
They took control of those islands, and quickly constructed landing strips and small military bases. Then they proceeded to attack other islands from the bases they had established. Slowly the US army moved closer to Japan, taking control of many of the surrounding islands. -
Battle of Coral Sea.
This battle featured the one part of the Pacific fleet that had not been badly damaged at Pearl Harbor-aircraft carriers. The Battle of Coral Sea took place as Japanese forces were preparing to invade the British controlled Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea. U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz sent two aircraft carriers on the attack. Americans and Japanese both suffered damage, but Americans stopped the attack. First time, Japanese advance had been halted. -
Battle of Midway
On July 4, 1942, the Japanese launched a number of fighter planes and bombers from their aircraft carriers to attack the island of Midway. Meanwhile, three United States aircraft carriers were closing in on the Japanese force. -
Battle of Midway
While the Japanese were focused on attacking Midway, the U.S. carriers launched an attack. The first wave of fighters were torpedo bombers. These planes would fly in low and try to drop torpedoes that would strike the side of the ships to sink them. The Japanese were able to fend off the torpedo attacks. Most of the U.S. torpedo attack planes were shot down and none of the torpedoes hit their target. -
Battle of Midway
While the Japanese guns were aimed low at the torpedo bombers, American dive bombers dove in and attacked from high up in the sky. These bombs hit their target and three of the four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk. The Yorktown then engaged in battle with the final Japanese carrier, the Hiryu. Both carriers were able to launch a number of bombers against the other. In the end, both the Yorktown and the Hiryu were sunk. -
Battle of Midway
The Japanese formulated a plan to sneak up on the U.S. forces. They hoped to trap a number of the U.S. aircraft carriers in a bad situation where they could destroy them. However, American code breakers had intercepted a number of Japanese transmissions. The Americans knew the Japanese plans and prepared their own trap for the Japanese. The Japanese were led by Admiral Yamamoto. The United States was led by Admiral Nimitz and Commander Fletcher. -
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is an island in the South Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Solomon Islands located to the northeast of Australia. On the ground, the U.S. forces were led first by General Alexander Vandegrift and later by General Alexander Patch. The naval forces were led by Admiral Richmond Turner. The Japanese were led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and General Hitoshi Imamura. -
Guadalcanal
The battle began on August 7, 1942 when marines invaded the island. They first took the smaller islands of Florida and Tulagi just to the north of Guadalcanal. Then they landed on Guadalcanal. The marines had taken the Japanese forces by surprise and soon had control of the air base. -
Guadalcanal
The Japanese did not give up easily, however. They won a naval battle off of Savo Island sinking four Allied cruisers and isolating the U.S. marines on Guadalcanal. Then they landed reinforcements on the island to take it back.Over the next six months the battle waged. The U.S. was able to protect the island during the day by sending out planes to bomb incoming Japanese ships. The Japanese would land at night using small fast ships,sending in more soldiers -
Guadalcanal
in the middle of November, the Japanese launched a major attack involving over 10,000 soldiers. The fighting was fierce, but the Japanese were unable to advance. They were forced to retreat. From that point the battle turned in favor of the United States and they claimed total control of the island on February 9, 1943. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, formerly known as the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history. It was fought in waters of the Leyte Gulf, near the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon between combined American and Australian forces and the Imperial Japanese Navy. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
United States troops invaded the island of Leyte as part of a strategy aimed at isolating Japan from the countries it had occupied in Southeast Asia. The Imperial Japanese Navy mobilized nearly all of its remaining major naval vessels in an attempt to defeat the Allied invasion but was repulsed by the U.S. Navy's 3rd and 7th Fleets. The IJN failed to achieve its objective, suffered very heavy losses, and never sailed to battle in comparable force thereafter. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima is a small island located south of Tokyo, Japan. On the first day of the battle 30,000 US marines landed on the shores of Iwo Jima. The first soldiers that landed weren't attacked by the Japanese. They thought that the bombings from US planes and battleships may have killed the Japanese. They were wrong. -
Battle of Iwo Jiima
The Japanese had dug all sorts of tunnels and hiding places all over the island. They were waiting quietly for more marines to get on shore. Once a number of marines were on shore they attacked. Many US soldiers were killed. The Japanese would move from area to area in their secret tunnels. Sometimes the US soldiers would kill the Japanese in a bunker. They would move on thinking it was safe.more Japanese would sneak into the bunker through a tunnel and then attack from behind. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
After 36 days of brutal fighting, the US had finally secured the island of Iwo Jima. They placed a flag on top of Mount Suribachi. When they raised the flag a picture was taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal. This picture became famous in the United States. Later a statue was made of the picture. It became the US Marine Corps Memorial located just outside Washington, DC. -
Battle of Okinawa
Japanese forces retreated to the southern tip of the island to plan their reponse and then they attacked. Japanese would hide and launch deadly assaults. Over 12,000 Americans died and 1,000 more were injured. In spite of the terrible losses, Americans finally gained control of the island in june 1945. -
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion was huge, the city was destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were killed. The bomb was dropped by a plane named the Enola Gay which was piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbetts. The bomb itself was over 10 feet long and weighed around 10,000 pounds. A small parachute was on the bomb in order to slow its drop and allow the plane time to fly away from the blast zone. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
Despite witnessing the terrible destruction of the bomb on Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito and Japan still refused to surrender. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Again the devastation was horrible. -
VJ Day!!
On August 15, 1945 Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan would surrender. Later on September 2, 1945 the Japanese signed a surrender treaty with US General Douglas MacArthur aboard the battleship USS Missouri. This day was called V-J Day which means Victory in Japan.
