Short Documentaries on War in the Pacific

• The Pacific: Historical Background Part 1 (HBO) • The Pacific: Anatomy of a War (HBO) Japanese Aggression Builds • In the early 1900s Japan had a severe lack of natural resources. • Their plan was to invade and conquer neighboring lands that had the natural resources that they wanted. • Japanese expansion in East Asia began in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria and continued in 1937 with a brutal attack on China. • On September 27, 1940, Japan signed a pact with Germany and Italy, thus entering the military alliance known as the “Axis Powers.” • The United States wanted to curb Japan Vs. the Japan’s aggressive actions. • They also wanted to force a United States withdrawal of Japanese forces from Manchuria and China. • So, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Japan. • Japan now faced severe shortages of oil, along with their shortage of other natural resources. • The Japanese were also driven by the ambition to displace the United States as the dominant Pacific power. • To solve these issues, Japan decided to attack the United States and British forces in Asia and seize the resources of Southeast Asia. Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor • However, because America is bigger and more powerful than Japan, a surprise assault is the only realistic way to defeat the U.S. • Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941. • When the first Japanese bombs struck Pearl Harbor shortly before eight in the morning, the American forces were utterly unprepared. • Anchored ships, such as the Nevada, the Utah, and the Arizona, provided easy targets for bombs and torpedoes. • Most American airplanes, parked in orderly rows, were destroyed on the ground. Pearl Harbor = Catastrophe • In less than two hours, Japan had destroyed most of the U.S. Pacific fleet, sinking or destroying 18 ships and destroying nearly 200 planes. • More than 2,000 sailors and 68 civilians were killed during this attack. • The President of the USA, Franklin Roosevelt, called it “a date which will live in infamy” because the attack came before war with the U.S. had been declared. • The result was that the United States joined World War Two as an ally of Britain and France against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Americans Fear Japanese-Americans • The attack on Pearl Harbor spawned American hatred and fear of Japan – and of Japanese Americans. • Fearing that Japanese Americans would cooperate with the enemy, people on the West Coast of the United States sought to have all persons of Japanese ancestry – citizens and noncitizens alike – removed from coastal areas. • Such a removal was authorized by President Roosevelt in Executive Order 9066. Interment Camps for Japanese Americans • During 1942 more than 110,000 Japanese Americans living along the West Coast were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps called “relocation centers.” – These camps were located in Utah, California, Arizona, Wyoming, Arkansas, and Idaho. – The camps were like prisons and were fenced in with barbed wire. – Soldiers guarded the camps with guns. – The Japanese-Americans had to sell their homes, businesses, and belongings. – They also had to wear identification tags while in the camps. • Over 17,000 Japanese Americans served in Army units even though their friends and families were being locked away by their own country. Tragedies Explored in Literature • The tragedies of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese internment camps are explored in two pieces that we will read in our literature book. • The tragedy of Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into WWII, is the occasion of Joan Didion’s “Letter from Paradise.” • Didion describes her feelings as she visits Pearl Harbor a quarter of a century later, views the still- submerged battleships, and recalls the young men who died in the Sunday-morning sneak attack. Literature about Japanese Internment Camps

• Dwight Okita’s poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066” recalls the reaction of the U.S. government to the fear engendered by Japanese aggression: the rounding up and banishing to internment camps of thousands of Japanese Americans. • Dwight Okita’s poem, which gives a Japanese-American girl’s response to the relocation order, shows the repercussions of that “day of infamy” in 1941. U.S. Gains Strength in the Pacific • After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan achieved a long series of military successes during the first few years of fighting WWII in the Pacific. • Allied forces slowly gained naval and air supremacy in the Pacific. • The Allied forces moved methodically from island to island in the Pacific, conquering them but often sustaining significant casualties. 1945 = Victories & Heavy Losses • In early 1945, American forces suffered heavy losses during the invasions of Iwo Jima (February) and Okinawa (April), an island of strategic importance off the coast of the Japanese home islands. • Despite these casualties and suicidal Japanese air attacks, known as Kamikaze attacks, American forces conquered Okinawa in mid-June 1945. Japan Keeps Fighting • At this point in World War II, war within Europe had ended, but the Japanese did not want to surrender. • President Harry Truman, who had just taken office as president months earlier, had a difficult decision to make: what should the United States do next? • The USA was facing the prospect of invading Japan; however, the last few battles, Iwo Jima and Okinawa particularly, were incomprehensibly bloody. • Japan had no regard for its own citizens' lives and planned to turn their whole island into a fortress. Deciding to Drop the Bomb • Invading Japan would be an extremely difficult struggle, ending in an enormous amount of lives lost on both sides. • Truman saw the only way to avoid invading Japan was to use the Atomic Bomb, which was a relatively new invention. • On July 25th Truman ordered the military to begin preparation for dropping the bomb. • On July 26, 1945, the United States, Great Britain, and China issued an ultimatum calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender. The U.S. Bombs Japan • When Japan ignored the ultimatum, the first atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, killing more than 70,000 people. • Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. • Approximately 120,000 civilians died as a result of the two blasts. • On September 2, the Japanese signed a surrender agreement, ending World War II. The Aftermath of WWII • World War II was a catastrophe of epic dimensions. • Never before had so many soldiers fought. • Never before had such whole-scale slaughter occurred. • When the war finally ended in 1945, more than 78 million people had been killed or wounded. • For the first time in history, more civilians than soldiers had died in a war. Inspiration for The Pacific: Eugene Sledge • With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa is a World War II memoir by Eugene Sledge, a United States Marine. • Since its first publication in 1981, With the Old Breed has been recognized as one of the best first-hand accounts of combat in the Pacific during World War II. • The memoir is based on notes Sledge kept tucked away in a pocket-sized Bible he carried with him during battles. Inspiration for The Pacific: Robert Leckie • Helmet for My Pillow is the personal narrative written by another World War II Marine veteran, author, and military historian Robert Leckie. • First published in 1957, the story begins with Leckie enlisting in the United States Marines shortly after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. • The 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific was adapted in large part from these two novels. The U.S.S. Indianapolis

• Clip from Jaws - Quint talks about the U.S.S. Indianapolis