HIS CH 17-3 WAR IN THE PACIFIC

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Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

The Allies Stem the Japanese Tide

While the Allies agreed that the defeat of the Nazis was their first priority, the United States did not wait until V-E Day to move against Japan. Fortunately, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 had missed the Pacific Fleet's submarines . Even more importantly, the attack had missed the fleet's aircraft carriers, which were at sea at the time. In addition, almost all of the sunk or damaged ships were repaired and returned to service

JAPANESE ADVANCES

In the first six months after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese conquered an empire that dwarfed Hitler's Third Reich. On the Asian mainland, Japanese troops overran Hong Kong, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, and half of China. They also swept south and east across the Pacific, conquering Formosa, the Dutch East Indies, Guam, Wake Island, the Solomon Islands, and countless other dots in the ocean, including two islands in the Aleutian chain, which were part of Alaska

In the Philippines, 80,000 American and Filipino troops commanded by General Douglas MacArthur held out against 200,000 invading Japanese troops for four months on the Bataan Peninsula and for another month on the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay. Hunger, disease, and bombardments took a terrible toll- 14,000 killed and 48,000 wounded. Finally MacArthur was ordered to abandon the Philippines. As he left, he pledged to the many thousands of his men who did not make it out, "I shall return ."

Japan's admirals and generals were dazzled by their success. Not only had they surpassed the Allies militarily, but they had also destroyed the myth of white supremacy in Asia.

How did the attack on Pearl Harbor miss the U.S. Carriers?

a.	The Japanese did not think they were important	c.	The carriers were in San Diego on December 7
b.	The carriers were out to sea	d.	They did not miss. Most of the U.S. carriers were sunk

Who was the American general who was forced to leave the Philippines but vowed, “I shall return.”

a.	George Patton	c.	Douglas MacArthur
b.	Dwight Eisenhower	d.	Doug Wainright

Which statement is true?

a.	By 1942 Japan controlled most of Asia and seemed invincible	c.	By 1942 the Japanese army was afraid that it would loose the war
b.	By 1942 the U.S. was chasing the Japanese army back to Japan	d.	By 1942 the Japanese were driven out of the Philippines

U.S . RETALIATION

On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 bombers, led by Colonel James Doolittle, took off from the aircraft carrier Hornet . Hours later they swept in from the sea over Tokyo and four other Japanese cities, blasting factories, steel mills, oil tanks, and other military targets before vanishing. The next day America awoke to headlines proclaiming "Tokyo Bombed! Doolittle Did it" It." Seeing the U.S. pull off a Pearl Harbor-style air raid over Japan lifted Americans' sunken spirits.

Gen Doolittle Raid on Tokyo

Early in May, a combined American and Australian fleet intercepted a Japanese strike force aimed at Australia. This confrontation, the Battle of the Coral Sea, established a new type of naval warfare.

All the fighting was done by carrier-based airplanes; the opposing ships never saw one another or exchanged gunfire. The Allies lost more ships than the Japanese, so that the Japanese were able to declare victory. But the real triumph belonged to the Allies . By the end of the battle, the Japanese fleet was too short of fuel to continue on to Australia. For the first time since Pearl Harbor, a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back.

THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY

In June, Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander of American naval forces in the Pacific, learned from intercepted messages that a Japanese invasion force of well over 110 ships-the largest assemblage of naval power in history-was heading toward Midway, a strategic island in the Pacific. From there, the invasion force planned to move on to Hawaii to finish the destruction of American naval power started at Pearl Harbor.

Even though he was outnumbered four to one in ships and planes, Nimitz prepared a surprise reception for the Japanese at Midway. As the enemy drew near, he ordered his carrier planes into the air again and again, with orders "to inflict maximum damage on the enemy." The results were devastating. By the end of the Battle of Midway, the Japanese had lost four irreplaceable aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 322 planes . In the words of a Japanese official, at Midway the Americans had "avenged Pearl Harbor." It was the battle that turned the war against Japan.

