The WAr in the Pacific

Following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese set up an empire that stretched from mainland China to deep in the Pacific Ocean. When the Japaneses invaded the Philippines in 1941, General Douglas MacArthur was in command of 80,000 Allied troops battling the Japanese for control of the islands. The Allied forces were soon overrun however and had to retreat, but not without Gen. MacArthur pledging to return. It took until spring 1942 for the Allies to finally turn the tide against the Japanese, and they succeeded in stopping the Japanese drive to Australia in the five day Battle of the Coral Sea. The fighting in the battle was done exclusively by airplanes that took off from enormous carriers, and not a single shot was fired by the surface ships. It was the first time a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back however since Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese's next move was toward Midway, a strategic island northwest of Hawaii. American codebreakers had already cracked the Japanese code however and were prepared for the attack, Admiral Chester Nimitz led his forces to defend the island. On June 3rd, 1942, Allied scouts found the Japanese fleet with their planes still on the decks of their carriers and sent torpedo planes and dive bombers to attack. The result was devastating and in the words of a Japanese offical, the Americans had "avenged Pearl Harbor." The Battle of Midway proved to be a turning point the in Pacific War, and soon Allies began island hopping and regaining each territory lost to the Japanese.
In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese sent their entire fleet into battle and also tested a new tactic, the kamikaze or suicide-plane. 424 Kamikaze pilots set off on suicide missions in the Philippines, sinking 16 ships and damaging 80 more. Despite this damage the battle was diasterous for Japan, losing almost its entire Imperial Navy ( 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers and 500 planes.) After retaking much of the PhilippineProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

2C the Allies set off towards Iwo Jima, a critical strategic outpost guarded by more than 20,700 Japanese troops. 6,000 Marines died taking the little island, the greatest number lost in the Pacific to that point, while only 200 Japanese survived. Only one island now stood in between the Allies and a final assault on the Japanese mainland, the island of Okinawa. In April 1945, U.S. Marines invaded the island, while the Japanese fired more than 1,900 kamikaze attacks, sinking 30 ships while damaging 300 more. By the end of the battle more than 7,600 Americans had died, but the Japanese paid a much worse price, losing more than 110,000. It was the last battle in the Pacific war due to the decision instead to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan.

By Matt M and Paris

Liberty in 1955

The Civil Rights movement was from 1955 to 1968 where the U.S charged to outlaw racial discrimination against the African Americans. In this society rules were changed for public areas, and transportation but the right to vote was still restricted. African Americans felt that they didn’t receive that much. Soon Congress passed Johnson’s voting Rights of Act in 1965. In this act the literacy test was disqualified. Another movement during the Civil Rights Movement was in 1966. The Black Power Movement aimed to have freedom from oppression by white Americans. Organizations also took place for social equality like the NAACP, SNCC, CORE, and ,SCLC. These groups were called “Southern Freedom Movement. Issues like freedom, respect, dignity, and economic and social equality were worked on. These groups had some protests that were held by this crisis. Boycotts were held and a successful protest was the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 to 1956. This broadened the protests which included “sit-ins” and marches. These protests were also popular because it was protesting in nonviolence.
The Civil Rights Act began when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Then President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged to follow the footsteps of JFK. On July 2, 1964 Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This banned discrimination on race, religion, and gender. Mother acts that restored rights were the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, and Fair Housing Act of 1968. All of these acts banned discrimination on voting, immigrants, and rental of housing on people of color. African Americans soon got their freedom on the rights that they deserve in the Civil Rights Movement. This was the starting point of equality and the change in view points that many people had. It gave liberty to many African Americans.

Mother's Day

Need an Academic Gift Certificate? Here is an easy way to earn one and do someone nice for that special woman in your life. For Mother's Day, write your mom, aunt, or grandma a poem. How about fixing breakfast for her? Burn her a CD full of her kind of music. You don't need to spend any money. Be creative! Ask your mom to send me an email message to tell me what you did for her on Mother's Day. Send the email to msanderson@pausd.org.

Eisenhower's Presidency

As Truman’s approval rating sank lower and lower toward the end of his presidency, the Republican and Democratic parties sought a new candidate to run in the 1952 election. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a WWII General who had become the Supreme Commander of NATO, was a prospective candidate for both parties. Although initially reluctant to pursue the presidency, Eisenhower eventually favored the Republican Party, since he believed the Democrats were placing too much emphasis on a centralized government. Eisenhower ran with Nixon as his vice-president, and won the popular vote.

As Coldwar tensions increased, Eisenhower’s foreign policy continued to put pressure on the Soviet Union. John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s secretary of state, developed a policy of brinkmanship – threatening to use nuclear force against the Soviet Union and any other aggressor nations who continued to spread communism. In addition, Eisenhower also began using the CIA to carry out covert operations against the Soviet Union, such as helping the pro-American Shah of Iran return to power, and toppling the suspected communist government of Guatemala. In 1957, Eisenhower issued the Eisenhower Doctrine, stating that the United States would defend the Middle East against attack from the Soviet Union. This was intended to counter the Soviet Union’s influence in the Middle East, since they had defended Egypt during the Suez War, and had gained popularity with Middle Eastern countries.

In spite of this, after Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev, the new leader of the Soviet Union, favored a more peaceful policy where the United States and Soviet Union remained on generally fair terms with each other. Still, since 1955, the CIA had been spying by sending flights over Soviet territory, and the U-2 plane was used during these missions. By 1960, although Eisenhower wanted these flights discontinued, one last flight took place on May 1, the plane was shot down, and pilot Francis Powers was captured. When confronted by Khrushchev, Eisenhower denied the U-2 had been spying, but eventually he was forced to admit it. However, Eisenhower refused to apologize, and Khruschev called off a summit that would have been held between the United States and the Soviet Union, souring relations between the two powers.



written by: Derek O'Connor