The Events that Led to, Occurred in, and Ended After World War II
The Great Depression
The Great Depression started after WWI, and was caused by the huge cost of WWI. The end of the war caused new, unstable democracies to arise. For example, the Provisional Government (Russia's attempt at democracy) fell within months to a communist dictatorship. (1) Many times, no party won a majority. In those situations, acoalition government was formed. (1) These coalitions didn't last long because of conflicting ideas. (1)
In Germany, the Weimar Republic came to power. Blamed for the loss in WWI, and without strong democratic traditions, they were weak to begin with. With the cost of the war heavy, Germany, rather than set large taxes, printed more and more money causing large inflation. “in Berlin a loaf of bread cost less than a mark in 1918, more than 160 marks in 1922, and some 200 billion marks by late 1923. People took wheelbarrows full of money to buy food. As a result, many Germans questioned the value of their new democratic government.”(1) In 1923, an American banker named Charles Dawes helped stabilize the German economy by loaning $200 million.(1) By 1925, Germany was in the League of Nations because of their newly signed peace treaty with France. (1) In 1928, the hopes raised by the “spirit of Locarno” led to the Kellogg-Briand peace pact. Frank Kellogg, the U.S. Secretary of State, arranged this agreement with France’s Briand. Almost every country in the world, including the Soviet Union, signed. They pledged “to renounce war as an instrument of national policy.” (1)
In 1929, business was booming. Profits were high, but being distributed unevenly. “60 percent of all American families earned less than $2,000 a year.”(1) With over production, families couldn't buy the products they made. Thus people were laid off, and wages were cut. (1) This became a cycle, and overproduction was a problem for farmers too. Overproduction and low profits made unpaid loans, which in turn made banks weaken and some to even close.(1) "Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression." (2)
Different countries had different approaches to solve this problem. In Britain, they elected a multiparty coalition (the National Government), who increased taxes and regulated the currency. By 1937, unemployment was cut in half.(1) Despite being able to keep their democratic government in the end, France didn't recover like Britain. In 1935, 1 million workers were unemployed.(1) “All the Scandinavian countries raised pensions for the elderly and increased unemployment insurance, subsidies for housing, and other welfare benefits. To pay for these benefits, the governments taxed all citizens. Democracy remained intact”(1) In America, once elected, Roosevelt began a government reform called the new deal. This gave financial aid to those who needed it and created jobs as well. America had kept it's democracy.(1) Rise of Dictators in Europe
Fascism describes an extremely far right wing, nationalistic type of government with one supreme ruler. They had extreme pride for their country, and wanted their country to be the best. They believed that peaceful countries were bound to be taken over. They would wear special uniforms and hold massive rallies. It supports militarism,one party rule, and denies individual rights. Nazism was a fascist movement developed in Germany in the 1920s, and it also promoted racial superiority. After the war, Hitler lived in Munich, Germany. He joined a right wing political group that believed that Germany should overturn the Treaty of Versailles, and that Germany should combat communists. They later would become the Nazis. After a short while, Hitler would become the Leader of the Nazis. He had good speaking and organizational skills. In 1923, a Nazi plan to seize power in Munich was uncovered, and Hitler was put into prison. While in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf. It outlined his plans and goals for Germany. The book stated that the main white race, which he called Aryans, was the superior race in Germany, and that certain other groups, like the Jews, were inferior. He bashed the Treaty of Versailles, and vowed to get Germany more land. (1)
After he was released from prison, he resurrected the Nazi party. Most ignored him, but when the economy failed and Germany went into an economic crisis, civil unrest broke out. Most are fed up with the German government, so they turned to Hitler, who was promising prosperity for Germany. (1)
By 1932, the Nazis were the largest political group in Germany. German conservatives mistakenly thought that they could use Hitler for their agenda, so they made him Chancellor, or Prime Minister. Once in office, Hitler wanted an election to try to get a majority in the Parliament. A few days before the elections, a fire destroyed the Parliament building. Hitler pinned the blame on the communists, and the Nazis had majority. He created the SS, which was basically the Nazi police. They arrested and sometimes killed Hitler's political enemies. He gave many jobs to Germany, and greatly slimmed down the German unemployment rate. He improved infrastructure and the military. (1)
In Italy, fascism was on the rise for similar reasons. In the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Italy did not gain a lot of territory, which fueled bitter disappointment. There was a growing number of Italians, and the Democratic government was not doing much about the problem. This led to social unrest. Then a man named Benito Mussolini spoke up. Much like Hitler, he promised to fix the economy and build up the military. As the situation worsened, more and more people began to support the Italian fascist party, founded by Mussolini in 1919. It soon became popular across Italy. Mussolini spoke out against the Italian government, and his supporters attacked communists and socialists in public. In the fall of 1922, to avoid the end of his Dynasty, King Victor Emmanuel III gave Mussolini power. Italy was now under the power of a dictator. (1)
In Hungary, in 1919, landowners and military officials joined together to end a brief communist regime, and Miklós Horthy, an Admiral, became a dictator. In 1926 in Poland, Jozef Pilsudski seized power. Other eastern-European countries like Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania fell to dictators. In 1935, the only country in Eastern Europe that had a democracy was Czechoslovakia. (1)
The Beginning of WWII
After Japan had felt under militaristic rulers, they quickly got to work by invading Manchuria. Looking for economic prosperity, they hoped to reap the natural resources there. A puppet government was set up in 1931 that allowed Japanese engineers and technicians to build mines and factories. The invasion of Manchuria put a test to the League of Nations, a group that represented countries all over the world. Many League members protested against Japan's invasion, but Japan withdrew from the League in 1933. A couple years later, Japan had gone to war with China and invaded the northern side. Capturing cities like Beijing and even the capital, Nanjing, in 1937, the Japanese was expanding its empire. (1.)
Other nations would also face invasions by the future Axis alliance. Italy was aiming to invade Ethiopia, one of three independent nations. In the 1890s, Ethiopia had warded Italy off from their conquest, but Mussolini planned to get his revenge. Mussolini ordered an invasion of Ethiopia in October 1935, and their weaponry outmatched the technology the Ethiopians had.
Despite a call for help by Ethiopia, the League of Nations simply condemned the attack. They had hoped non-action would keep the peace in Europe. This was one example of appeasement that would have hopefully prevented war from occurring in Europe. (1.)
In March of 1935, Hitler publicly announced his plans of ignoring the statutes of the Treaty of Versailles. One of the clauses the treaty imposed on Germany was that German troops were forbidden to march on the Rhineland, a buffer that separated Germany and France. On March 7, 1936, Hitler stunned the French by moving into Rhineland. France was unwilling to risk war from this break in the treaty. Britain appeased to Hitler to keep peace. He later admitted he would've stepped down had he been challenged by both of them. Unopposed, Hitler's goal was set into starting an invasion over Western Europe. He had strengthened his power and prestige in Germany, France and Belgium were open targets, and the petty responses by France and Britain allowed him to speed up military expansion. In October of 1936, Mussolini and Hitler reached an agreement known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. A month later, Japan joined, and they became known as the Axis Powers. (1.)
Major Battles in WWII
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain took place over the skies of the UK in the summer and early fall of 1940. By June 17th, 1940, France was out of the war. Britain was now the only thing that stood in the way of Hitler taking over western Europe. Winston Churchill refused to negotiate, and kept on fighting. Britain had outstanding air defense, and a strong air force. Germany had an air force called the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe was heavily damaged from bombing campaigns in the west. After Churchill refused to surrender, the Luftwaffe began to bomb Royal Air Force radar sites, but sustained more losses. In September, London was bombed, the Luftwaffe sustained heavy losses. Hitler postponed a land invasion of London, and the Battle of Britain ceased. (5.)
The Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad took place in Stalingrad, USSR. It lasted from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history. The combined casualties of civilians and military add up to almost two million dead. Stalingrad is a key city due to its location on the Volga River, and it was also very industrial and key to transportation. When the German forces fought to the outskirts of the city in September, they expected an easy victory, which was not the case. The Soviets had built up their defenses, and brought in reinforcements. The Germans fought to the center of the city, but this was urban warfare, so many Soviets hid and fought in the vast industrial area. When winter began the Nazis were short on food and ammunition. The Soviets launched a counter attack in November, circling the enemy. Hitler ordered his men to hold their ground, and as a result many Nazis died. At the end, the remaining 91,000 Germans surrendered, and an estimated quarter million Germans were killed in the fighting. The German advance on the USSR was halted, and the Soviets remained most on the offensive for the rest of the war. (5.)
The Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was fought in the Ardennes. In an attempt to disrupt supply lines and separate the Allies into two, Hitler launched a counteroffensive. The Allies had a miscalculation, so the Ardennes were lightly defended. On December 16, 1944, German troops and takes desperately fought the Americans, who were caught completely off guard. As the fighting went on, the Germans fought deeper into the Ardennes, but the Allies held off a strong line, which looked like a bulge, hence the name. Because of the bravery of American soldiers, and a German fuel shortage, the Germans retreated. 100,000 US soldiers were killed. Though it was costly, the Battle of the Bulge was a victory for the Allies, one of the last big offensives made by Hitler. (5.)
The Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was fought in Berlin, between the Soviet army and the Nazis.It was fought between April and May 1945. The Soviets shelled Berlin for almost a month, and then they sent their ground units in. The Germans scraped up whatever they could to fight back. Women and children fought alongside Nazi troops. The defense did not hold long, and Hitler had committed suicide in late April. The Germans surrendered to the USSR on May 2nd. They surrendered unconditionally on May 8th. (5.)
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The Island of Iwo Jima located in Japan is incredibly small, but it had great strategic importance. The US could use the airfields for bombing campaigns on Japan. Japan knew of the importance of this island, so they put 22,000 troops to defend it. Before troops landed on February 19th, 1945, the defenses were bombed by US bombers. When the Marines landed on the Shores, they took heavy casualties, and discovered that the bombs were not too effective. The Japanese fought very viciously. By the end of the battle on May 27, only 217 surrendered to the US troops. The rest either committed suicide or fought to their deaths. The Marines lost nearly 7,000 men, and 18,000 wounded. (5.)
US Marines receive communion from a Chaplin the island of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Okinawa
Okinawa is an Island near the southern tip of Japan. It was vital to the United States because it had four airfields, and it's close proximity to Japan. There were over 130,000 Japanese troops on the island with more than 450,000 civilians. By March 31st, a landing force had secured its position. On April 1st, Marines hit the north end of the Island and met little fighting until they came to the south tip of the Island. At the end of the battle, there was an American victory, but another costly one. The Americans lost 7,373 men in the fighting and 32,056 were wounded on land. At sea, the Americans lost around 5,000 men and 4,600 would be wounded. The Japanese lost 107,000 fighters and only 7,400 men were taken prisoner. The Americans lost 36 ships at sea, due to suicide attacks, or kamikazes. 368 American ships were also damaged. 763 total American aircraft were destroyed. The Japanese lost 16 ships. Over 4,000 Japanese aircraft was also destroyed. (5.)
Japan's Role in WWII
In 1922, Japan had signed an international treaty to respect China's borders. It also signed the Kellogg-Briand pact to renounce war. Had the great depression not happened, the civilian government of Japan at the time might have stayed, but in 1929, military leaders took control. The symbol of power stayed with the emperor. (1)
In 1931, Japan seized China's Manchuria. The large amount of resources made it a good place to start up mines and factories. In 1933, Japan left the League of Nations. 4 years later, Japan and China went to war. Despite outnumbering them, Japan defeated China's poorly equipped and poorly trained army in northern China. China continued to fight back. This caused a strain on Japan's economy, so they looked to conquer European colonies of SE Asia. (1)
In October of 1940, the Americans had cracked a code that he Japanese were using to send secret messages. They knew about Japan's plan to expand. In order to halt Japan, the US sent resources over to China, and when Japan overran French Indochina, they halted all oil shipments to Japan. Despite the loss of oil for Japan, they planned to take Europe and America by surprise. (1)
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was under attack. US leaders knew of an attack, but not where or when. Within 2 hours, 19 ships had been sunk or heavily damaged. 2,300 Americans were killed, and 1,100 were wounded. The president and Congress decided to make a declaration of war on Japan. During the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan bombed Hong Kong, Guam, and Wake Island. (1)
On January of 1942, Japan marched onto Manila, the capital of Philippine. After three months of fighting, the Bataan peninsula fell, and Corregidor feel the following month. Japan had also continued to conquer British owned territories in Asia. By February of 1942, Japan had reached Singapore after invading Malay and Thailand. Within a month, Japan had the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes. They also launched an attack on Burma, planning to take India next. (1)
Cruelty prevailed in Japanese owned lands. For example, the Japanese had considered it dishonorable to surrender, so prisoners of war were charged with horrible things, like in Bataan, the Bataan Death March was a forced march of more than 50 miles up the peninsula. “I was questioned by a Japanese officer, who found out that I had been in a Philippine Scout Battalion. The [Japanese] hated the Scouts. . . . Anyway, they took me outside and I was forced to watch as they buried six of my Scouts alive. They made the men dig their own graves, and then had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the head with shovels to stun them and piled earth on top. - LIEUTENANT JOHN SPAINHOWER, quoted in War Diary 1939–1945” (1)
In April, 1942, the US sent 16 B-25 bombers to bomb Tokyo as well as other small Japanese cities. Although they did little, physical damage, the mental damage shook the Japanese and boosted moral in the States. When Japan's strike force headed for Port Moresby in New Guinea, American and Australian forces halted the advancement of Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea. On June 4, 1942, Japan attacked Midway Island. Hidden, American ships allowed them to attack, while Japan was focus on the island. American planes had destroyed 332 Japanese planes, 4 aircraft carriers and a support ship. (10
O August 7 of 1942, US Marines with the help of Australian forces raided Guadalcanal, after they learned of a huge airbase being built there. The Battle of Guadalcanal had made both sides suffered heavy losses, but on February 1942, Japan had abandoned the island, now dubbed "the Island of Death." (1)
“By the fall of 1944, the Allies were moving in on Japan. In October, Allied forces landed on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been ordered to leave the islands before their surrender in May 1942, waded ashore at Leyte with his troops. On reaching the beach, he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned.” (1) The Japanese planned to make a take over not quite as easy. they made a plan to destroy the incoming American fleet. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese were destroyed within four days. On Mach 1945, after a month of fighting, the Americans took Iwo Jima, an island 760 miles from Tokyo, and on June 21, the US had conquered Okinawa.
The next stop for America was Japan itself. Truman's advisers told him that an invasion of mainland Japan might cost 500,000 lives. His other option was to use an atomic bomb. After atomic bomb testing in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, Truman warned the Japanese to surrender, but received no response. On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later, Nagasaki. In total, 210,000 deaths were responsible for the bombings. The Japanese finally surrendered, and the end of the war came.