Who lost more ships in the Battle of the Coral Sea?

a.	Japan	c.	British
b.	America	d.	Germany

What new type of naval warfare was established at the Battle of Coral Sea?

a.	Naval battles between big battleships	c.	Submarine warfare
b.	Fighting with fighter planes from aircraft carriers	d.	The use of radar and sonar to locate and sink ships

Why was the battle of Coral sea significant

a.	Gave control of the Coral Sea to Japan	c.	Enabled Japan to control Indonesia
b.	Drove the Japanese out of Southeast Asia	d.	Stopped the Japanese advance toward Australia

Which statement is true about the battle of Midway.

a.	Midway enabled the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor	c.	Midway proved that the Japanese navy was more powerful than the American Navy and turned the war in favor of Japan and the Axis Powers.
b.	Midway was the beginning of the end for Japan in WWII	d.	Midway was a huge defeat for the Japanese navy and turned the tide of the war in favor of the United States

ISLAND HOPPING

The Pacific war was one of vast distances. Japanese troops were dug in on hundreds of islands scattered across thousands of miles of ocean. To storm each one, MacArthur argued, would have been "a long and costly effort." Instead, he wanted to leapfrog, or bypass, Japanese strongholds. MacArthur seized less-well-fortified islands, built airfields on them, and then used air power to cut supply lines to enemy troops in the area. As a result, a Japanese intelligence officer later reported, "Our strong points were gradually starved out."

The Americans' first land offensive of the war began in August 1942, when 19,000 marines stormed Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Guadalcanal marked Japan's first defeat on land, but not its last. The Americans continued leapfrogging across the Pacific toward Japan, and in October 1944, some 178,000 Allied troops and 738 ships converged on Leyte Island in the Philippines . General MacArthur, who had left the American colony two years earlier, waded ashore and announced, "People of the Philippines: I have returned."

The Japanese threw their entire fleet into the battle for Leyte Gulf. They also tested a new tactic, the kamikaze, or suicide-plane, attack in which Japanese pilots crashed their bomb-laden planes into Allied ships. (Kamikaze means "divine wind" and refers to a legendary typhoon that saved Japan in 1281 by destroying a Mongol invasion.) In the Philippines, 424 kamikaze pilots embarked on suicide missions, sinking 16 ships and damaging another 80.

Despite the damage done by the kamikazes, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was a disaster for Japan. In three days of battle, it lost 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers, and almost 400 planes . From then on, the Imperial Navy played only a minor role in the defense of Japan.

After retaking the Philippines and liberating the American prisoners of war there, the Allies turned to Iwo Jima, Iwo Jima was critical to the United States as a base from which heavily loaded bombers could reach Japan. It was also perhaps the most heavily defended spot on earth, with 20,700 Japanese troops entrenched in tunnels and caves. More than 6,000 marines died taking this desolate island, the greatest number in any battle in the Pacific to that point. Only 200 Japanese survived . Just one obstacle now stood between the Allies and a final assault on Japan-the island of Okinawa.

The U.S. used a strategy called “Island Hopping” in the Pacific against Japan. What was this strategy?

a.	The U.S. invaded only certain islands, bypassing others	d.	all of these are part of the strategy
b.	The U.S. cut Japans supply lines with air strikes	e.	none of these were part of the strategy
c.	The U.S. established air bases on captured islands where they could strike Japanese supply lines

Which battle resulted in Japans loss of the Philippines and MacArthur return?

a.	Leyte Gulf	c.	Midway
b.	Guadalcanal	d.	Iwo Jima

10.

Why was Iwo Jima an important island for the U.S. to take control of In WWII

a.	If was not really very important	c.	It was an important psychological victory for Japan and proved that America was not invincible
b.	It could be a base for heavy bombers to bomb Japan	d.	It was an important submarine base

11.

What new weapon was introduced in the battle of Leyte Gulf?

a.	Carrier based bomber attacks	c.	kamikaze attacks
b.	Carrier based fighter attacks	d.	Island Hopping

The Atomic Bomb Ends the War

Roosevelt did not live to see the final battles of the Pacific war. On April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the president had a stroke and died. That night, Harry S . Truman became the nation's president.

