Meanwhile…..In the Pacific Theater

Battle of Leyte GulfJapan tries to destroy entire American

FleetBackfired – lost their entire fleet instead

US forces land on PhilippinesFirst use of Kamikazes

Kamikaze• Means “Divine Wind”

• Suicide attacks

• Over 40 ships sunk by Kamikazes at Battle of Leyte Gulf

• Psychological attack

Battle Of Iwo Jima • Key island – provide airbases

to bomb Japan

• Feb. – March – 1945

• 18,000 Japanese soldiers present at battle

• Only 216 taken prisoner

• Americans killed – (6800)o Greater than total on D-Day

Battle Of Okinawa • Largest amphibious assault –

Pacific Theater

• April – June 1945

• 110,000 Japanese soldiers killed

• 34 U.S. ships destroyed by Kamikazes

• U.S. o 12,000 deado 36,000 wounded

• Last major campaign of Pacific War.

Firebombing of TokyoMarch 9-10, 1945

300 American planes½ million incendiary

bombs dropped

100,000 die in ONE night

Goal: destroy Japanese morale

Manhattan Project• Atomic bomb project – U.S.

• Robert Oppenheimer

• Trinity Test – first ever successful atomic bomb

• Birth of the Atomic Age

• 2 bombs Fat Man - NagasakiLittle Boy - Hiroshima

Hiroshima• August 6, 1945

• B-29 “Superfortres” Enola Gay drops 1st atomic bomb in history

• Destroyed about 70% of the city

• 80,000 people killed

• Japanese = no surrender

Nagasaki• August 9, 1945

• B-29 Super fortress Bockscar

• 75,000 killed

• Hundreds of thousands dies from after effects

• Japanese agree to surrender

Japanese Surrender• September 2, 1945

• Tokyo Bay, Japan

• USS Missouri

• Japanese surrender to Gen MacArthur

• End of WWII

• VJ Day – Victory in Japan