U.S. Involvement
While Europe was in Chaos, most of the citizens in the United States believed that the US should stay out of the war. Between the years of 1935 and 1937 Congress passed the Neutrality Acts, making it illegal to give arms or money to the warring nations. The United States President Roosevelt thought that if the Allied forces were defeated, the United States would be forced to enter the war. In 1939, Congress allowed ships to be brought by the Allies. The Lend-Lease act, passed in 1941, allowed for arms and other various supplies to be lent to any country considered to be vital to the United States. By this time, the US was not at war. However, President Roosevelt and the Prime Minister of England Winston Churchill had meetings in private. The made the Atlantic Charter. It upheld free trade and and the right of people to choose their government. On September 2nd, a German U-boat fired on a US destroyer. President Roosevelt ordered Naval Commanders to attack German Submarines on sight, this causing a undeclared Naval war against the Nazis. They United States was not officially at war, but an event that took place on December 7th, 1941, would change all that. (1)
Just before 8:00, local Hawaiian time, United States Sailors stationed at a base called Pearl Harbor awoke to an attack. That day would be a day of infamy. Japanese planes rampaged the base for about two hours, but the losses were stunning.(2)
This table shows the statistics of the devastation of the attack.(2)
US losses and wounded
Lost/Totally destroyed
Wounded/Damaged
Ships
3
9
Naval personnel
1998
710
Marine personnel
109
69
Army personnel
233
364
Civilians
48
35
Aircraft
164
159
The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war on Japan. Congress accepted, and now the US went to
war. At the same time as Pearl Harbor was being attacked, the Japanese were leading attacks on Hong Kong, Thailand, and Guam, making footholds throughout the Pacific. At around the time of the attack, the United States military had grown to 2.2 million soldiers. Pearl Harbor was an inspiration for many young men to join the service. Most of the people who ended up fighting were drafted. In late 1942, a draft was enforced. All men between the ages of 18 and 64 were required to sign up for the draft. At the end of the war 10 million men would be drafted. (2)
The first main US military offensive of World War two was Operation Torch, the United States invasion of North Africa. It took place in November of 1942. As a result, the German troops were pushed to Tunisia, and surrendered in May of 1943. The US also took part in Operation Husky, which was launched in July 1943. The goal was to invade mainland Italy. The United States forces captured Rome on June 4, 1944. The US also fought in the Pacific. Japanese control spread like wildfire throughout the Pacific. They took over Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Burma. By 1942, the Australian forces were able to halt the advance of Japanese forces. The turning point finally came after the US battle of Midway in June of 1942. The Japanese sustained heavy Naval losses, and it was a strong victory for the US. The United states gained ground due to a strong air force and Navy. The US continued to go through the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal. The Allied forces took back islands in the Pacific one by one, but the Japanese kept their foothold in mainland China. By late 1944, British forces took back Burma and the US liberated the Philippines. As a result, the US launched heavy bombing campaigns on Japan. After the famous battles and invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the US closed in on the Japanese main home islands. The war didn't end until the Atomic bombs were dropped.(1)
In Europe by May of 1944, an invading force built in secret by the Allies was ready to move in. The Germans expected an attack, but did not know where it would be. To confuse the Nazis, the Allied forces set up a dummy force near the French seaport of Calais, but the real invasion was happening on the beaches of Normandy. On June 6, 1944, US, Canadian, British and French troops fought on a 60 mile wide stretch of beach. The Germans still fought back, and the US alone lost 2,700 men, but the operation was a success. After all the fighting was finished, Allied troops continued to stream in for the next month, one million soldiers in total. The victory at the battle of Saint-Lo gave the Allies a strong foothold, as well as punching a hole in the German defense. The next month, the Allied forces marched into Paris. By September, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium had been liberated. Hitler had became a little paranoid at this point, so he launched a counter attack on December 16. German tanks broke through a weak stretch of United States controlled land in the Ardennes. Fighting broke out, but the US troops were able to push back the German tanks. With little left, the Germans retreated. This battle would become known as the battle of the Bulge, a strong turning point in the war. In March 1945, the Allies marched into Rhineland, and by April, about three million allies had approached Berlin from the southwest. While Berlin was crumbling, Hitler committed suicide on April 29, and the Germans had surrendered to the US on May 7, 1945. The Japanese would surrender on September 2, 1945, bringing the US out of a bloody war.(2)
The Holocaust
Adolf Hitler, in an attempt to gain support for his ideals, turned to persecute the Jews. There had been deep contempt for the Jewish population over the course of European history. Some Germans had blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I and for the economic problems during the war. In between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi party passed legislation that infringed on the rights of the Jewish people. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Six years of Nazi-sponsored legislation had marginalized and disenfranchised Germany's Jewish citizenry and had expelled Jews from the professions and from commercial life. By early 1939, only about 16 percent of Jewish breadwinners had steady employment of any kind" (Pa. 2). (3.)
These inducted laws would cause harsher punishments on the Jews. On November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan had shot a German diplomat in Paris after receiving word that his father was deported to Poland. Why he shot the diplomat was to avenge his father. The Nazis used this incident as a leverage to commit violent attacks on the Jewish community. On November 9, Nazi soldiers ransacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues in Germany and Austria and had slain about 100 Jews. Later they gathered 30,000 Jews that were sent into concentration camps. Many of the captured died in these camps. This reign of terror became known as Kristallinacht (The Night of Broken Glass). Fearing for their lives, German Jews emigrated to other countries to escape the persecution by the Nazi-controlled Germany. Many had been able to flee safely, but as the war would soon prove, Germany would be conquering nearby countries that they found refuge in. Even countries like France, Britain, and the United States had to close their borders after admitting tens of thousands of Jewish refugees. (1.)
For the Germans, the chance of getting rid of the Jews by emigration wasn't resulting in a great success. Hitler moved to an alternate decision by herding the Jews into segregated areas known as ghettos. Each Jew was labeled with a yellow Star of David patch that would help Nazis identify them. The ghettos were there to starve them to death or be afflicted by disease. However, the Jews hung by threads in being under these conditions. Jews formed resistance organizations and managed to keep hold of their culture. (1.)
The fight to exterminate the Jewish population went to the point of committing genocide on the population. Hitler conducted the plan known as the "Final Solution" that would ensure the deaths of many people. Nazi troops went around Eastern Europe and their controlled territory of the Soviet Union to hunt down Jews. Families were escorted by the SS, Hitler's security force, to isolated pits where they were shot to death in their own future graves. The Jews that didn't perish under firing squads would face intense labor and poor conditions in concentration camps in Germany and Poland. The prisoners were forced to act as slaves and were treated with undernourishment. They continued to experience an extreme struggle against a regime that persecuted. In 1942, the Jews faced a mass atrocity in the form of gas chambers. Prisoners arrived in camps like Auschwitz where these camps were outfitted in these devices. At least 6,000 human beings could be killed a day as cyanide gas poured from shower heads or holes in the ceiling; all were killed in minutes. The bodies were soon burned in mass crematoriums. (1.)
Some six million European Jews died in the camps and in the Nazi massacres after World War II. Fewer than four million had survived the torment and were traumatized by what they witnessed. Many of the survivors were helped by non-Jewish people who risked their lives. (1.)
The Allied Victory
The allies successfully fought off the Germans in the Mediterranean Front and on the Eastern Front. After German General Erwin Rommel took Tobruk, Libya in 1942, British General Bernard Montgomery was sent to take control of the British forces. He devised a massive frontal attack after the Germans advanced to El Amein. On the night of October 23, the Battle of El Alamein began with 1,000 British guns surprising the Axis soldiers. The fight ensued for days until November 4 when Rommel fell back. However Rommel’s Afrika Korps were soon defeated in May 1943 when Dwight D. Eisenhower led 100,000 troops to intercept them. (1.)
While the battle in Africa was raging on, German troops in the East was outplayed by the Soviet Union. German advance was stalled at Leningrad and Moscow in late 1941 with a bitter winter. On the summer of 1942, Hitler sent his Sixth army led by General Friedrich Paulus. His goal was to capture Stalingrad, a major industrial center. The Battle of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942 with the Luftwaffe going on nightly bombing raids. Despite being hard hit with fire and explosions, commanders were told by Stalin to continue defending the city; Germany had taken control of 90 percent. Soviet troops on November 19 launched a counterattack that isolated the Germans and their supply line. On February 1943, German troops had surrendered to the Soviets. The cost of lives for the USSR was much more than the Germans. Over one million Soviet lives to 240,000 German lives.
Stalin wanted Britain and the United States to invade France, but Roosevelt and Churchill chose to attack Italy first. Allied forces landed July 10, 1943 in an Axis-controlled Sicily and captured the territory. This loss of territory was able to topple Mussolini’s power. The dictator was arrested on July 25 by King Victor Emmanuel III and Italy surrendered on September 3. However, the Germans seized Northern Italy with Mussolini back in power. The Germans retreated as the Allies moved northward to Rome on June 4, 1944. German soldiers would lose in May 1945. Mussolini meanwhile was disguised as a German soldier to remain hidden but he was discovered in a truck on April 27, 1945 by Italian resistance fighters and was shot the next day. (1.)
Americans living in the United States did not suffer invasion or bombing--except for Hawaii--unlike countries like the Soviet Union and Great Britain. However, they were crucial in the Allied war effort. American factories converted their peacetime operations to wartime production to produce military weapons like guns and boots. For example, automobile plants were producing tanks. The increase in wartime production shortened supply of consumer goods. The American government placed rationing policies to conserve resources. Even effective propaganda campaigns were put in place in Allied governments to grow the war effort. Soviet and American citizens gave to the government to help replenish war supplies.