THE BATTLE FOR OKINAWA

As the world mourned Roosevelt's death, an inexperienced Truman began to grapple with his new job as president and commander in chief of the armed forces . By then the war in Europe was winding down. In the Pacific, however, a ferocious battle would soon rage on Okinawa, Japan's last defensive outpost. The Japanese unleashed more than 1,900 kamikaze attacks on the Allies during the Okinawa campaign, sinking 30 ships, damaging more than 300 more, and killing almost 5,000 seamen.

Once ashore, the Allies faced even fiercer opposition than on Iwo Jima. By the time the fighting ended on June 22, 1945, more than 7,600 Americans had died. But the Japanese paid a still ghastlier price-110,000 lives-in defending Okinawa. This total includes two generals who chose ritual suicide over the shame of surrender.

The Battle for Okinawa was a chilling foretaste of what the Allies imagined the final invasion of Japan's home islands would be like. Although some historians now think the projected toll was vastly overestimated, Winston Churchill predicted that the cost would be a million American lives, and half that number of British

12.

Who became president when FDR died in 1045?

a.	Douglas MacArthur	c.	Jimmy Carter
b.	Harry Truman	d.	Lyndon Johnson

13.

Which statement is true?

a.	Okinawa enabled the U.S. to take the Philippines back from Japan	c.	Okinawa was the last island the U.S. had to take before invading Japan itself
b.	The battle of Okinawa was a defeat for both the U.S. and Japan	d.	Okinawa was too far away from Japan to act as a base for bomber attacks on Japan

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

Not long after Truman took office, Secretary of War Henry Stimson handed him a memo that began, "Within four months we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history, one bomb of which could destroy a whole city."

Over the next hour, the president learned that the Manhattan Project was not only the most ambitious scientific enterprise in history but also the best-kept secret of the war. At its peak, more than 600,000 Americans were involved in the project, although few of them knew its ultimate purpose-the creation of an atomic bomb

Work on the atomic bomb had begun in 1942, Meanwhile, a group of brilliant American, British, and European refugee scientists headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked in a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to build the actual bomb.

As the time to test the bomb drew near, the air around Los Alamos crackled with rumors and fears. Some feared that the bomb might not work. Others feared that the bomb might set the atmosphere on fire. On the night of July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated in an empty expanse of desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico. A blinding flash, which was visible 180 miles away, was followed by a deafening roar as a tremendous shock wave rolled across the trembling desert. A huge mushroom cloud rose over the desert The bomb not only worked, but it was more powerful than most had dared hope

14.

Which statement is true about the Manhattan project..

a.	It was a plan to protect Manhattan from attacks by German submarines	c.	It was plan to rescue refugees from the Germans in Europe
b.	It was a secret plan to build an atomic bomb	d.	It was known but ignored by most Americans

15.

Which statement is true about the Manhattan Project?

a.	The plan was so secret that Vice President Truman did not know anything about it until he became president	c.	Most government officials knew about the plan but the general public did not
b.	The plan was well known by most people in the government	d.	Truman never went to college and really had trouble with complicated scientific ideas like atomic physics

TO BOMB OR NOT TO BOMB

In spite of this success, many of the scientists who had worked on the bomb, as well as many military leaders and civilian policymakers, had doubts about using it. A petition drawn up by Leo Szilard, a leading physicist in the Manhattan Project, and signed by 70 other scientists argued that it would be immoral to drop an atomic bomb on Japan without fair warning. Others supported staging a demonstration of the bomb for Japanese leaders, perhaps by exploding one on it deserted island near Japan, to convince their to surrender.

These objections were discussed in detail on May 31, 1945, by a newly formed advisory body, the Interim Committee. At that meeting, Oppenheimer outlined the problems with a test explosion: (1) nothing less than dropping a bomb on a city would convince the Japanese to surrender; (2) the test might be a dud; (3) the Japanese might shoot down the delivery plane or move American prisoners of' war into the test area. Swayed by these arguments, the committee recommended that the bomb be used against military targets in Japan, and that it be dropped without warning.

