Chapter 24: The United States in World War II section 1: The War in Europe and North Africa The Battle of the Atlantic

The International Military Tribunal, as it was called, was made up of U.S., British, French, and Soviet jurists.

Twenty-two Nazis were tried for war crimes; twelve were sentenced to death; including Herman Goering who committed suicide before his execution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWR2I5Q9d9U

The Japanese were active in the Pacific even before Pearl Harbor. They had invaded China (Rape of Nanking), taken possession of French Indo-China, and fought a brief but unsuccessful war with the Soviet Union in Manchuria (Manchukuo). As a result, the United States imposed sanctions on the Japanese.

That action was intolerable to the Japanese so they began planning for war. The U.S. code breakers had cracked the Japanese diplomatic code and knew that the Japanese were up to no good.

The British and the U.S. could read the messages to some extent but not everything was able to be understood. We knew they were going to move on the oil fields of the Dutch and British, but we were convinced that they could not reach Hawaii for an attack. The Philippines, under the command of Douglas MacArthur were to prepare for the Japanese fleet to attack; the Japanese had to pass the Philippines to get to the Dutch East Indies.

They caught the most of the Pacific fleet in port on a Sunday morning.

Fortunately, the 4 aircraft carriers were not at Pearl that morning. If they had been, the outcome of the war could have been very different.

Ironically Yamamoto promised 6 months of victory, after that defeat.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese seemed to be unstoppable. They took Wake Island and Guam from America. They took Hong Kong, Singapore, Boneo, and Burma from the British. They took the Dutch East Indies from the Netherlands.

They defeated an allied task force in the Battle of Java Sea.

The Japanese were vastly underrated by the Allies early in the war.

The Philippines were attacked shortly after Pearl Harbor. Douglas MacArthur was aware of the state of war which now existed. There were plans, War Plan Orange, for the possible attack on the Philippines-he was to defend at the shore then if necessary withdraw from Manila and offer resistance on the Bataan Peninsula. Food, medicine, and war material was to be stockpiled there.

Incredibly he had his air force on the ground when the Japanese arrived. He lost his air cover as a result. He had not stockpiled enough supplies to last 6 months, as directed, on Bataan.

The men on Bataan and Corregidor were forced to surrender in April, the Japanese had expected to take the Philippines in a month; this greatly upset their time table.

The American and Filipino fighters were forced to walk for 5 days to prisoner of war compounds under severe conditions. They received practically no food or water, if they fell out of line they were killed by the Japanese, any civilians who tried to give them food or water were killed as well. 7,000 to 10,000 men died along the way. This was called the Bataan Death March.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AryZD0k-Iho

The Japanese believed in the Bushido Code which considered anyone who surrendered to be worthless, you must die fighting. That’s why they treated POWs so poorly.