World War II, 1939–1945

The German invasion of Poland in 1939 set off World War II. Two

competing alliances, the Axis and the Allies, faced off in Europe,

Africa, and the Pacific. As the map at the right indicates, the early

years of the war favored the Axis powers. Use the map to help

you answer the following questions.

1. Which countries are shown on the map as Axis powers?

2. What gains had the Axis made by 1941?

3. Why would the Battle of Stalingrad have been important?

4. What do the battles shown in Western Europe have in common?What might that indicate about the course of the war?

Connect History and Geography

1940France surrenders to Germany;Battle of Britain begins.

1939Germanyinvades Poland.

For more information about World War II . . .

CLASSZONE.COM

In 1939, construction began on Naziconcentration camps to kill Jews andmembers of other groups. Prisoners were todie by hard labor, poor nutrition, and disease.Impatient with the pace of the killing, AdolfHitler later had death camps built. In thecamps, millions were killed by poison gas.

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M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

B l a c k S e a

A T L A N T I CO C E A N

Battle of Britain(July, 1940-Oct., 1940)

Paris(Aug. 19, 1944-Aug. 25, 1944)

Normandy (D-day)(June 6, 1944)

Sicily(July 10, 1943-Aug. 17, 1943)

Agheila(Mar. 24, 1941)

El Alamein(Oct. 23, 1942-

Nov. 4, 1942)

Tobruk(June 20, 1942-June 21, 1942)

Battle of Stalingrad(Aug 23, 1942-

Feb. 2, 1943)

Battle ofthe Bulge(Dec. 16, 1944-Jan. 16, 1945)

Berlin(Apr. 16, 1945-Apr. 30, 1945)

Leningrad(Sept. 8, 1941-Jan. 27, 1944)

Dresden(Feb. 13, 1945-Apr. 17, 1945)

Warsaw(Sept. 1, 1939-Sept. 27, 1939)

AUSTRIA HUNGARYSWITZ.

ALBANIA

L I B Y A

LIECH.

A L G E R I A

TUNISIA

T U R K E Y

MOROCCO

GreatBritain

S O V I E TU N I O N

FRANCE

PORTUGAL

S P A I N

IRELAND

N. Ireland

GERMANY

GREECE

E G Y P T

YUGOSLAVIA

POLAND

EASTPRUSSIA

(Ger.)

BULGARIA

ROMANIA

ITALY

BELGIUM

NETH.

LUX.

NORWAY

UNITEDKINGDOM DENMARK

SWEDEN ESTONIA

FINLAND

LATVIA

LITHUANIA

CZECHOSLOVAKIA45°N

60°N 0°15°W

15°W

N

0 500 Miles250

0 500 Kilometers250Robinson Projection

Allied control

Axis nation

Farthest extent of Axis control

Neutral nation

Major Battle

European and African Battles, 1939–1945

1943Allies defeat Japanat Guadalcanal.

1941 (June) Germansinvade Soviet Union. (Dec.)Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

1944D-Day invasionoccurs.

1945 (May) Germany surrenders.(Aug.) Atomic bombs dropped;Japan surrenders.

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Interact with History

820 Chapter 32

Would you bomb thiscity? Radar tells the

pilot where todrop the bombs,but at 10,000 feet,he cannot seethe casualtiesthey will cause.

This raid will probablyshorten the war by atleast two months.

EXAMINING the ISSUES

• Does shortening a war to savelives justify killing civilians?

• How are civilians sometimes asmuch a part of a war effort assoldiers?

• What percentage of lives savedwould justify the deaths caused inthe bombing?

As a class, discuss these questions. Inyour discussion, weigh the argumentsfor and against both choices.

As you read about World War II, thinkabout the role that civilians play in asituation of total war. Think also aboutthe hard moral choices that peopleoften face in times of war.

One plane-load of bombs willwipe out a vital enemy weaponsfactory, along with hundreds ofcivilian homes around it.

World War II has been going on for severalyears—at great cost in lives to your side

and the enemy’s. You are an air force commanderwho has just received a report from militaryintelligence. The report identifies a city in enemyterritory that is a major weapons manufacturingcenter. You and other officers know that by

destroying the arms factories in the city, the warcould be shortened. Thousands of lives could besaved. On the other hand, the bombing will killhundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians living nearthe enemy factories. How do you weigh the livesthat will be saved against the lives that will be lost?

This is a bombfactory in themiddle of aresidential area.