However the propaganda campaigns were not kind to all. Negative propaganda affected the way Japanese Americans, who were living on Hawaii and the west coast, were viewed. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued an executive order that called for internment of Japanese Americans. In March, the military rounded up Japanese Americans and relocated them to camps; the thought was that it would prevent them from assisting in Japanese invasions. However, two-thirds of the interned were Nisei, or native-born Americans. Many volunteered for service and fought bravely for the United States even with their families remaining in the camps.
The Allies were secretly building an invasion force in Great Britain in 1943 that would launch an attack on German-controlled France across the English Channel. By May 1944, Operation Overlord would be the largest land and sea attack in history. Dwight D. Eisenhower led the charge and planned the strike on the coast of Normandy. The Germans were aware of an attack was to come, but were unsure where. The Allies devised a trick by setting up a dummy army that would “attack” the French seaport of Calais. On June 6, 1944, D-Day began. British, American, French, and Canadian troops fought their way through a 60-mile stretch of beach in Normandy and were met with German resistance. About 2,700 American soldiers died on the beaches. However within a month, one million additional troops landed and penetrated German defenses near Saint-Lô. General George Patton led the United States Third Army, and the army and the Allies marched into Paris. They soon liberated France, Belgium, and Luxembourg by September. (1.)
Allied forces marched towards Germany from the west and the Soviets marched from the East. Hitler made a desperate gamble by launching a counterattack in the west. The hope in winning was to split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. On December 16, German tanks broke through American defenses in the Ardennes. This force-through became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The Allies would eventually push the Germans back, making them retreat. Three million Allied soldiers approached Berlin from the southwest and six million Soviet troops approached from the east by the middle of April. The Soviets surrounded Berlin by April 25, 1945 and pounded the city with artillery fire. (1.)
Hitler and his partner, Eva Braun, married on April 29, but soon committed suicide the next day while Soviets were firing over Berlin. On May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich from the German military. Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor after he passed, received word and on May 9, an official surrender was signed in Berlin. (1.)
The War in the Pacific had been moving to a close as Allied troops were closing on Japanese troops. In October 1944, Allied forces landed on Leyte; the Japanese had a plan to stop the Allied advance by preventing the Allies from resupplying ground troops. On October 23, the Battle of the Leyte Gulf tested their battle strategy. However, the Japanese navy lost disastrously with it being eliminated as a fighting force. Kamikazes, or Japanese suicide pilots, and the Japanese army were left to fight against the Allies. In March 1945, American Marines captured Iwo Jima after suffering a month from bitter fighting and heavy losses. On April 1, the troops advanced towards Okinawa where the Japanese put up a fight. On June 21, the battle ended with the Japanese losing 100,000 troops while American troops lost 12,000. (1.)
Allied troops were close to Japan, but starting a full-scale invasion would cost half a million lives to be lost. President Truman made had to make a decision on how the Allies should move forward. There was the newly created atomic bomb that could be deployed on Japanese soil. Before Truman allowed permission, he warned the Japanese of its destruction, but the Japanese “ignored” the comment. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that would lead to between 70,000 and 80,000 deaths. On August 9, a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki and 70,000 more people were killed. Many would be killed from the subsequent nuclear fallout. After this attack, the Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2. (1.)
Mokusatsu (黙殺)
"The Potsdam Proclamation, in my opinion, is just a rehash of the Cairo Declaration, and the government therefore does not consider it of great importance. We must mokusatsu it." -Kantaro Suzuki
The statement above, especially the word mokusatsu, might have changed the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan and it is debated. Prior to the dropping of the atomic bombs on August 1945, there were talks among the American personnel on how they should end the War on the Pacific. One of the suggested ideas was for an invasion into Japan. However a factor that was taken into account was the estimated casualty rate if an invasion were to occur. Secretary of War Henry Stimson believed that the invasion should be an avoided decision. For many in the war in the Pacific, the war wanted to be ended quickly as Allied victory was certain. Ending the war not by invasion would spare lives and not turn Japan into a blood-filled and hopeless battlefield. (4.)
For the Allies, the solution to this was conducted by Stimson. Its plan was to deliver a series of “systematic shocks”. That way, the militarists had to be forced to lay down their arms. If the “shocks” didn't force Japan to surrender, there was still an invasion planned in mind. The Allies’ plan of shocking Japan first was using B-29 Super-fortresses to firebomb Tokyo with incendiary weapons on the financial, commercial, and government directions. B-29s continued their attacks by attacking Yokohama while raids in Osaka and Kobe began. Subsequent events soon followed that placed Japan in a perilous position like Japanese ships being destroyed and Stalin entering the Pacific War to also bring surprise if needed. (4.)
The biggest shock that the Allies brought in was an Atomic bomb. Scientists were able to ensure a bomb would be ready by August after the first testing in Alamogordo. Before the bomb was to be dropped, the Potsdam Proclamation was sent to Japan on July 26, 1945 that warned Tokyo of a destructive power that would land on Japan. Kantaro Suzuki would later respond with a statement that had the word that would make the Allies’ decision: Mokusatsu. (4.)
Mokusatsu was a Japanese word that had two different interpretations. One was “silence” and the other was “not worthy of comment”. The interpretation that was translated for the international media was “silence”. In this context, Japan has officially turned down the surrender ultimatum proposed by the Allies. This interpretation would trigger the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; then later, Nagasaki. (4.)
Europe and Japan in Ruins
After the end of World War II, a destroyed landscape tore throughout Europe. Cities like Paris, Rome, and Brussels were not very damaged over the course of the war, but in cities such as London, Warsaw, and Berlin, there were ruins above once standing buildings. Citizens caught in the middle of the war tried to get on with their lives whether it was living in partially destroyed homes or in makeshift shelters. A large number of people took to the roads and these included concentration camp survivors, prisoners of war, and displaced citizens. The misery in Europe continued for years. (1.)
Postwar governments like Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway had returned to prewar power. A return to old leadership in Germany, Italy, and France, however, wasn’t conceivable. The old leadership was in disgrace for how they acted during the war. The rise in Communist party membership was also an alarming fact. They stepped up and staged violent strikes to speed up a political takeover. Votes in France and Italy responded by voting anticommunist parties. After their economies steadily rose, Communist membership declined. (1.)
In 1945 and 1946, an International Military Tribunal put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg Germany. 22 were charged with waging a war of aggression and “crimes against humanity.” Out of all the high-ranking Nazi leaders, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, and several others stood to face charges. Others like Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels committed suicide.
In the east, Allied-occupied Japan started a process of demilitarization led by Douglas MacArthur. The Japanese military was reduced to a small police force, to ensure peace. The Allies made sure to strip Japan of its colonial empire after Japan surrendered. MacArthur would also bring Japanese war criminals to trial. Hideki Tojo and six others were sentenced to be hanged out of 25 people. Another process was put in place called democratization which would create a government elected by the people. In February 1946, MacArthur and American political advisers created a new constitution that changed Japan’s government into a constitutional monarchy. This plan was accepted and went into effect on May 3, 1947. This constitution gave people above the age of 20, including women, to vote and a bill of rights that would protect basic freedoms. More importantly an article was added that stated the Japanese could no longer make war and only fight if attacked. (1.)
Japanese society had changed after occupation. The emperor was no longer viewed as divine and had his political power reduced to become a figurehead. The control over the people now became a two-house parliament known as the Diet. The main leader of Japan was now a prime minister chosen by a majority of the Diet. In an effort to further democratization, MacArthur put a plan that required absentee landlords to sell huge estates of land to the government, who would sell it to farmers, and he also pushed reforms that gave workers a right to create labor unions. In September 1951, the United States and 47 other nations signed a formal peace treaty with Japan, and six months later, occupation ended. Because they had no military, the Japanese agreed to continue United States military presence. (1.)
