WWII Pacific Theater

•Bataan Death March

•Navajo Code Talkers

•Midway

•A-Bomb, Hiroshima, Nagasaki

•Pgs. 22-25

Group of all-volunteer fighter squadron, sent to protect the Burma road in and around China.

Burma Road was an important supply line for for those fighting against the Japanese in China

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Flying Tigers

68

Profile of a Hero

Admiral Chester Nimitz

• Born and raised around

Fredericksburg, Texas

• Senior US Navy officer in

the Pacific

• Lead the US Navy and

Marine Corps in “Island
Hopping” across the
Pacific

69

Profile of a Hero

Gen. Douglas MacArthur

• Had served as military

governor of the Philippines

• When forced to evacuate

his Corregidor
headquarters, he
promised, “I shall return.”

• He led the US Army in the

Pacific and retook the
Philippines

 Following Pearl Harbor, Japan controlled Malaya, Burma,

Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong

 Japan threatened Australia, India, Midway & Hawaii

 Bataan Death March, 1942- US forces in the Philippines

surrendered to Japan

 US soldiers forced on 60 mile march

 Faced starvation, disease, exposure

 5,000 died: shot, beheaded, bayoneted

• Island hopping- US strategy used by the Navy to liberate

Pacific islands

• Navajo Code Talkers- language unwritten & complex;

Japanese unfamiliar with it; US military strategies would be
conveyed this way

• Battle of Midway-

– Turning point of war

– US Navy able to decipher Japanese codes

– US launch surprise attack & decimate Japanese Navy

• Following Midway, Douglas MacArthur will island hop thru

Pacific to Okinawa