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World War II 821

SETTING THE STAGE During the 1930s, Hitler played on the hopes and fears of theWestern democracies. Each time the Nazi dictator grabbed new territory, he woulddeclare an end to his demands. Peace seemed guaranteed—until Hitler startedexpanding again.

Germany Sparks a New War in EuropeAfter his moves into the Rhineland (March 1936), Austria (March 1938), andCzechoslovakia (September 1938 and March 1939), the Führer turned his eyes toPoland. On April 28, 1939, Hitler spoke before the Reichstag. He demanded that thePolish Corridor, along with its port city of Danzig, be returned to Germany. AfterWorld War I, the Allies had cut out the Polish Corridor from German territory to givePoland access to the sea.

This time, Great Britain and France decided to resistthis threat of aggression. At this point, as was mentioned inChapter 31, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin signed a 10-yearnonaggression pact with Hitler on August 23. After beingexcluded from the Munich Conference, Stalin was noteager to join with the West. Also, Hitler was promising himterritory. In the public part of the pact, Germany and theSoviet Union promised not to attack each other. Secretly,however, they agreed that they would divide Polandbetween them. They also secretly agreed that the USSRcould take over Finland and the Baltic countries (Lithuania,Latvia, and Estonia).

Germany’s Lightning Attack on Poland The newnonaggression pact removed the threat to Germany of aSoviet attack from the east. Hitler then quickly movedahead with plans to conquer Poland. His surprise attacktook place at dawn on September 1, 1939. German war-planes invaded Polish airspace, raining bombs and terror onthe Poles. At the same time, German tanks and troop trucksrumbled across the Polish border. The trucks carried morethan 1.5 million soldiers into the assault. German aircraftand artillery then began a merciless bombing of Poland’scapital, Warsaw. The city crumbled under the assault. Astunned world looked on. No one yet realized that thePolish invasion had unleashed World War II.

France and Great Britain declared war on Germany on September 3. But Poland fellthree weeks before those nations could make any military response. After his victory,Hitler annexed the western half of Poland. That region had a large German population.

BackgroundHitler hated commu-nism, as Stalindespised fascism.Nonetheless, Hitlerdid not want to fightboth the Allies andthe Soviet Union. AndStalin wanted to keephis country out of acostly European war.

A propagandaposter proclaims tothe German nation:“One People, OneReich, One Führer!”

Hitler’s Lightning War TERMS & NAMES

• nonaggression pact• blitzkrieg• Charles de Gaulle• Winston Churchill• Battle of Britain• Atlantic Charter

MAIN IDEA

Using the sudden, mass attack calledthe blitzkrieg, Germany overran muchof Europe and North Africa.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Hitler’s actions set off World War II. Theresults of the war still affect the politicsand economics of today’s world.

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The German invasion of Poland wasthe first test of Germany’s newest mili-tary strategy—the blitzkrieg(BLIHTS•kreeg), or “lightning war.” Itinvolved using fast-moving airplanes andtanks, followed by massive infantryforces, to take the enemy by surprise.Then, blitzkrieg forces swiftly crushed allopposition with overwhelming force. Inthe case of Poland, the strategy worked.

The Soviets Make Their Move OnSeptember 17, after his secret agree-ment with Hitler, Stalin sent Soviettroops to occupy the eastern half ofPoland. Stalin then began annexing theregions in the second part of the agree-ment. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia fellwithout a struggle, but Finland resisted.

In November 1939, Stalin sent nearly1 million Soviet troops into Finland. Hethought that his soldiers would win aquick victory. So, Stalin did not worryabout the Finnish winter. This was acrucial mistake. The Finns were out-numbered and outgunned, but theyfiercely defended their country. In thefreezing weather, they attacked on swiftskis. Meanwhile, the Soviets struggledthrough deep snow, crippled by frost-bite. Despite their losses, the Soviet

invaders finally won through sheer force of numbers. By March 1940, Stalin hadforced the Finns to accept his surrender terms.

The Phony War For almost seven months after the fall of Poland, there was astrange calm in the land fighting in Europe. After their declaration of war, the Frenchand British had mobilized their armies. They stationed their troops along the Maginot(MAZH•uh•noh) Line, a system of fortifications along France’s border with Germany.There they waited for Germans to attack—but nothing happened. With little to do,the bored Allied soldiers stared eastward toward the enemy. Equally bored, Germansoldiers stared back from their Siegfried Line a few miles away. Germans jokinglycalled it the sitzkrieg, or “sitting war.” Some newspapers referred to it simply as “thephony war.”

Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, the phony war ended. Hitler launched a surprise inva-sion of Denmark and Norway. He planned to build bases along the Norwegian andDanish coasts to strike at Great Britain. In just four hours after the attack, Denmarkfell. Two months later, Norway surrendered as well.

The Battle for France and Great BritainIn May of 1940, Hitler began a dramatic sweep through Holland, Belgium, andLuxembourg. This was part of a strategy to strike at France. Keeping the Allies’attention on those countries, Hitler then sent an even larger force of tanks and troop trucks to slice through the Ardennes (ahr•DEHN). This was a heavily wooded area in northeastern France and Luxembourg. Moving through the forest, the

THINK THROUGH HISTORYA. AnalyzingMotives Whatwould you say werethe political reasonsbehind Stalin’s actionsin Europe at thebeginning of WorldWar II?A. Possible AnswerStalin aimed atexpanding the SovietUnion’s territory andpower, while keepinghis country out of thewar. He seemed readyto make an agreementwith anybody, evenHitler, to achievethose goals.

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40° E0°

40° N

60° N

Black Sea

English

Channel

BalticSeaNorth

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

GREECE

ALB

AN

IA

YUGOSLAVIA BULGARIA

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

ITALY

SPAIN

MOROCCO(Fr.)

TURKEY

SWITZ.FRANCE

ALGERIA(Fr.)

GREAT

BRITAIN

DENMARK

SWEDEN

NETH.IRELAND

PO

RT

UG

AL

BELG.

AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

ROMANIA

TUNISIA(Fr.)

LIBYA(It.)

EGYPT

TRANS-JORDAN

SYRIA

IRAQ

SAUDI ARABIA

LEBANON

PALESTINE

POLAND

FINLAND

SOVIET

UNION

GERMANY

NORWAY

EASTPRUSSIA

VICHYFRANCE

(Unoccupiedzone)

LITHUANIA

ESTONIA

LATVIA

1940

1941

1941

1941

1941

1941

1941

1940

1941

1941

1939

19391940

1940

London Dunkirk

Paris

Berlin

Warsaw

Rome

Crete

Moscow

Leningrad

Stalingrad

0 500 Miles

0 1,000 Kilometers

World War II: German Advances,1939–1941

Axis nations, 1938Axis-controlled, 1941AlliesNeutral nationsGerman advances

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBU ILDER :Interpreting Maps 1. Region Which countries did Germany invade?2. Location In what way was Germany’s geographic location an

advantage when it was on the offensive in the war?

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World War II 823

Germans “squeezed between” the Maginot Line.From there, they moved across France andreached France’s northern coast in 10 days.

France Battles Back When the Germansreached the French coast, they swung north againand joined forces with German troops in Belgium.By May 26, 1940, the Germans had trapped theAllied forces around the northern French city ofLille (leel). With a German victory inevitable,Belgium surrendered. Outnumbered, outgunned,and pounded from the air, the Allies escaped to thebeaches of Dunkirk, a French port city on theEnglish Channel. They were trapped with theirbacks to the sea.

In one of the most heroic acts of the war, GreatBritain set out to rescue the army. It sent a fleet ofsome 850 ships across the English Channel toDunkirk. Along with Royal Navy ships, civiliancraft—yachts, lifeboats, motorboats, paddle steam-ers, and fishing boats—joined the rescue effort.From May 26 to June 4, this amateur armada,under heavy fire from German bombers, sailedback and forth from Britain to Dunkirk. The boatscarried an incredible 338,000 battle-weary soldiersto safety.

France Falls Following Dunkirk, France seemed doomed to defeat. On June 10,sensing a quick victory, Italy’s Benito Mussolini joined forces with Hitler and declaredwar on both Great Britain and France. Italy then attacked France from the south. ByJune 14, Paris had fallen to the Germans. Nazi troops marched triumphantly downthe city’s main boulevard.

Two days later, seeing defeat approaching, the French parliament asked MarshalHenri Pétain (pay•TAN), an aging hero from World War I, to become prime minister.On June 22, 1940, France surrendered. The Germans took control of the northernpart of the country. They left the southern part to a puppet government headed byPétain. The headquarters of this government was in the city of Vichy (VEESH•ee).

