The War in the Pacific, Pt.

II
1. Pearl Harbor and the New Japanese Pacific Empire - - Japans Fatal Weaknesses and Deadly Strengths - - The Bushido Code of Honor 2. The US and Turning the Tide in the Pacific - - Port Moresby and the Battle of Coral Sea (May, 42) - - The Battle of Midway (June, 1942) - - Guadalcanal and Atrocities on All Sides 3. The Blockade of Japan and the Naval War - - Unrestricted Submarine Warfare in the Pacific - - - - The Oil Supply and Japans Dwindling Resources

Emperor Hirohito

Germany, Japan and Italy sign the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, September 27, 1940, formally creating a military alliance

The attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was designed to be a preemptive blow against the US

Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on Japan, December 8, 1941

Japanese military and naval might was no match for the combined strengths of the Allies

The Japanese fleet included 10 major battle ships and 10 aircraft carriers

Japanese soldiers: Devotees of the Bushido code of honor The Way of the Warrior

Where to next? Australia? The USSR?

Admiral Yamamoto proposed an attack on the US fleet at Midway Island, while Australia would be isolated by taking Port Moresby , Papau New Guinea

Japanese Aircraft Carrier Shokaku ablaze during the Battle of Coral Sea, May 1942

US aircraft carrier Lexington explodes during the Battle of Coral Sea

The Battle of Midway was designed to further cripple the American fleet and push the United States out of the war (Midway: middle of map, right side)

Japanese forces under Admiral Yamamoto (L) intended to draw the US Navy into a trap; US Forces under Admiral Chester Nimitz were waiting

The Japanese carriers Soryu, Agaki and Kaga under attack at Midway, June 4, 1942

The USS Yorktown ablaze at Midway

The Allies moved to drive the Japanese from the Solomon Islands, just north of Australia, at Guadalcanal, August 1942-February 1943

US Marines land at Guadalcanal; The vital Henderson Airfield

Dead Japanese soldiers on the beeches of Guadalcanal

The severed head of a Japanese soldier at Guadalcanal decorates a military vehicle

Some of the 24,000 Japanese war dead at Guadalcanal before the evacuation in February 1943

From 1942, Indian, British and Australian troops fought the Japanese in Burma

Sikh soldiers in Burma fight to defend the British Empire. At the height of the war, 2.5 million Indian troops were fighting the Axis

The blockade of Japan was a major allied objective, in order to starve it of essential materials such as oil, rubber and food

One of 288 US subs involved in the American program of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Pacific

The view through an American submarine periscope as a ship it has sunk goes down

War in the Pacific, Part III

1. Pushing the Japanese Back toward Japan - - The Battle for Iwo Jima (February 1945) - - The Battle for Okinawa (April 1945) 2. Film Clip: Horror in the East (BBC) - - Kamikazes and Allied Atrocities 3. The Strategic Bombing of Japan - - Maj. Gen. Le May and the War Crimes Question 4. The Final Days of the Second World War - - Operation Downfall and the Perils of Invasion - - President Truman and the Atomic Bomb - - Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Japanese Surrender

Roosevelt, Churchill and Canadian PM McKenzie King during the Quebec City conference, September 1944

Some of the fiercest fighting of the war occurred on the strategically vital Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Defensive caves at Iwo Jima today

US Marines land at Iwo Jima, February 1945

Firing rockets on Japanese cave defenses

Next stop: Okinawa - April 1945

Landing at Okinawa, April 1945

Maj. General Curtis Le May, who advocated and then carried out the strategic bombing of Japan, including targeting civilian populations

Victims of the fire-bombing of Tokyo, March 1945

The remains of Tokyo, where at least 100,000 civilians died in 1945

Plans for Operation Downfall, to be led by General Douglas MacArthur

New British PM Clement Attlee, New US President Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1942

The Potsdam Declaration, announced by the Big Three on July 26, demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan, and threatened prompt and utter destruction.

Cloud created by the atomic bomb dropped by the Enola Gay on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

Hiroshima before and after the attack

The ruins of Nagasaki, bombed August 9, 1945, and bottles melted in the 4000c heat

Emperor Hirohito records his surrender message, August 15, 1945 - - the last day of the Second World War