American History - Part 187 - FDR - War in Pacific - Hiroshima - Japan surrender

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• published: 24 Aug 2013
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Japan's leaders believed no army could stop them. So they expanded their goals and launched new campaigns. This was Japan's mistake. It stretched its forces too thin and too quickly. The military leaders in Tokyo believed that the United States could not resist because American forces were busy fighting the war in Europe. But no country could extend its communications and fighting ability over such a great distance and continue to win. The turning point came in June 1942 in the central Pacific in the great battle of Midway Island. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched the battle. He wanted to meet and destroy the remaining ships in the American fleet before the United States could recover from the destruction at Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto had 162 ships. The American admiral, Chester Nimitz, had just 76. But the United States had discovered how to read the secret messages of the Japanese forces. For this reason, Nimitz and the Americans knew exactly where the Japanese ships would sail. And they put their own ships in the best positions to stop them. The fighting between the 2 sides was fierce. But when it ended, the Americans had won a great victory. Admiral Yamamoto was forced to call off his attack and sail home. For the 1st time, the Japanese navy had been defeated. The next big battle was at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific. Guadalcanal's beaches were wide and flat. Japanese officers decided to build a military air base there. The United States learned of the plans. American commanders decided that they had to prevent Japan from establishing that base. United States Marines quickly landed on the island. They were joined by troops from Australia and New Zealand. The battle was an important defeat for Japan. It opened the door for the American and other Allied forces to go on the attack after months of defensive fighting. But American military planners did not agree about the best way to launch such an attack. Admiral Nimitz of the Navy wanted to capture the small groups of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, then seize Taiwan, and finally attack Japan itself. But General Douglas MacArthur of the Army thought it would be best to attack through New Guinea and the Philippines. The American leadership finally decided to launch both attacks at once. Nimitz and MacArthur both succeeded. Nimitz and his naval forces moved quickly through the Marianas and other islands. General MacArthur's troops attacked through New Guinea and into the Philippines. American ships defeated Japanese naval forces in the battle for Leyte Gulf. Throughout the Pacific and East Asia, the fighting continued. Many of the fiercest battles were fought on tiny Pacific islands. Japanese troops captured the islands early in the war. And they quickly built strong defenses to prevent the Allies from invading. Allied military leaders found a way to defeat the Japanese plan. They simply avoided the islands where the Japanese were strong and attacked other islands. After the defeat at Okinawa, many Japanese understood that the war was lost, even if Japan had not yet surrendered. Emperor Hirohito appointed a new Prime Minister and ordered him to explore the possibilities of peace. But both sides still expected the Allies to launch a final invasion into Japan itself. And everyone knew that the cost in human life would be great for both sides. But the invasion never came. For years, American scientists had been developing a secret weapon, the atomic bomb. The code-name was the Manhattan Project. President Harry S. Truman made the decision to use it against Japan. "The world will note that the 1st atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. We won the race of discovery against the Germans. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of 1000s and 1000s of young Americans. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war." American planes dropped one of the bombs on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, and another on Nagasaki 3 days later. Exactly how many people in those 2 cities died from the force and heat of the blasts or later from radiation may never be known. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan estimates that between 150,000 and 246,000 died within 2 to 4 months of the bombings. Japan surrendered on August 15th, 1945, 6 days after the Nagasaki bombing. Suddenly, sooner than expected, WWII was over. More than 50,000,000 civilians and soldiers died during the 6 years of fighting. Germany and Japan were defeated.