References
(1.) World History Patterns of Interaction
(2.) History.com
(3.) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.org)
(4.) National Security Agency (www.nsa.gov)
(5.) History Learning Site (www.historylearningsite.co.uk)
The Events that Led to, Occurred in, and Ended After World War II
The Great Depression
The Great Depression started after WWI, and was caused by the huge cost of WWI. The end of the war caused new, unstable democracies to arise. For example, the Provisional Government (Russia's attempt at democracy) fell within months to a communist dictatorship. (1) Many times, no party won a majority. In those situations, acoalition government was formed. (1) These coalitions didn't last long because of conflicting ideas. (1)
In Germany, the Weimar Republic came to power. Blamed for the loss in WWI, and without strong democratic traditions, they were weak to begin with. With the cost of the war heavy, Germany, rather than set large taxes, printed more and more money causing large inflation. “in Berlin a loaf of bread cost less than a mark in 1918, more than 160 marks in 1922, and some 200 billion marks by late 1923. People took wheelbarrows full of money to buy food. As a result, many Germans questioned the value of their new democratic government.”(1) In 1923, an American banker named Charles Dawes helped stabilize the German economy by loaning $200 million.(1) By 1925, Germany was in the League of Nations because of their newly signed peace treaty with France. (1) In 1928, the hopes raised by the “spirit of Locarno” led to the Kellogg-Briand peace pact. Frank Kellogg, the U.S. Secretary of State, arranged this agreement with France’s Briand. Almost every country in the world, including the Soviet Union, signed. They pledged “to renounce war as an instrument of national policy.” (1)
In 1929, business was booming. Profits were high, but being distributed unevenly. “60 percent of all American families earned less than $2,000 a year.”(1) With over production, families couldn't buy the products they made. Thus people were laid off, and wages were cut. (1) This became a cycle, and overproduction was a problem for farmers too. Overproduction and low profits made unpaid loans, which in turn made banks weaken and some to even close.(1) "Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression." (2)
Different countries had different approaches to solve this problem. In Britain, they elected a multiparty coalition (the National Government), who increased taxes and regulated the currency. By 1937, unemployment was cut in half.(1) Despite being able to keep their democratic government in the end, France didn't recover like Britain. In 1935, 1 million workers were unemployed.(1) “All the Scandinavian countries raised pensions for the elderly and increased unemployment insurance, subsidies for housing, and other welfare benefits. To pay for these benefits, the governments taxed all citizens. Democracy remained intact”(1) In America, once elected, Roosevelt began a government reform called the new deal. This gave financial aid to those who needed it and created jobs as well. America had kept it's democracy.(1)
Rise of Dictators in Europe
Fascism describes an extremely far right wing, nationalistic type of government with one supreme ruler. They had extreme pride for their country, and wanted their country to be the best. They believed that peaceful countries were bound to be taken over. They would wear special uniforms and hold massive rallies. It supports militarism,one party rule, and denies individual rights. Nazism was a fascist movement developed in Germany in the 1920s, and it also promoted racial superiority. After the war, Hitler lived in Munich, Germany. He joined a right wing political group that believed that Germany should overturn the Treaty of Versailles, and that Germany should combat communists. They later would become the Nazis. After a short while, Hitler would become the Leader of the Nazis. He had good speaking and organizational skills. In 1923, a Nazi plan to seize power in Munich was uncovered, and Hitler was put into prison. While in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf. It outlined his plans and goals for Germany. The book stated that the main white race, which he called Aryans, was the superior race in Germany, and that certain other groups, like the Jews, were inferior. He bashed the Treaty of Versailles, and vowed to get Germany more land. (1)
After he was released from prison, he resurrected the Nazi party. Most ignored him, but when the economy failed and Germany went into an economic crisis, civil unrest broke out. Most are fed up with the German government, so they turned to Hitler, who was promising prosperity for Germany. (1)
By 1932, the Nazis were the largest political group in Germany. German conservatives mistakenly thought that they could use Hitler for their agenda, so they made him Chancellor, or Prime Minister. Once in office, Hitler wanted an election to try to get a majority in the Parliament. A few days before the elections, a fire destroyed the Parliament building. Hitler pinned the blame on the communists, and the Nazis had majority. He created the SS, which was basically the Nazi police. They arrested and sometimes killed Hitler's political enemies. He gave many jobs to Germany, and greatly slimmed down the German unemployment rate. He improved infrastructure and the military. (1)
In Italy, fascism was on the rise for similar reasons. In the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Italy did not gain a lot of territory, which fueled bitter disappointment. There was a growing number of Italians, and the Democratic government was not doing much about the problem. This led to social unrest. Then a man named Benito Mussolini spoke up. Much like Hitler, he promised to fix the economy and build up the military. As the situation worsened, more and more people began to support the Italian fascist party, founded by Mussolini in 1919. It soon became popular across Italy. Mussolini spoke out against the Italian government, and his supporters attacked communists and socialists in public. In the fall of 1922, to avoid the end of his Dynasty, King Victor Emmanuel III gave Mussolini power. Italy was now under the power of a dictator. (1)
In Hungary, in 1919, landowners and military officials joined together to end a brief communist regime, and Miklós Horthy, an Admiral, became a dictator. In 1926 in Poland, Jozef Pilsudski seized power. Other eastern-European countries like Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania fell to dictators. In 1935, the only country in Eastern Europe that had a democracy was Czechoslovakia. (1)
The Beginning of WWII
After Japan had felt under militaristic rulers, they quickly got to work by invading Manchuria. Looking for economic prosperity, they hoped to reap the natural resources there. A puppet government was set up in 1931 that allowed Japanese engineers and technicians to build mines and factories. The invasion of Manchuria put a test to the League of Nations, a group that represented countries all over the world. Many League members protested against Japan's invasion, but Japan withdrew from the League in 1933. A couple years later, Japan had gone to war with China and invaded the northern side. Capturing cities like Beijing and even the capital, Nanjing, in 1937, the Japanese was expanding its empire. (1.)Other nations would also face invasions by the future Axis alliance. Italy was aiming to invade Ethiopia, one of three independent nations. In the 1890s, Ethiopia had warded Italy off from their conquest, but Mussolini planned to get his revenge. Mussolini ordered an invasion of Ethiopia in October 1935, and their weaponry outmatched the technology the Ethiopians had.
Despite a call for help by Ethiopia, the League of Nations simply condemned the attack. They had hoped non-action would keep the peace in Europe. This was one example of appeasement that would have hopefully prevented war from occurring in Europe. (1.)
In March of 1935, Hitler publicly announced his plans of ignoring the statutes of the Treaty of Versailles. One of the clauses the treaty imposed on Germany was that German troops were forbidden to march on the Rhineland, a buffer that separated Germany and France. On March 7, 1936, Hitler stunned the French by moving into Rhineland. France was unwilling to risk war from this break in the treaty. Britain appeased to Hitler to keep peace. He later admitted he would've stepped down had he been challenged by both of them. Unopposed, Hitler's goal was set into starting an invasion over Western Europe. He had strengthened his power and prestige in Germany, France and Belgium were open targets, and the petty responses by France and Britain allowed him to speed up military expansion. In October of 1936, Mussolini and Hitler reached an agreement known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. A month later, Japan joined, and they became known as the Axis Powers. (1.)
Major Battles in WWII
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain took place over the skies of the UK in the summer and early fall of 1940. By June 17th, 1940, France was out of the war. Britain was now the only thing that stood in the way of Hitler taking over western Europe. Winston Churchill refused to negotiate, and kept on fighting. Britain had outstanding air defense, and a strong air force. Germany had an air force called the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe was heavily damaged from bombing campaigns in the west. After Churchill refused to surrender, the Luftwaffe began to bomb Royal Air Force radar sites, but sustained more losses. In September, London was bombed, the Luftwaffe sustained heavy losses. Hitler postponed a land invasion of London, and the Battle of Britain ceased. (5.)
The Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad took place in Stalingrad, USSR. It lasted from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history. The combined casualties of civilians and military add up to almost two million dead. Stalingrad is a key city due to its location on the Volga River, and it was also very industrial and key to transportation. When the German forces fought to the outskirts of the city in September, they expected an easy victory, which was not the case. The Soviets had built up their defenses, and brought in reinforcements. The Germans fought to the center of the city, but this was urban warfare, so many Soviets hid and fought in the vast industrial area. When winter began the Nazis were short on food and ammunition. The Soviets launched a counter attack in November, circling the enemy. Hitler ordered his men to hold their ground, and as a result many Nazis died. At the end, the remaining 91,000 Germans surrendered, and an estimated quarter million Germans were killed in the fighting. The German advance on the USSR was halted, and the Soviets remained most on the offensive for the rest of the war. (5.)
The Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was fought in the Ardennes. In an attempt to disrupt supply lines and separate the Allies into two, Hitler launched a counteroffensive. The Allies had a miscalculation, so the Ardennes were lightly defended. On December 16, 1944, German troops and takes desperately fought the Americans, who were caught completely off guard. As the fighting went on, the Germans fought deeper into the Ardennes, but the Allies held off a strong line, which looked like a bulge, hence the name. Because of the bravery of American soldiers, and a German fuel shortage, the Germans retreated. 100,000 US soldiers were killed. Though it was costly, the Battle of the Bulge was a victory for the Allies, one of the last big offensives made by Hitler. (5.)
The Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was fought in Berlin, between the Soviet army and the Nazis.It was fought between April and May 1945. The Soviets shelled Berlin for almost a month, and then they sent their ground units in. The Germans scraped up whatever they could to fight back. Women and children fought alongside Nazi troops. The defense did not hold long, and Hitler had committed suicide in late April. The Germans surrendered to the USSR on May 2nd. They surrendered unconditionally on May 8th. (5.)
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The Island of Iwo Jima located in Japan is incredibly small, but it had great strategic importance. The US could use the airfields for bombing campaigns on Japan. Japan knew of the importance of this island, so they put 22,000 troops to defend it. Before troops landed on February 19th, 1945, the defenses were bombed by US bombers. When the Marines landed on the Shores, they took heavy casualties, and discovered that the bombs were not too effective. The Japanese fought very viciously. By the end of the battle on May 27, only 217 surrendered to the US troops. The rest either committed suicide or fought to their deaths. The Marines lost nearly 7,000 men, and 18,000 wounded. (5.)
US Marines receive communion from a Chaplin the island of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Okinawa
Okinawa is an Island near the southern tip of Japan. It was vital to the United States because it had four airfields, and it's close proximity to Japan. There were over 130,000 Japanese troops on the island with more than 450,000 civilians. By March 31st, a landing force had secured its position. On April 1st, Marines hit the north end of the Island and met little fighting until they came to the south tip of the Island. At the end of the battle, there was an American victory, but another costly one. The Americans lost 7,373 men in the fighting and 32,056 were wounded on land. At sea, the Americans lost around 5,000 men and 4,600 would be wounded. The Japanese lost 107,000 fighters and only 7,400 men were taken prisoner. The Americans lost 36 ships at sea, due to suicide attacks, or kamikazes. 368 American ships were also damaged. 763 total American aircraft were destroyed. The Japanese lost 16 ships. Over 4,000 Japanese aircraft was also destroyed. (5.)
Japan's Role in WWII
In 1922, Japan had signed an international treaty to respect China's borders. It also signed the Kellogg-Briand pact to renounce war. Had the great depression not happened, the civilian government of Japan at the time might have stayed, but in 1929, military leaders took control. The symbol of power stayed with the emperor. (1)
In 1931, Japan seized China's Manchuria. The large amount of resources made it a good place to start up mines and factories. In 1933, Japan left the League of Nations. 4 years later, Japan and China went to war. Despite outnumbering them, Japan defeated China's poorly equipped and poorly trained army in northern China. China continued to fight back. This caused a strain on Japan's economy, so they looked to conquer European colonies of SE Asia. (1)
In October of 1940, the Americans had cracked a code that he Japanese were using to send secret messages. They knew about Japan's plan to expand. In order to halt Japan, the US sent resources over to China, and when Japan overran French Indochina, they halted all oil shipments to Japan. Despite the loss of oil for Japan, they planned to take Europe and America by surprise. (1)
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was under attack. US leaders knew of an attack, but not where or when. Within 2 hours, 19 ships had been sunk or heavily damaged. 2,300 Americans were killed, and 1,100 were wounded. The president and Congress decided to make a declaration of war on Japan. During the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan bombed Hong Kong, Guam, and Wake Island. (1)
On January of 1942, Japan marched onto Manila, the capital of Philippine. After three months of fighting, the Bataan peninsula fell, and Corregidor feel the following month. Japan had also continued to conquer British owned territories in Asia. By February of 1942, Japan had reached Singapore after invading Malay and Thailand. Within a month, Japan had the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes. They also launched an attack on Burma, planning to take India next. (1)
Cruelty prevailed in Japanese owned lands. For example, the Japanese had considered it dishonorable to surrender, so prisoners of war were charged with horrible things, like in Bataan, the Bataan Death March was a forced march of more than 50 miles up the peninsula. “I was questioned by a Japanese officer, who found out that I had been in a Philippine Scout Battalion. The [Japanese] hated the Scouts. . . . Anyway, they took me outside and I was forced to watch as they buried six of my Scouts alive. They made the men dig their own graves, and then had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the head with shovels to stun them and piled earth on top. - LIEUTENANT JOHN SPAINHOWER, quoted in War Diary 1939–1945” (1)
In April, 1942, the US sent 16 B-25 bombers to bomb Tokyo as well as other small Japanese cities. Although they did little, physical damage, the mental damage shook the Japanese and boosted moral in the States. When Japan's strike force headed for Port Moresby in New Guinea, American and Australian forces halted the advancement of Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea. On June 4, 1942, Japan attacked Midway Island. Hidden, American ships allowed them to attack, while Japan was focus on the island. American planes had destroyed 332 Japanese planes, 4 aircraft carriers and a support ship. (10
O August 7 of 1942, US Marines with the help of Australian forces raided Guadalcanal, after they learned of a huge airbase being built there. The Battle of Guadalcanal had made both sides suffered heavy losses, but on February 1942, Japan had abandoned the island, now dubbed "the Island of Death." (1)
“By the fall of 1944, the Allies were moving in on Japan. In October, Allied forces landed on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur, who had been ordered to leave the islands before their surrender in May 1942, waded ashore at Leyte with his troops. On reaching the beach, he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned.” (1) The Japanese planned to make a take over not quite as easy. they made a plan to destroy the incoming American fleet. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese were destroyed within four days. On Mach 1945, after a month of fighting, the Americans took Iwo Jima, an island 760 miles from Tokyo, and on June 21, the US had conquered Okinawa.
The next stop for America was Japan itself. Truman's advisers told him that an invasion of mainland Japan might cost 500,000 lives. His other option was to use an atomic bomb. After atomic bomb testing in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, Truman warned the Japanese to surrender, but received no response. On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later, Nagasaki. In total, 210,000 deaths were responsible for the bombings. The Japanese finally surrendered, and the end of the war came.
