World War II in the Pacific
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

As with its two predecessors, World War II in Eastern Europe and World War II in Western Europe, World War II in the Pacific focuses on the specific events of the Pacific campaign, but even more on the decisions that led to victory. We will carefully examine the pros and cons of the major decisions, the factors in play, and why the final decision was what it turned out to be. We begin at Pearl Harbor, visit China/India/Burma, we discuss the Pacific land and maritime campaigns (MacArthur and Nimitz, respectively), and end with two lectures on the Manhattan Project. We devote one entire lecture to exploring the questions: Why did we use the atomic bomb at all? Why did we use it in the manner we did? Why did we use it when we did? We finish with a detailed lecture on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions.