The Turning Point Of World War II

World War II was fought across the world and involved more men than any other war in the history of human civilization. From 1941 to 1945 the United States and Japan were at war on the Pacific front. The U.S wanted to end the war as soon as possible as it caused many casualties in both countries. Towards the end of the Second World War, the U.S had valid reasons to drop the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. To the U.S it was a way to end the conflict in the Pacific, by making Japan incapable of continuing their wartime activities. With the Pearl Harbor attack and the Battle of Midway previous to the bomb drop, the U.S had a strategy called “Island Hopping.” Although this strategy worked well, with the cost and speed
it was going at, the war would never end in the Pacific, so the U.S made plans to quickly end the war. As well as being the most efficient way to end the conflict, the use of nuclear weapons was also the most effective way. With Japan's defense plan and the potential invasion of Japan by U.S forces, also known as “Operation Downfall,” many more would potentially have died. After having gone through the biggest battle fought in the Pacific, the Battle of Okinawa, the U.S were questioning “Operation Downfall.” The U.S also did it to show other countries their power in order to prevent further wars. The USSR aggression and expansion was a potential threat as they are one of the 3 countries who also had the ability to build atomic bombs. Furthermore, with a politically unstable Europe and the start of the Cold War, the U.S needed to show strength.
December 7th, 1941, was the date which President Roosevelt called “a date that would live in infamy”. It was the date which started the war with America on the Pacific Front. The Japanese forces launched an attack on Pearl Harbor, one of America’s main naval bases, located in Hawaii. Their intended goal or strategy was to hit America rapidly and harshly to make it harder for the U.S to invade the axis powers. The Japanese succeeded destroying everything in the Harbor that day, containing almost all of America’s ships, tanks, and even several planes. What brought Japan to attack Pearl Harbor was the embargo the United States put in place. According to Jeffrey Coker, a historian, when Japan invaded French Indonesia in the effort to ban all imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the U.S, the U.S stopped all trading with Japan. This put Japan in a grievous position as ¾ of Japan’s oil came from the United States. Soon after the embargo Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander of naval forces set a plan to attack Pearl Harbor as revenge. When their plan was put in place the Japanese forces launched dive bombers, torpedo planes and other weapons to the naval base, which made America declare war on Japan the next day. The United States having a huge disadvantage due to the attack which left them with a very low amount of war boats, needed time and money to get back what they lost. As America joined the war Franklin Roosevelt, the current president of the United States, ordered to have 185,000 planes, 120,000 tanks and 18 million deadweight tons of shipping. He wanted them all in a period of two years, which soon led up to America having the greatest army in the world, especially with the increase of employees who joined the forces.
On June 4th, 1942, the Midway Battle was considered as the turning point of the war which ended 3 days later on the 7th of June 1942.
Yamamoto Isoroku came up with a strategy to lure the U.S into a single battle between both countries. Midway Island being the perfect location as it is in the middle of the Pacific, therefore making the distances to travel equal for both countries. To America, the Midway Battle was a battle which would make the Japanese pay for the attack they launched on Pearl Harbor, not even a year before. During the Midway Battle, both countries lost many defenses such as planes, carriers, and destroyers. Despite U.S losses, it was nothing comparing to what Japan lost, which was fatal. The Japanese withdrew from the battle leading America to victory. After the overall losses of the Japanese, they were only able to fight a defensive war as their loss was irreplaceable. Despite the loss of Japan in the Midway Battle they still had occupying forces on almost all the islands between Japan and Midway. But the Midway battle marked the end of the Japanese expansion, which led to the ‘Island Hopping’. ‘Island Hopping’ was a strategy proposed by Chester Nimitz, a U.S admiral, who commanded the Pacific Fleet. The ‘Island Hopping Strategy’ is to go from one island to another in a row instead of always returning to base, it was considered the most effective way to get to Japan as well a being cheaper for the United
States.