U.S. Involvement
While Europe was in Chaos, most of the citizens in the United States believed that the US should stay out of the war. Between the years of 1935 and 1937 Congress passed the Neutrality Acts, making it illegal to give arms or money to the warring nations. The United States President Roosevelt thought that if the Allied forces were defeated, the United States would be forced to enter the war. In 1939, Congress allowed ships to be brought by the Allies. The Lend-Lease act, passed in 1941, allowed for arms and other various supplies to be lent to any country considered to be vital to the United States. By this time, the US was not at war. However, President Roosevelt and the Prime Minister of England Winston Churchill had meetings in private. The made the Atlantic Charter. It upheld free trade and and the right of people to choose their government. On September 2nd, a German U-boat fired on a US destroyer. President Roosevelt ordered Naval Commanders to attack German Submarines on sight, this causing a undeclared Naval war against the Nazis. They United States was not officially at war, but an event that took place on December 7th, 1941, would change all that. (1)
Just before 8:00, local Hawaiian time, United States Sailors stationed at a base called Pearl Harbor awoke to an attack. That day would be a day of infamy. Japanese planes rampaged the base for about two hours, but the losses were stunning.(2)
This table shows the statistics of the devastation of the attack.(2)
The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war on Japan. Congress accepted, and now the US went to
war. At the same time as Pearl Harbor was being attacked, the Japanese were leading attacks on Hong Kong, Thailand, and Guam, making footholds throughout the Pacific. At around the time of the attack, the United States military had grown to 2.2 million soldiers. Pearl Harbor was an inspiration for many young men to join the service. Most of the people who ended up fighting were drafted. In late 1942, a draft was enforced. All men between the ages of 18 and 64 were required to sign up for the draft. At the end of the war 10 million men would be drafted. (2)
The first main US military offensive of World War two was Operation Torch, the United States invasion of North Africa. It took place in November of 1942. As a result, the German troops were pushed to Tunisia, and surrendered in May of 1943. The US also took part in Operation Husky, which was launched in July 1943. The goal was to invade mainland Italy. The United States forces captured Rome on June 4, 1944. The US also fought in the Pacific. Japanese control spread like wildfire throughout the Pacific. They took over Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Burma. By 1942, the Australian forces were able to halt the advance of Japanese forces. The turning point finally came after the US battle of Midway in June of 1942. The Japanese sustained heavy Naval losses, and it was a strong victory for the US. The United states gained ground due to a strong air force and Navy. The US continued to go through the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal. The Allied forces took back islands in the Pacific one by one, but the Japanese kept their foothold in mainland China. By late 1944, British forces took back Burma and the US liberated the Philippines. As a result, the US launched heavy bombing campaigns on Japan. After the famous battles and invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the US closed in on the Japanese main home islands. The war didn't end until the Atomic bombs were dropped.(1)
In Europe by May of 1944, an invading force built in secret by the Allies was ready to move in. The Germans expected an attack, but did not know where it would be. To confuse the Nazis, the Allied forces set up a dummy force near the French seaport of Calais, but the real invasion was happening on the beaches of Normandy. On June 6, 1944, US, Canadian, British and French troops fought on a 60 mile wide stretch of beach. The Germans still fought back, and the US alone lost 2,700 men, but the operation was a success. After all the fighting was finished, Allied troops continued to stream in for the next month, one million soldiers in total. The victory at the battle of Saint-Lo gave the Allies a strong foothold, as well as punching a hole in the German defense. The next month, the Allied forces marched into Paris. By September, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium had been liberated. Hitler had became a little paranoid at this point, so he launched a counter attack on December 16. German tanks broke through a weak stretch of United States controlled land in the Ardennes. Fighting broke out, but the US troops were able to push back the German tanks. With little left, the Germans retreated. This battle would become known as the battle of the Bulge, a strong turning point in the war. In March 1945, the Allies marched into Rhineland, and by April, about three million allies had approached Berlin from the southwest. While Berlin was crumbling, Hitler committed suicide on April 29, and the Germans had surrendered to the US on May 7, 1945. The Japanese would surrender on September 2, 1945, bringing the US out of a bloody war.(2)
The Holocaust
Adolf Hitler, in an attempt to gain support for his ideals, turned to persecute the Jews. There had been deep contempt for the Jewish population over the course of European history. Some Germans had blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I and for the economic problems during the war. In between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi party passed legislation that infringed on the rights of the Jewish people. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Six years of Nazi-sponsored legislation had marginalized and disenfranchised Germany's Jewish citizenry and had expelled Jews from the professions and from commercial life. By early 1939, only about 16 percent of Jewish breadwinners had steady employment of any kind" (Pa. 2). (3.)
These inducted laws would cause harsher punishments on the Jews. On November 7, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan had shot a German diplomat in Paris after receiving word that his father was deported to Poland. Why he shot the diplomat was to avenge his father. The Nazis used this incident as a leverage to commit violent attacks on the Jewish community. On November 9, Nazi soldiers ransacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues in Germany and Austria and had slain about 100 Jews. Later they gathered 30,000 Jews that were sent into concentration camps. Many of the captured died in these camps. This reign of terror became known as Kristallinacht (The Night of Broken Glass). Fearing for their lives, German Jews emigrated to other countries to escape the persecution by the Nazi-controlled Germany. Many had been able to flee safely, but as the war would soon prove, Germany would be conquering nearby countries that they found refuge in. Even countries like France, Britain, and the United States had to close their borders after admitting tens of thousands of Jewish refugees. (1.)
For the Germans, the chance of getting rid of the Jews by emigration wasn't resulting in a great success. Hitler moved to an alternate decision by herding the Jews into segregated areas known as ghettos. Each Jew was labeled with a yellow Star of David patch that would help Nazis identify them. The ghettos were there to starve them to death or be afflicted by disease. However, the Jews hung by threads in being under these conditions. Jews formed resistance organizations and managed to keep hold of their culture. (1.)
The fight to exterminate the Jewish population went to the point of committing genocide on the population. Hitler conducted the plan known as the "Final Solution" that would ensure the deaths of many people. Nazi troops went around Eastern Europe and their controlled territory of the Soviet Union to hunt down Jews. Families were escorted by the SS, Hitler's security force, to isolated pits where they were shot to death in their own future graves. The Jews that didn't perish under firing squads would face intense labor and poor conditions in concentration camps in Germany and Poland. The prisoners were forced to act as slaves and were treated with undernourishment. They continued to experience an extreme struggle against a regime that persecuted. In 1942, the Jews faced a mass atrocity in the form of gas chambers. Prisoners arrived in camps like Auschwitz where these camps were outfitted in these devices. At least 6,000 human beings could be killed a day as cyanide gas poured from shower heads or holes in the ceiling; all were killed in minutes. The bodies were soon burned in mass crematoriums. (1.)
Some six million European Jews died in the camps and in the Nazi massacres after World War II. Fewer than four million had survived the torment and were traumatized by what they witnessed. Many of the survivors were helped by non-Jewish people who risked their lives. (1.)
The Allied Victory
The allies successfully fought off the Germans in the Mediterranean Front and on the Eastern Front. After German General Erwin Rommel took Tobruk, Libya in 1942, British General Bernard Montgomery was sent to take control of the British forces. He devised a massive frontal attack after the Germans advanced to El Amein. On the night of October 23, the Battle of El Alamein began with 1,000 British guns surprising the Axis soldiers. The fight ensued for days until November 4 when Rommel fell back. However Rommel’s Afrika Korps were soon defeated in May 1943 when Dwight D. Eisenhower led 100,000 troops to intercept them. (1.)While the battle in Africa was raging on, German troops in the East was outplayed by the Soviet Union. German advance was stalled at Leningrad and Moscow in late 1941 with a bitter winter. On the summer of 1942, Hitler sent his Sixth army led by General Friedrich Paulus. His goal was to capture Stalingrad, a major industrial center. The Battle of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942 with the Luftwaffe going on nightly bombing raids. Despite being hard hit with fire and explosions, commanders were told by Stalin to continue defending the city; Germany had taken control of 90 percent. Soviet troops on November 19 launched a counterattack that isolated the Germans and their supply line. On February 1943, German troops had surrendered to the Soviets. The cost of lives for the USSR was much more than the Germans. Over one million Soviet lives to 240,000 German lives.
Stalin wanted Britain and the United States to invade France, but Roosevelt and Churchill chose to attack Italy first. Allied forces landed July 10, 1943 in an Axis-controlled Sicily and captured the territory. This loss of territory was able to topple Mussolini’s power. The dictator was arrested on July 25 by King Victor Emmanuel III and Italy surrendered on September 3. However, the Germans seized Northern Italy with Mussolini back in power. The Germans retreated as the Allies moved northward to Rome on June 4, 1944. German soldiers would lose in May 1945. Mussolini meanwhile was disguised as a German soldier to remain hidden but he was discovered in a truck on April 27, 1945 by Italian resistance fighters and was shot the next day. (1.)
Americans living in the United States did not suffer invasion or bombing--except for Hawaii--unlike countries like the Soviet Union and Great Britain. However, they were crucial in the Allied war effort. American factories converted their peacetime operations to wartime production to produce military weapons like guns and boots. For example, automobile plants were producing tanks. The increase in wartime production shortened supply of consumer goods. The American government placed rationing policies to conserve resources. Even effective propaganda campaigns were put in place in Allied governments to grow the war effort. Soviet and American citizens gave to the government to help replenish war supplies.
