WWII

Dictators of the World

• Joseph Stalin• Leader of the Soviet Union, Communist• Totalitarianism—government that had complete control of its

citizens

• Benito Mussolini• Leader of Italy• Fascism—type of government that stresses importance of

nationalism

• Adolf Hitler• Leader of Germany

• Hideki Tojo• Leader of Japan

German Problems

• Issues with Germany• Germany was blamed for all of WWI.• Germany had to pay millions upon millions of dollars to

countries effected by WWI. Germany was not allowed to have much of an army or navy.

• Land was taken away from Germany

• Hitler• Came to power, gave Germany a sense of hope• Nazism—political party that control the Germans, focused on

making Germany powerful• Rebuilt Army, Increased the Spirit of the people

German Aggression

• Hitler’s Plan• Hated people to the East of Germany

• He wanted all of that area for “Lebensraum” which meant living space.

• Hitler made his army extremely power, the rest of the world did not pay attention to what he was doing.

• Hitler believed he had a right to invade all of the “low country lands” because most of the people living there were of German descent.

• Blitzkrieg—Lighting Warfare, attack countries with extreme speed. (Hitler’s new strategy)

German Invasions

• Early German Invasions• Invaded Austria, then Czechoslovakia. (Both had lots of

Germans living there)

• Appeasement• Western Leaders let Hitler invade these countries, made them

promise to not to invade any more

• Next German Invasions• Germany invaded Poland, broke a treaty with USSR

• Caused Great Britain, France, and USSR to declare war on Germany. Italy decided to side with Germany (similar govts)

German Invasions

• Final German Invasions• Algeria, Tunisia, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark,

Austria, Czech, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and parts of the USSR

• Italy• Invading lands in Africa, decided to join with Germany

• Japan• Invading lands in the Pacific/Asia decided to join with Germany

• Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan• Allied Powers: GB, France, USSR, USA

How we got ready for war

• 10 million soldiers joined the armed forces• Every industry in America changed to meet the

demands of a world war• All automobile makers switched from cars to military vehicles.• Shipyards and defense plants sprung up everywhere• Factories made war materials (bombs, guns, etc)

• 18 million workers after Pearl Harbor, 6 million were women.

• Defense plants hired over 2 million minorities (lots of them moved to the North)

Economic Changes

• OPA—government organization that fought off inflation

• War Protection Board—decided which companies would produce certain consumer goods.

• Rationing—each household would receive a book that gave them a certain amount of goods such as meat, shoes, sugar, rubber, etc..

• This was a way to save goods for the military

European Conflict

The War for Europe

• GB and America• The United States and Great Britain were very close

• Franklin Roosevelt (US President) decided that Germany posed a greater threat so they decided to focus on them first.

• Battle of the Atlantic• Hitler order submarine attacks against US ships that were

carrying supplies to GB.

• During the first four months of 1942, German U-Boats sank 87 US ships

• Convoys, Planes, and US Subs helped occupy the German U-Boats (changed the outcome of this battle)

Germany invades USSR

• German advance into USSR• Problem: USSR had way too many people, horrible winter

• Battle of Stalingrad• Hitler wanted to wipe out the city of Stalingrad because it was a

major industrial city. (and named after Stalin)• German Luftwaffe (Air Force) bombed Stalingrad for weeks.• Stalin ordered the city to be defended even though it was

surrounded by the Germans.• Slow, guerilla style fighting.• Germans could never gain complete control of the city,

eventually they were surrounded by the Soviet Army.• End Result: Soviets lost 1.1 million people, but were finally able

to stop the German Advance

Africa

• Stalin wanted America and GB to open a second front against Germany.

• Operation Torch—Invasion of Axis controlled North Africa

• Dwight Eisenhower—leader of this invasion and campaign.

• Within a short time, the Allies were able to take control of most of Northern Africa.

Italy

• Decided to attack Italy instead of going through France.

• Won the island of Sicily fairly easily. • Hitler was determined to stop the Allied advance

through Italy.• Italy was very difficult to fight in because of the

bad land.• Allied forces would fight in Italy until the end of

the war.

Varieties of People Serving

• African Americans—Tuskegee Airmen, won two Distinguished Unit Citations

• Mexican Americans

• Japanese Americans—Fought in Italy and North Africa

Preparing for Invasion of France

• Allies gathered about 3 million British, American, and Canadian troops in England

• Eisenhower planned to attack the beaches of Normandy (located in France)

• He tried to keep this a secret by setting up fake invasion sites (Calais)…Hitler put most of his generals there.

Actual Invasion of France

• Operation Overlord (D-Day)• June 6th, 1944, the Allies began their invasion of

France.

• 3 Divisions of Paratroopers went down beyond German front lines.

• Then thousands of soldiers invaded the coast.

• This was the largest land/sea/air invasion in history. (book page 781)

Invasion

• The Allies had a difficult time getting past all the German guns that were on the coast.

