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2 Japan’s Pacific Campaign MAIN IDEA EMPIRE BUILDING Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and brought the United States into World War II

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2 Japan’s Pacific Campaign MAIN IDEA EMPIRE BUILDING Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and brought the United States into World War II. WHY IT MATTERS NOW World War II established the United States as a leading player in international affairs. TERMS & NAMES • Isoroku Yamamoto • Pearl Harbor • Battle of Midway • Douglas MacArthur • Battle of Guadalcanal SETTING THE STAGE Like Hitler, Japan’s military leaders also had dreams of empire. Japan’s expansion had begun in 1931. That year, Japanese troops took over Manchuria in northeastern China. Six years later, Japanese armies swept into the heartland of China. They expected quick victory. Chinese resistance, however, caused the war to drag on. This placed a strain on Japan’s economy. To increase their resources, Japanese leaders looked toward the rich European colonies of Southeast Asia. Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor By October 1940, Americans had cracked one of the codes that the Japanese used in sending secret messages. Therefore, they were well aware of Japanese plans for Southeast Asia. If Japan conquered European colonies there, it could also threaten the American-controlled Philippine Islands and Guam. To stop the Japanese advance, the U.S. government sent aid to strengthen Chinese resistance. And when the Japanese overran French Indochina—Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos—in July 1941, Roosevelt cut off oil shipments to Japan. Despite an oil shortage, the Japanese continued their conquests. They hoped to catch the European colonial powers and the United States by surprise. So they planned massive attacks on British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia and on American outposts in the Pacific—at the same time. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (ih•soh•ROO•koo YAH•muh•MOH•toh), Japan’s greatest naval strategist, also called for an attack on the U.S. fleet in Hawaii. It was, he said, “a dagger pointed at [Japan’s] throat” and must be destroyed. TAKING NOTES Recognizing Effects Use a chart to identify the effects of four major events of the war in the Pacific between 1941 and 1943. Event Effect Day of Infamy Early in the morning of December 7, 1941, American sailors at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii awoke to the roar of explosives. A Japanese attack was underway! U.S. military leaders had known from a coded Japanese message that an attack might come. But they did not know when or where it would occur. Within two hours, the Japanese had sunk or damaged 19 ships, including 8 battleships, moored in Pearl Harbor. More than 2,300 Americans were killed—with over 1,100 wounded. News of the attack stunned the American people. The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress. December 7, 1941, he declared, was “a date which will live in infamy.” Congress quickly accepted his request for a declaration of war on Japan and its allies. World War II 931 Almost at the same time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese launched bombing raids on the British colony of Hong Kong and American-controlled Guam and Wake Island. (See the map on the opposite page.) They also landed an invasion force in Thailand. The Japanese drive for a Pacific empire was under way. Japanese Victories ? The U.S.S. West Virginia is engulfed by flames after taking a direct hit during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Lightly defended, Guam and Wake Island quickly fell to Japanese forces. The Japanese then turned their attention to the Philippines. In January 1942, they marched into the Philippine capital of Manila. American and Filipino forces took up a defensive position on the Bataan (buh•TAN) Peninsula on the northwestern edge of Manila Bay. At the same time, the Philippine government moved to the island of Corregidor just to the south of Bataan. After about three months of tough fighting, the Japanese took the Bataan Peninsula in April. Corregidor fell the following month. The Japanese also continued their strikes against British possessions in Asia. After seizing Hong Kong, they invaded Malaya from the sea and overland from Thailand. By February 1942, the Japanese had reached Singapore, strategically located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. After a fierce pounding, the colony surrendered. Within a month, the Japanese had conquered the resource-rich Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), including the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes (SEHL•uh•BEEZ). The Japanese also moved westward, taking Burma. From there, they planned to launch a strike against India, the largest of Great Britain’s colonies. By the time Burma fell, Japan had taken control of more than 1 million square miles of Asian land. About 150 million people lived in this vast area. Before these conquests, the Japanese had tried to win the support of Asians with the anticolonialist idea of “East Asia for the Asiatics.” After victory, however, the Japanese quickly made it clear that they had come as conquerors. They often treated the people of their new colonies with extreme cruelty. However, the Japanese reserved the most brutal treatment for Allied prisoners of war. The Japanese considered it dishonorable to surrender, and they had contempt for the prisoners of war in their charge. On the Bataan Death March—a forced march of more than 50 miles up the peninsula—the Japanese subjected their captives to terrible cruelties. One Allied prisoner of war reported: PRIMARY SOURCE I was questioned by a Japanese officer, who found out that I had been in a Philippine Scout Battalion. The [Japanese] hated the Scouts. . . . Anyway, they took me outside and I was forced to watch as they buried six of my Scouts alive. They made the men dig their own graves, and then had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the head with shovels to stun them and piled earth on top. LIEUTENANT JOHN SPAINHOWER, quoted in War Diary 1939–1945 Of the approximately 70,000 prisoners who started the Bataan Death March, only 54,000 survived. 932 Chapter 32 Name:______________________________ Directions: In regards to the Pearl Harbor attack, I want you to describe how the United States did not see that the Japanese were going to attack and what it meant for joining the war. You should have at least three main ideas...what caused the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor, what the attack was like, and what the aftermath was. It should be at least 250 words.