However the propaganda campaigns were not kind to all. Negative propaganda affected the way Japanese Americans, who were living on Hawaii and the west coast, were viewed. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued an executive order that called for internment of Japanese Americans. In March, the military rounded up Japanese Americans and relocated them to camps; the thought was that it would prevent them from assisting in Japanese invasions. However, two-thirds of the interned were Nisei, or native-born Americans. Many volunteered for service and fought bravely for the United States even with their families remaining in the camps.
The Allies were secretly building an invasion force in Great Britain in 1943 that would launch an attack on German-controlled France across the English Channel. By May 1944, Operation Overlord would be the largest land and sea attack in history. Dwight D. Eisenhower led the charge and planned the strike on the coast of Normandy. The Germans were aware of an attack was to come, but were unsure where. The Allies devised a trick by setting up a dummy army that would “attack” the French seaport of Calais. On June 6, 1944, D-Day began. British, American, French, and Canadian troops fought their way through a 60-mile stretch of beach in Normandy and were met with German resistance. About 2,700 American soldiers died on the beaches. However within a month, one million additional troops landed and penetrated German defenses near Saint-Lô. General George Patton led the United States Third Army, and the army and the Allies marched into Paris. They soon liberated France, Belgium, and Luxembourg by September. (1.)
Allied forces marched towards Germany from the west and the Soviets marched from the East. Hitler made a desperate gamble by launching a counterattack in the west. The hope in winning was to split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. On December 16, German tanks broke through American defenses in the Ardennes. This force-through became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The Allies would eventually push the Germans back, making them retreat. Three million Allied soldiers approached Berlin from the southwest and six million Soviet troops approached from the east by the middle of April. The Soviets surrounded Berlin by April 25, 1945 and pounded the city with artillery fire. (1.)
Hitler and his partner, Eva Braun, married on April 29, but soon committed suicide the next day while Soviets were firing over Berlin. On May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich from the German military. Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor after he passed, received word and on May 9, an official surrender was signed in Berlin. (1.)
The War in the Pacific had been moving to a close as Allied troops were closing on Japanese troops. In October 1944, Allied forces landed on Leyte; the Japanese had a plan to stop the Allied advance by preventing the Allies from resupplying ground troops. On October 23, the Battle of the Leyte Gulf tested their battle strategy. However, the Japanese navy lost disastrously with it being eliminated as a fighting force. Kamikazes, or Japanese suicide pilots, and the Japanese army were left to fight against the Allies. In March 1945, American Marines captured Iwo Jima after suffering a month from bitter fighting and heavy losses. On April 1, the troops advanced towards Okinawa where the Japanese put up a fight. On June 21, the battle ended with the Japanese losing 100,000 troops while American troops lost 12,000. (1.)
Allied troops were close to Japan, but starting a full-scale invasion would cost half a million lives to be lost. President Truman made had to make a decision on how the Allies should move forward. There was the newly created atomic bomb that could be deployed on Japanese soil. Before Truman allowed permission, he warned the Japanese of its destruction, but the Japanese “ignored” the comment. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that would lead to between 70,000 and 80,000 deaths. On August 9, a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki and 70,000 more people were killed. Many would be killed from the subsequent nuclear fallout. After this attack, the Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2. (1.)
Mokusatsu (黙殺)
"The Potsdam Proclamation, in my opinion, is just a rehash of the Cairo Declaration, and the government therefore does not consider it of great importance. We must mokusatsu it." -Kantaro SuzukiThe statement above, especially the word mokusatsu, might have changed the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan and it is debated. Prior to the dropping of the atomic bombs on August 1945, there were talks among the American personnel on how they should end the War on the Pacific. One of the suggested ideas was for an invasion into Japan. However a factor that was taken into account was the estimated casualty rate if an invasion were to occur. Secretary of War Henry Stimson believed that the invasion should be an avoided decision. For many in the war in the Pacific, the war wanted to be ended quickly as Allied victory was certain. Ending the war not by invasion would spare lives and not turn Japan into a blood-filled and hopeless battlefield. (4.)
For the Allies, the solution to this was conducted by Stimson. Its plan was to deliver a series of “systematic shocks”. That way, the militarists had to be forced to lay down their arms. If the “shocks” didn't force Japan to surrender, there was still an invasion planned in mind. The Allies’ plan of shocking Japan first was using B-29 Super-fortresses to firebomb Tokyo with incendiary weapons on the financial, commercial, and government directions. B-29s continued their attacks by attacking Yokohama while raids in Osaka and Kobe began. Subsequent events soon followed that placed Japan in a perilous position like Japanese ships being destroyed and Stalin entering the Pacific War to also bring surprise if needed. (4.)
The biggest shock that the Allies brought in was an Atomic bomb. Scientists were able to ensure a bomb would be ready by August after the first testing in Alamogordo. Before the bomb was to be dropped, the Potsdam Proclamation was sent to Japan on July 26, 1945 that warned Tokyo of a destructive power that would land on Japan. Kantaro Suzuki would later respond with a statement that had the word that would make the Allies’ decision: Mokusatsu. (4.)
Mokusatsu was a Japanese word that had two different interpretations. One was “silence” and the other was “not worthy of comment”. The interpretation that was translated for the international media was “silence”. In this context, Japan has officially turned down the surrender ultimatum proposed by the Allies. This interpretation would trigger the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; then later, Nagasaki. (4.)
Europe and Japan in Ruins
After the end of World War II, a destroyed landscape tore throughout Europe. Cities like Paris, Rome, and Brussels were not very damaged over the course of the war, but in cities such as London, Warsaw, and Berlin, there were ruins above once standing buildings. Citizens caught in the middle of the war tried to get on with their lives whether it was living in partially destroyed homes or in makeshift shelters. A large number of people took to the roads and these included concentration camp survivors, prisoners of war, and displaced citizens. The misery in Europe continued for years. (1.)
Postwar governments like Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway had returned to prewar power. A return to old leadership in Germany, Italy, and France, however, wasn’t conceivable. The old leadership was in disgrace for how they acted during the war. The rise in Communist party membership was also an alarming fact. They stepped up and staged violent strikes to speed up a political takeover. Votes in France and Italy responded by voting anticommunist parties. After their economies steadily rose, Communist membership declined. (1.)
In 1945 and 1946, an International Military Tribunal put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg Germany. 22 were charged with waging a war of aggression and “crimes against humanity.” Out of all the high-ranking Nazi leaders, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, and several others stood to face charges. Others like Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels committed suicide.
In the east, Allied-occupied Japan started a process of demilitarization led by Douglas MacArthur. The Japanese military was reduced to a small police force, to ensure peace. The Allies made sure to strip Japan of its colonial empire after Japan surrendered. MacArthur would also bring Japanese war criminals to trial. Hideki Tojo and six others were sentenced to be hanged out of 25 people. Another process was put in place called democratization which would create a government elected by the people. In February 1946, MacArthur and American political advisers created a new constitution that changed Japan’s government into a constitutional monarchy. This plan was accepted and went into effect on May 3, 1947. This constitution gave people above the age of 20, including women, to vote and a bill of rights that would protect basic freedoms. More importantly an article was added that stated the Japanese could no longer make war and only fight if attacked. (1.)
Japanese society had changed after occupation. The emperor was no longer viewed as divine and had his political power reduced to become a figurehead. The control over the people now became a two-house parliament known as the Diet. The main leader of Japan was now a prime minister chosen by a majority of the Diet. In an effort to further democratization, MacArthur put a plan that required absentee landlords to sell huge estates of land to the government, who would sell it to farmers, and he also pushed reforms that gave workers a right to create labor unions. In September 1951, the United States and 47 other nations signed a formal peace treaty with Japan, and six months later, occupation ended. Because they had no military, the Japanese agreed to continue United States military presence. (1.)
References
(1.) World History Patterns of Interaction(2.) History.com
(3.) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.org)
(4.) National Security Agency (www.nsa.gov)
(5.) History Learning Site (www.historylearningsite.co.uk)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1945." Holocaust Encyclopedia. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005469.
Accessed on May 18. 2015
Wiley, Edward, . The Uncertain Summer of 1945 Cryptologic Quarterly. 1 Dec. 2011. 18 May 2015 <https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_quarterly/The_Uncertain_Summer_of_1945.pdf>.