Many scientists working on the bomb agreed with this recomrnendation- even more so as the heavy casualty figures from Iwo Jima and Okinawa sank in. "Are we to go on shedding American blood when we have available means to a steady victory?" they asked in a petition. "No! If we can save even a handful of American lives, then let its use this weapon-now!" But other scientists retrained firmly opposed

Saving American lives, however, was not the only consideration. Two other concerns pushed Americans to use the bomb. One was that the weapon needed to be used to justify the cost of building it. Some people feared that if the bomb were not dropped, the project might be viewed as a gigantic waste of money. The second consideration involved the Soviet Union. Tension and distrust were already developing between the Western Allies and the Soviets. Some American officials believed that a successful use of the atomic bomb would give the United States a powerful advantage over the Soviets in shaping the postwar world.

Truman did not hesitate . On July 25, 1945, he ordered the military to make final plans for dropping the only two atomic bombs then in existence on Japanese targets . A day later, the United States warned Japan that it faced "prompt and utter destruction" unless it surrendered at once. Japan refused. Truman later wrote, "The final decision of' where and when to use the atomic bomb was up to me. Let there be no mistake about it. I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used."

16.

The U.S. formed a committee to discuss whether or not to drop the bomb. What was the issue they discussed

a.	would the bomb work	d.	the blast had to be impressive enough to convince the Japanese to surrender
b.	the delivery plane might crash	e.	all of these were discussed
c.	the Japanese might move American prisoners of war into the bomb area

17.

Which statement is true

a.	The U.S. saw the Soviet Union as a potential threat and wanted to use the atomic bomb to warn them	d.	none of these statements are true
b.	The U.S. was not concerned about the cost of creating the bomb because Americans at the time were so patriotic	e.	all of these statements are true
c.	Truman was against using the bomb but was convinced to use it by his Secretary of War

18.

President Truman showed a disregard for the lives of Japanese civilians in deciding to drop the atomic bomb on Japanese cities

true

false

19.

Which statement is true.

a.	The scientific community was more concerned with possible civilian casualties than American military casualties	c.	Most government and military leaders did not want Japan to surrender. They wanted Japan destroyed.
b.	The battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa made many people fear an invasion of Japan so they decided to drop the atomic bomb to save American lives	d.	None of these statements are true

HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

On August 6, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay released an atomic bomb, code-named Little Boy, over Hiroshima, an important Japanese military center. Forty-three seconds later, almost every building in the city collapsed into dust. Hiroshima had ceased to exist. Still japans leaders hesitated to surrender. Three days later a second bomb, code-named Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki, leveling half the city. By the end of the year, an estimated 200,000 people had died as a result of injuries and radiation poisoning caused by the atomic blasts .

Emperor Hirohito was horrified by the death and destruction wrought by the bomb. "I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer," he told Japan's leaders tearfully. Then he ordered them to draw up papers "to end the war." On September 2, formal surrender ceremonies took place on the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. "Today the guns are silent," said General MacArthur in a speech marking this historic moment. "The skies no longer rain death-the seas bear only commerce-men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight . The entire world is quietly at peace."

20.

What finally convinced Emperor Hirohito to surrender

a.	The atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities	c.	The fear of the Russians who wanted to take control of parts of Northern Japan
b.	The possible American invasion	d.	His hatred and distrust of the military leaders like Tojo

21.

When did Japan officially surrender to the Allied forces

a.	August 6, 1945	c.	September 2, 1945
b.	September 8, 1942	d.	September 2, 1942

Essay

22.

If the United States had to invade Japan to end the war it is estimated that more than a million Americans would have been killed in addition to the Japanese that would have died. By dropping the Atomic bomb the war was brought to a quick end. Should the United States have dropped the Atomic bombs?

Answer and explain why.