On April 1st, 1945, the battle of Okinawa was fought making it the last major battle of World War Two on the Pacific front. As documented by History.com it was the bloodiest battle fought between the U.S and Japan, lasting two months and twenty two days. This invasion was part of an operation which they named ‘Operation Iceberg’ as a code name to planning the battle. When this battle occurred, the war on the European side was close to its end. Okinawa being 60 miles long is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands and had a big importance. Located on the southern tip of Japan between Taiwan and Osumi-Kaikyo the island was at most valuable to the Japanese and was commanded to be held onto at all costs. The Island of Okinawa was the last island to be defeated before the United States reached Japan. From a geographical viewpoint, it was the perfect area for the Japanese as it had high grounds with many forests. Despite the advantages, the stakes for them were high as this loss destroyed Japan. The island was necessary to the U.S for their plan work towards invading Japan. Six weeks after the battle ended the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Island. When U.S troops arrived the island was heavily defended by the Japanese soldiers with two times the number of soldiers the U.S had been expecting. The deaths caused during the battle had significant differences, the U.S had lost about 88,000 deaths less than Japan. Lieutenant General Ushijima ordered a counter-attack on the U.S troops which failed which left Japan helpless. It became obvious to both countries that the United States won the battle which was declared a few days after Japanese commander, Ushijima, committed suicide.
In the mid 1945, it was clear that Japan was near to its end and the U.S where going to attack its mainland. The U.S military commanders were given a task to plan an invasion on Japan to end the Pacific war. MacArthur was made main commander of the whole operation, but had difficulties planning the attack. At first the atomic bomb wasn't taken into consideration since very few people knew about it. According to Mr.Trueman, from History.com, Japan would be hard to invade as they have very few beaches to land on and would therefore be highly defended. The complexity of an invasion would cause many casualties to both sides, so the plan had to be thought out carefully. “Operation Downfall” was a code name for an attack the United States were planning on Japan’s mainland. “Operation Downfall” had two parts, ‘Operation Olympic’ and ‘Operation Coronet’ both being methods which would cause a total of 1.2 million casualties and 267,000 deaths for the United States. This plan was later abandoned as President Truman authorised to use the atomic bomb due to the imminent statistics. The use of the atomic bomb would hopefully make Japan surrender and end the war. On September 2nd, 1945, Japan surrendered to the U.S ending the war on the Pacific front. Dropping the two bombs showed the power of the United States which would hopefully prevent future wars. During the war many families have been destroyed, and many governments have crumbled. When everybody was trying to rebuild their lives, the allies wanted to reshape Europe. Europe was a time with very unstable financial and political difficulties which took long to reconstruct. The dropping of the atomic bomb led to the Cold War between the U.S and the USSR. The Russians spied on the U.S which caused them to find out everything about the atomic bomb. Both countries decided to go in a non violent war as after the Second World War they both had economic difficulties and lost many soldiers and decided it was for the best. When Joseph Stalin, Soviet director during World War Two, died in 1957 the Cold War became more relaxed. After the Soviet Union tried to launch a nuclear attack on America’s cities it was clear to both countries that they weren’t ready to fight with nuclear weapons. In 1963 both countries signed the ‘Nuclear Test-Ban’ Treaty which was an improvement after the U.S didn’t sign the ‘the Geneva Convention’ Treaty which condemned the use of poisonous gas.
The United States had valid reasons to drop the atomic bomb as it was the way to end the war on the Pacific. As well as that, it was the most effective way, and a lesson to other countries to prevent further wars. If America would not have dropped the bombs ‘Operation Downfall’ would have caused much more damage to Japan. Another reason why America had valid reasons is that Japan was the country who started the war on the Pacific. If Japan would not have attacked Pearl Harbor, America would have never declared war on Japan. America gave Japan many chances to surrender, but even after the Midway Battle Japan still fought. Overall, many lives, resources, and money were lost due to an attack on Pearl Harbor made by Japan. Therefore America dropped the bomb for all the right reasons especially with all the devastating events which led up to the bomb drop.