Lesson 14. U.S island hopping to Japan

Question 1

Significance of Guadalcanal

Answer 1

USA saw the potential for bombing raids on Aus + a threat to supply routes in the region as a concern + made
capturing Guadalcanal a top priority

next 6 months a series of land and naval battles would be fought

victory of the Battle of Guadalcanal was decisive in that U.S. positions in the southern Solomons were never again
seriously threatened which helped to secure supply routes to Australia

Question 2

• Reasons for Island Hopping strategy

Answer 2

Aim:
* Cut off Japan’s supply routes to other islands→
Japanese soldiers would become isolated
increasing the likelihood of starvation and
disease
* Get within bombing range of Japanese mainland
* Minimise Allied casualties

Question 3

• Consequences of Battle of Okinawa

Answer 3

• 90% of buildings in Okinawa were destroyed
  Japanese:
• Army casualties 84,166–117,000 Japanese casualties
• Most soldiers left committed suicide rather than surrender (inc General Ushijma)
• 149,425 Okinawan people were killed, died by coerced suicide or went missing
• American (allies):
• 82,000 casualties – (183,000 fought in battle)
• Seven soldiers gained medal of honour – bravery

The brutal nature of the fighting made it clear that invasion of the Japanese mainland would lead to very high
casualties
* During the battle, the Japanese used Kamikaze attacks → 1,465 attacks on the American fifth fleet (36 ships
sunk, 4,900 dead, 4,800 wounded)
* The Allies had a decision to make about what the next step would be → Strategic bombing campaign of Japan
rather than a land invasion

Question 4

Japanese tactics in defending islands

Answer 4

The Japanese adopted a strategy of trying inflict as much damage as possible aim = kill
as many US soldiers as possible before losing territory

• Japan’s army knew they were too weak to hold the island → plan = cause as many
  casualties of US soldiers as possible
• Japan created network of tunnels across the island and heavily fortified the beaches
  with pillboxes + foxholes
• The fighting was brutal with the Japanese using the tunnel network to ambush the