The Pacific War and the Atomic Bomb

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The Pacific War and the Atomic Bomb

• History 106
• May 11, 2009

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Reminder

• This week (Week Seven) read Bentley and Ziegler,
  chapter 38 interview with Simone de Beauvoir,
  1976. Begin reading either Dumb Luck or Jasmine
  (your choice). You will be required to answer an
  essay question on the final about one or the
  other of these novels.

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Some Websites of Interest

• Giant World War II Time Line
• Hyperwaranother huge WW2 website
• Article on how Japan and US museums have
  exhibited World War II
• Huge document collection on the atomic bomb and
  the end of World War II
• Churchills 1946 Iron Curtain speech

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Toward Pearl Harbor

• Japanese Expansion East Asia Co-Prosperity
  Sphere
• Americas racial and economic fears
• Diplomatic maneuvering
• Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941

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Race and War in the Pacific
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(No Transcript)
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The War in the Pacific

• U.S. Island-hopping strategyFrom Midway to
  Okinawa
• General Douglas MacArthur Retreat and Return to
  the Philippines.

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War on the Asian Mainland

• Japans anti-imperialist appeal Greater East
  Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• Japan vs. a Divided China Chinese Nationalists
  vs. Chinese Communists
• The U.S. Dilemma Vinegar Joe and Peanut

Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and Madame Chiang
with General Joseph Stilwell. Despite the smiles,
the men hated each other.
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Strategic Bombing
The firebombing of Tokyo, March 1945perhaps
100,000 killed, 1,000,000 left homeless in a
six-hour period.
The firebombing of Dresden, Germany February
1945civilian deaths estimated between 24000 and
40000.
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Nearing the End/Ending the Pacific War

• Air War
• Contemplating a Mainland Invasion
• Unconditional Surrender and the fate of Emperor
  Hirohito
• Yalta Conference, Feb. 1945
• USSR to declare war on
• Japan after German surrender

Raising the US flag after the Battle of Iwo
Jima island., March 1945
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Ending the Pacific War

• An American invasion of mainland Japan
• How costly would it be?
• Would it be necessary?
• The question of unconditional surrender and the
  emperor

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The Bomb and the Cold War

• The Manhattan Project
• Los Alamos, NM Oak Ridge, TN Hanford, WA.
• Bomb testTrinity site, near Alamogordo, NM
• July 16, 1945
• The Scientists Debate the Bomb
• J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the bomb
  project at Los Alamos reflects on the Trinity
  atomic test

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Trinity Alamogordo, NM Nuclear Test
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Potsdam Conference, July 1945 Big 3 Churchill,
Truman, Stalin
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Atomic Diplomacy Potsdam Conference

• Secretary of War Henry Stimsons diary, July 22,
  1945 After Truman reads report on New Mexico
  bomb test, He was a changed man. He told the
  Russians just where they got on and off and
  generally bossed the whole meeting.
• From Trumans memoirs On July 24 I casually
  mentioned to Stalin that we had a new weapon of
  unusual destructive force. The Russian Premier
  showed no special interest. All he said was he
  was glad to hear it and hoped we would make "good
  use of it against the Japanese."

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The Bomb and the Cold War

• Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima (August 6) and
  Nagasaki (August 8) Why?
• Avoid mainland invasion?
• Keep USSR out of Asian war and limit its
  influence?
• Was there actually a decision to use the bomb?
  Truman on August 9 "Having found the bomb we
  have used it.

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Japanese Surrender
VJ day kiss, New York, Aug. 14, 1945 formal
surrender on Battleship Missouri, Sept. 1, 1945.
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Deaths in World War II

• The Allies
• France 563,000
• Great Britain 357,000
• Poland 5,800,000
• U.S.S.R. 18,000,000
• China 11,300,000
• U.S.A. 298,000
• Note Estimates on both sides are not precise and
  sources differ

• The Axis
• Germany 4,200,000
• Italy 395,000
• Japan 1,972,000

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A War Ends/A Cold War Begins

• USA and USSR Could the wartime alliance last?
• Europe in Ruin
• Soviet ambitions and fears
• The beginning of the end of a world of empires

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American Power and the Cold War

• U.S. dominance after World War II
• The Bomb
• Economic Might
• Trumans Confrontational Style Truman
  criticizes Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov "I
  have never been talked to like that in my life,"
  and Truman said, "Carry out your agreements and
  you won't be talked to like that." Truman then
  walked out of the room.
• Postwar Soviet Union
• Great Power Destiny?
• Communist Expansionism?
• Defensive Nationalism?

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The Iron Curtain

• At a small college in Missouri in March 1946,
  Winston Churchill stated, "From Stettin in the
  Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron
  curtain has descended across the Continent."
• Cold War as European or World Conflict?
• Audio clip Churchills speech

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The Origins of Containment

• George F. Kennan The Sources of Soviet Conduct
• Truman Doctrine, March 1947 I believe that it
  must be the policy of the United States to
  support free peoples who are resisting attempted
  subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
  pressures.