• Omaha Beach saw the highest death rates.• After 7 days of fighting, the Allies had

claimed an 80 mile strip of Northern France.

• Within a month, the Allies were able to get a ton of supplies and men within France.

Advancing within France

• George Patton• Leader of American Army

• August 25th, they took back Paris from the Germans. American troops began moving all throughout France.

• German Retreat• Leaving France, now in Belgium and Luxemburg

Battle of the Bulge

• Hitler was trying to counterattack to break the Allied lines, he wanted to get back the Belgium city of Antwerp.

• Hitler was able to break through the initial line, creating a bulge in the Allied Defense.

• The battle would last for a month, until the Germans were forced back into Germany.

• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and 1,600 planes…there was nothing that the Germans could do but retreat….the war was almost over.

Death Camps

• American and Soviet troops began to push towards the center of Germany.

• Along the way, both sides would find numerous death camps used by the Germans.

End of European Front

• By April of 1945, Soviet armies had invaded Berlin (capital of Germany).

• Hitler committed suicide on April 30th, 1945.• VE-Day—Victory in Europe Day, May 8th 1945,

the war in Europe was officially over.• On April 12th, President Roosevelt died, he was

replaced by his vice president, Harry Truman

Other German Ideas

• Holocaust• Hitler wanted to get rid of all “non-Aryans”

• More than 11 million people would be killed throughout Europe.

• Jews were the primary target, mainly because there was a history of hatred for the Jews.

• Hitler was able to blame the Jews for causing WWI….people believed him.

• Millions of Jews lived in the lands East of Germany

Holocaust

• Kristallnacht• Night of Broken Glass• Nazi Storm Troopers attacked Jewish homes,

businesses and synagogues • Thousands of Jews were arrested, hundreds were

killed

• Jewish attempt to leave• Tried to leave Germany , couldn’t find a home• 40,000 to France, 30,000 to Palestine, 80,000 to GB,

100,000 to USA (most Americans were against this)

Hitler’s “Final Solution”

• Hitler’s final solution• There were millions of Jews that were under the control of

Germany• Genocide—deliberate and systematic killing of an entire

population. This was Hitler’s final solution• Hitler believed that the Aryan race was the superior

• Other Groups• Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witness, homosexuals, mentally ill,

disabled or incurably ill.• SS-Security Squadrons; rounded up Jews/other people.• Ghetto’s—Jews were forced to live in crowded, dismal

conditions that were sealed off with barbed wire, etc..

Concentration Camps

• Concentration Camps• Jews and other “undesirables” were forced to live in

these labor camps.

• Crammed into horrible conditions, rarely fed.

• If they got sick and could not work—killed

• Ultimately, these camps turned more and more deadly.

The Final Stage• Death Camps

• German’s started to build death camps; 6 of them were built within Poland.

• Each camp would have several gas chambers, it made it possible to kill 12,000 a day. “Showers”

• Often times prisoners were grouped on whether they could work or not.

• Other Methods of Torture• Shot, hanged, injected with poison, horrible medical

experiments (disease, cold water, sterilization).• The dead bodies were either put in mass graves or burned.• An estimated 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazi’s. (p.

751)

The War in the Pacific

Japanese Aggression

• Japan’s Government• Similar to Germany wanted to create an empire

throughout the Pacific Ocean.

• Hideki Tojo, leader

• Japan and USA• USA imposed restrictions on Japan b/c of their

aggressive behavior

• Japan needed to find away to surprise the Americans in order to reach their objective.

How American Got Involved

• Pearl Harbor• Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese subs and planes bombed

USA base.

• 2,403 Americans were killed, 1,178 wounded

• Sunk or damaged 28 ships and 300 aircraft

• Fortunately, not all the battleships were destroyed

• USA declared war on Japan the next day.

• 3 Days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the USA

Japan

• We went to war with Japan at the same time that we went to war with Germany.

• Fortunately for the USA, Japan had missed most of the American aircraft carriers and submarines.

Japanese Aggression

• Japan conquered most of SE Asia by 1941.• Douglas McArthur was in charge of the Allied

troops within the Pacific.• Doolittle’s Raid was an surprise bombing attack

on Tokyo in April of 1942, this gave America some much need confidence.

• Battle of the Coral Sea—American and Australian Forces stopped the Japanese from advancing into Australia. First time the Japanese were stopped from advancing.

Battle of Midway

• Japanese wanted to take the Midway Islands (located NW of Hawaii).

• Americans were able to break the Japanese code and knew where they were going to try to advance

• Chester Nimitz—commander of the American Naval Forces in the Pacific.

• Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers, a cruiser and over 250 planes.

• This was the turning point in the battle of the Pacific because the Japanese were not able to advance any more.

Allied Advance

• The first Allied advance was in the Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This was the first place the Japanese were defeated.

