A. Battle of Midway (June 4-6, 1942) four imperial aircraft carriers sunk

    B. February 1943 Guadalcanal evacuated

    C. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku killed (April 18, 1943)

    D. July 1944 Tojo resigned
        1. General Koiso Kuniaki (1880-1955) Prime Minister
        2. Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa (1888-1948), deputy PM

    E. Iwo Jima (December 1944-February 1945)
        1. preparatory air and naval bombardment
        2. most severe attacks against any Pacific target
        3. Mount Suribachi seized on February 23, 1945
        4. late-March, Japanese garrison annihilated
        5. totals: 46,000 casualties, 23,000 wounded
        6. U.S. gained 3 airstrips within 660 miles from Tokyo

    F. April 1945 Baron Suzuki Kantaro (1868-1948) new Prime Minister
        1. Koiso had suggested an Imperial General Headquarters Cabinet
        2. Instead, 79 yr old Suzuki appointed---nonpolitical and near deaf
        3. May 1945 Third Reich collapsed

    G. Battle of Okinawa (March-June 1945)
        1. 110,000 imperial troops killed, 150,000 civilians killed
        2. U.S. land and naval casualties: 49,000---the highest in the Pacific
        3. massive kamikaze "divine wind" raids
            a. 896 tokko raids against Okinawan targets
            b. over 1000 against naval targets
            c. Japan lost 7,830 planes
            d. U.S. lost 36 ships (sunk), 386 damaged
        4. April 1945 battleship Yamato destroyed

    H. Incendiary Bombing Raids (February-August 1945)
        1. B-29 Superfortress bombers
            a. land-based bomber with a range of 3000 miles
            b. speeds of 350 miles per hour, bomb load of 8 tons
            c. bombs released from 30,000 feet in broad daylight
            d. in 31,387 b-29 sorties, only 74 lost
        2. 66 Japanese cities devasted by incendiary raids
        3. February 25 & March 10---Tokyo "became scorched earth"
            a. over 100,000 killed in the first raid
            b. within two months, 13 million people homeless
            c. over 50% of the city reduced to rubble
        4. Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe also destroyed
        5. total of 241,000 killed, 313,000 wounded

II. Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    A. Potsdam Declaration (July 26, 1945)
        1. U.S., Britain, and KMT China call for "unconditional surrender"
        2. Japan officially ignored it, while covertly expressing interest
        3. Emperor Hirohito supposedly stated, without hesitation, that it was acceptable
        4. Japanese military refused, thinking that the Soviets would mediate a peace

    B. The Manhattan Project
        1. Robert Oppenheimer and Los Alamos
        2. Trinity explosion
        3. Truman's "power surge"
        4. General Leslie Groves, Atomic General
        5. Tinian Air Strip launch spot
        6. Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay

    C. August 6, 1945 Hiroshima bombed (8:15 a.m.)
        1. Over 100,000 died
        2. Over 100,000 injured

    D. August 9, 1945 Nagasaki bombed
        1. same day, Soviets declare war against Japan
        2. same day, Emperor Hirohito accepted the Potsdam Declaration
        3. August 15, 1945 broadcast of the surrender announcement
            a. war had developed in ways not necessarily to Japan's advantage
            b. the enemy had developed a cruel weapon capable of destroying civilization
            c. subjects must "bear the unbearable, endure the unendurable"