CONFLICT IN PACIFIC

“Asia for the Asians”

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

“the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is our future

Japan Foreign Ministry - imperialism

“the object of our policy is to enable us to find a place in the world consistent with our rights and interests”

Yosuke Matsuoka (Japan Foreign Minister) - imperialism

“attacked by a power at present not involved in European war or in the China-Japan conflict”

1938 Tripartite Pact

“the Imperial Army must advance, for Japan’s destiny lies in Asia”

General Hideki Tojo - imperialism

reduced 9/10 of oil supply and trade by 3/4

US response to Japan’s imperialism

“I have to strain my imagination to the utmost to believe that these people are capable at springing a technical surprise of any importance on us in a war”

British report on Imperial Japanese Navy

“December 7 - a date which will live in infamy”

FDR - US response to PH

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”

Yamamoto - US response to PH

“some people, having consumed everything that could be eaten, restored to cannibalism”

Fredrik Logevall - famine

10s of 1000s Asian labourers and 12500 Allied POWs died from disease, malnutrition ansd abuse

death toll of construction of Burma-Thailand railway

only 6 out of 1800 survived

no. of survivors from Sandakan Death March (1945)

“after 3 days with restricted food and water, and medical services, no cover from the sun, conditions became appalling”

Fred Ransome Smith (POW) - forced labour conditions

more than 20 million died

total Chinese death toll from Japanese invasion and occupation

“worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history”

Winston Churchill - fall of Singapore

“gave the Allies the confidence that they could halt Japanese expansion”

R.B. Frank - battle of Coral Sea

“The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first time that the Japanese navy had been stopped and turned back”

Admiral Nimitz - Battle of Coral Sea

“Coral Sea was definitive”

General Mackenzie - Battle of Coral Sea

lost 4 carriers, 300 aircraft, 200 pilots, 3000+ men

Japanese losses in Midway”

“their feared navy would never forcibly strike again and the Japanese would from then on be on the defensive from a greater US naval power”

Craig Nelson - Midway

lost 1 aircraft carrier, 145 aircraft, 350+ men

US losses in Midway

“limited their offensive capabilities for the remainder of the war”

C.L. Summonds - Midway

“we lost the battle of Guadalcanal and thereby Japanese lost the war”

Major General Kawaquchil - Guadalcanal

“never again could the Japanese go where they liked and do what they liked”

Malcolm Kennedy - Midway

“they had slowed the Japanese advance and coaxed them further along the track”

M. McKenvay - Guadalcanal

“Japanese committed the worst blunder…if they had chosen to penetrate South East Asia instead of attacking Hawaii, they might have won the resources they desired without provoking American to war”

William Leuchtenburg - PH

“Japanese achieved a tactical success but not a strategic one as they did not keep the US out of the war for the extended period they had planned”

David Horner - PH

lost 188 planes, 18 major ships, 2403 killed (68 civilians and 1177 entombed on Arizona)

US losses in PH

lost 29 planes, 1 sub, less than 100 men

Japan losses in PH

“in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory”

FDR - galvanising public after PH

“the most terrible weapon in human history”

Henry Stimson - a-bomb

“the greatest scientific gamble in history”

Truman - a-bomb

“while every other major state took four or five years to develop a sizeable military economy, it took America a year”

Richard Overy - US economy