• In 1944, General McArthur returned with 178,000 Allied troops to the Philippines (a place were they had to retreat from earlier)

The Japanese Defense

• Japan tried to do everything they could to prevent the Americans from invading the Philippines. In the end, it was a devastating battle for the Japanese. Heavy losses, Japanese Navy was never really a threat anymore.

• Kamikaze—suicide plane attacks. These were successful in sinking 16 ships and damaging 80 others.

Iwo Jima

• Allies turned their attention to Iwo Jima• It was a rocky, barren island that was heavily

defended by more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers (most in tunnels and caves)

• More than 6,000 Americans died trying to take this island…only 200 Japanese survived.

• This was an important step towards being able to attack Japan

Okinawa

• US Marines invaded Okinawa…Japanese responded with more than 1900 kamikaze attacks that killed 5,000 marines and sunk/damaged over 300 ships.

• 7,600 Americans died while trying to take the island compared to 110,000 Japanese.

• This made America rethink invading Japan. Some people estimated that it would cost over 1 million lives to invade the Japanese Mainland.

Atomic Bomb

• Japan had a huge army and invading Japan would be an extremely difficult struggle.

• Truman saw the only way to avoid invading Japan was to use the Atomic Bomb (new invention).

• J Robert Oppenheimer—American scientist who developed the Atomic Bomb.

• More than 600,000 Americans worked on this project, they were able to keep it a secret.

• First test was in New Mexico, flash that was seen for 180 miles.

Truman’s Decision

• Truman had a difficult decision, should they use the atomic bomb to end the war?

• On July, 25th, Truman ordered the military to begin preparation for dropping the bomb.

• He then sent a message to Japan telling them to surrender or else…

• Truman always thought his decision was the correct one.

Bombings

• On August 6th, B-29 Bomber named the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima (important military city)

• 43 seconds after the bomb landed, the entire city was destroyed. (7000 Celsius)

• Three days later, the Americans dropped another bomb on Nagasaki.

• Over 200,000 people died from the blast/radiation that occurred from the blasts.

• Japan surrendered on September 2, the emperor could not bear to see anymore innocent people die

Yalta Conference

• Before VE day, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met in Yalta to discuss what to do when the war was over.

• They decided to split Germany up into occupation zones (one each of the USA, GB, USSR, and France).

• The leaders thought that eventually Germany would be unified together….Stalin, who had promised that he would allow free elections in his part, would ultimately go back on this. This created East/West Germany which lasted until the early 1990’s.

• USSR also agreed to join the war to help the USA fight against Japan (never really happened)

• UN was also created (USSR was not to happy with it)

Nuremberg Trails

• 24 Nazi leaders were put on trial for the death camps that were found, 12 were sentence to death. Lots of criticism.

• Set up the idea that individuals are responsible for their actions, even in times of war…now a part of international law.

Occupation of Japan

• American troops under George McArthur would occupy Japan for 7 years after the war.

• Many Japanese officials and officers were put on trial and sentenced to prison or death.

• McArthur reshaped Japans economy and government…which has helped Japan succeed as a country.

American Homefront

• Unemployment fell to 1.2 %, weekly paychecks rose by 35%, farmers made a lot of money with crop production up 50%.

• 6 million women entered the workforce (35% increase), the war created a TON of different opportunities for women to work

• Population shifted during the war because of new economic opportunities (defense plants, etc)

• More than a million people moved to California during the war• Over a million African Americans left the South to work in

other parts of our country.

Social Adjustments

• With so many men overseas, it was the mothers responsibility to raise the family.

• The number of marriages and births went up significantly before and after the war.

• GI Bill of Rights—bill that would provided education/training for veterans when they returned from war. (over 7.8 million used this bill to go to college/tech school). Also gave loans to veterans trying to buy a home/start a business.

Civil Rights Issues

• When African Americans moved North to work in defense jobs, they often times faced discrimination.

• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)—one of the first civil rights groups.

• Major riot in Detroit that left around 30 dead. This just showed how much racial tension still existed between whites and blacks.

• Mexican Americans were involved in a similar riot in Los Angeles. Zoot Suit—a popular style of dress worn by Mexican-Americans.

• Young Mexican Americans were upset at treatment and protested. Mexicans were also accused of beating up some sailors…led to week long riots

Internment of Japanese Americans

• 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the American West Coast when Pearl Harbor happened…everyone became paranoid.

• Internment Camps—confinement camps or prison camps for Japanese Americans.

• The media made things much worse by making up stories about Japanese Americans…the public became afraid.

Internment of Japanese Americans

• In 1942, Roosevelt ordered that around 110,000 Japanese Americans be “relocated” from the west coast to interment camps.

• Most of the people that were sent to these camps were Nisei (people born in America)

• No evidence was ever found that connected Japanese Americans to the Japanese War Effort.

• Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) fought for a long time to get compensated for what the government had done to them during WWII.

• In 1990, every Japanese American effected got $ 20,000