HIST 106 1st Edition Lecture 22 Outline of Last Lecture I Works progress administration 1935 II Opposition to the New Deal III Legislative achievements IV FDR and court packing V End of the New Deal Outline of Current Lecture I Pacific Theater of Operations II Battle of the Coral Sea May 1942 III Battle of Midway June 1942 IV Invade Japan V Battle of Iwo Jima Feb Mar 1945 VI Battle of Okinawa Apr Jun 1945 VII Double Victory VIII Atomic bomb IX Japanese war atrocities X The Holocaust Current Lecture Pacific Theater of Operations o Pearl Harbor s attack destroyed a lot of our resources but the one thing that it did not destroy were the air crafters Battle of the Coral Sea May 1942 o Stopped the Japanese threat to Australia The first battle ever in which the ships do not see actually see the opposing fleets This is done entirely through aircraft war that took off from one fleet to the other There were not just American and Japanese ships but also Australian and Dutch ships The allied fleet beats the Japanese through aircraft in this battle and we battle it out until it was basically a draw there is no clear winner in terms of losses Battle of Midway June 1942 o The Japanese want to take this small island due to the base of operations stationed in this area and Japanese can attack Hawaii any time they want something that was a threat to the US o By this point in the war the US has more or less cracked the Japanese naval code The Japanese would use silent code in order to not be heard by the Americans Even through this the Americans knew that the Japanese were going to attack Midway but they don t know how or when When the Americans find the Japanese they attack and the first couple of missions were suicide missions The Japanese and US fleets do not meet and this is all done through airway fleets At the end of the battle the Japanese will have lost 4 aircraft carriers we lost 1 and lost 250 aircrafts we lost 150 aircrafts o This stops Japanese offense operations and the Japanese will now be fighting on the defense o This will destroy basically all of the Japanese naval ability and they will not be able to recover Especially the number of aircraft pilots since the US killed off the most of them in Midway Invade Japan o General McArthur s plan was to attack Japan by going through the Philippines supported by army Has a bad personality that no one really likes but he is a great army general McArthur will do good on his promise and returns to Japan in 1948 and will begin the path to Japan o The General Nimitz said that the way to get to Japan is to hop around all of the islands and then get to Japan island hopping supported by navy They will start island hopping and will start moving as the war progresses up towards Japan o The war in the pacific is a lot more different than the war in Europe because it was a lot more brutal The racial component will play a huge role because the Americans were able to dehumanize the Japanese There were a lot of atrocities on both sides as the Japanese bushido code did not allow for surrender and surrender was looked down upon Battle of Iwo Jima Feb Mar 1945 o This was a very small island that is dominated by a huge volcano and the US will not attack until there are a lot of their troops on the island The US lands on the beach and the Japanese open fires on everything that the US has soldiers and weapons There was no cover the only way to survive was to keep moving and get off of the beach and this is the only battle where the US casualties outnumber the Japanese casualties o This island is strategically important because it was a good landing point for aircraf if the atomic bomb was to be used This is the first island that is Japanese home territory and this is why they will defend it fiercely o Us 6000 killed 19000wounded o Japan 21000 killed Battle of Okinawa Apr Jun 1945 o Over 95 000 Japanese killed including many civilians who committed suicide This was the first battle that took place in an area where civilians actually live This is an extremely bloody battle and the Japanese civilians would not surrender and this is why a lot of Japanese civilians committed suicide Flame thrower tanks were extremely important in this operation was the only way to get the bunkers 12 000 US troops killed and 95 000 US wounded the costs increase the closer the US gets to the Japanese Double Victory o 99th pursuit squadron the Tuskegee Airmen Double victory was minorities in the US going to combat to show the people at home what they can do fight oversees and fight discrimination at home At the beginning of the war the leaders of the army felt that blacks cold not fly planes since they did not have the mental ability Eleanor Roosevelt asks that a black pilot takes her on a flight and this will help with blacks getting the opportunity to fly the planes This unit will be deployed to northern Africa and they will be known as the Red Tails and were highly honored Unfortunately will not be able to achieve double victory and will play a huge role in desegregating the army Atomic bomb o The Manhattan project was a project to build an atomic bomb and Truman didn t know about this until he became president Faced the decision about whether or not to drop the atomic bomb and made the decision based on the projection of how many Japanese and American casualties there would have been if the nuclear bomb was not dropped o Hiroshima Aug 6 1945 166 000 killed This was an industrial military city but with the atomic bomb there was a huge impact radius After this bomb was dropped the US presented a peace offering to the Japanese and the Japanese said no o Nagasaki Aug 9 1945 80 000 killed Only after this the Japanese will accept the peace offering and will surrender to the US o These numbers covered only the amount of people who were killed instantly by the bomb instantly and not the people who suffered from the effects of the atomic bomb Japanese war atrocities o Rape of Nanking o Bataan death march The Philippines will march American soldiers still in the Philippines to march a long time without food or water and if they fell behind they would kill them o Chemical weapons The Japanese would release deadly diseases against their opponents such as bubonic plague o Human testing o Treatment of prisoners o Cannibalism Specifically selected prisoners of war for human consumption and would take flesh off of live people to consume o Comfort women Chinese women who were forced into
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