After France fell, a French general named Charles de Gaulle (duh GOHL) fledto London. There, he set up a government-in-exile committed to reconqueringFrance. On June 18, 1940, he delivered a broadcast from England. He called on thepeople of France to resist:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S T It is the bounden [obligatory] duty of all Frenchmen who still bear arms to continue thestruggle. For them to lay down their arms, to evacuate any position of military impor-tance, or agree to hand over any part of French territory, however small, to enemy con-trol would be a crime against our country. . . . GENERAL CHARLES DE GAULLE, quoted in Charles de Gaulle: A Biography

De Gaulle went on to organize the Free French military forces that battled theNazis until France was liberated in 1944.

Germany Attacks Great Britain With the fall of France, Great Britain stood aloneagainst the Nazis. Winston Churchill, the new British prime minister, had alreadydeclared that his nation would never give in. In a speech, he said, “We shall fight onthe beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and inthe streets . . . we shall never surrender.”

BackgroundHitler demanded thatthe surrender takeplace in the same rail-road car where theFrench had dictatedterms to the Germansin World War I.

Hundreds of Britishsoldiers crowdaboard ship duringthe mass evacua-tion at Dunkirk.

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Hitler now turned his mind to an invasion of Great Britain. Hisplan—Operation Sea Lion—was first to knock out the Royal AirForce (RAF) and then to land 250,000 soldiers on England’s shores.In the summer of 1940, the Luftwaffe (LOOFT•vahf•uh), Germany’sair force, began bombing Great Britain. Badly outnumbered, theRAF had 2,900 planes to the Luftwaffe’s 4,500. At first, the Germanstargeted British airfields and aircraft factories. Then, on September7, 1940, they began focusing on the cities, especially London—tobreak British morale. Bombs exploded daily in city streets. Theykilled civilians and set buildings ablaze. However, despite thedestruction and loss of life, the British fought on.

With the pressure off the airfields, the RAF hit back hard. Twosecret weapons helped turn the tide in their favor. One was an elec-tronic tracking system known as radar. Developed in the late 1930s,radar could tell the number, speed, and direction of incoming war-planes. The other was a German code-making machine namedEnigma. A complete Enigma machine was smuggled to Great Britainin 1938. With Enigma in their possession, the British had Germansecret messages open to them. With information gathered by thesedevices, RAF fliers could quickly get to their airplanes and inflictdeadly harm on the enemy.

To avoid the RAF’s attacks, the Germans gave up daylight raids inOctober 1940 in favor of night bombing. At sunset, the wail of sirensfilled the air as Londoners flocked to the subways. There they spentthe night in air-raid shelters. Some rode out the blasts at home inbasements or in smaller air-raid shelters.

The Battle of Britain continued until May 10, 1941. Stunned byBritish resistance, Hitler decided to call off his attacks. Instead, hefocused his attention on Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.The Battle of Britain had ended. And, from it, the Allies had learneda crucial lesson: Hitler’s advances could be blocked.

The Eastern Front and the MediterraneanThe stubborn resistance of the British in the Battle of Britain caused a shift in Hitler’sstrategy in Europe. Although the resistance surprised Hitler, it did not defeat him. Hewould deal with Great Britain later. Instead, he turned his attention east to theBalkans and the Mediterranean area—and to the ultimate prize, the Soviet Union.

Germany and Italy Attack North Africa Germany’s first objective in theMediterranean region was North Africa—mainly because of Hitler’s partnerMussolini. Despite Italy’s alliance with Germany, the country had remained neutral atthe beginning of the war. With Hitler’s conquest of France, however, Mussolini knewhe had to take action. Otherwise, Italy would not share in Germany’s victories. “Ineed a few thousand dead,” he told a member of his staff. After declaring war onFrance and Great Britain, Italy became Germany’s most important Axis ally. Then,Mussolini moved into France along with the Nazis.

Mussolini took his next step in September 1940. While the Battle of Britain wasraging, he ordered Italy’s North African army to move east from Libya. His goal wasto seize British-controlled Egypt. Egypt’s Suez Canal was key to reaching the oil fieldsof the Middle East. Within a week, Italian troops had pushed 60 miles inside Egypt,forcing British units back. Then both sides dug in and waited.

Great Britain Strikes Back Finally, in December, the British decided to strikeback. The result was a disaster for the Italians. By February 1941, the British hadswept 500 miles across North Africa. They had taken 130,000 Italian prisoners.

B. PossibleAnswers A fewthousand Italian deadwould have meantthat Mussolini wasserious about commit-ting Italy to the war. Afew thousand enemydead would proveItaly’s military effec-tiveness to Hitler.THINK THROUGH HISTORYB. DrawingConclusions Howcould “a few thou-sand dead” havehelped Mussolini’sposition in the Axispowers?

BackgroundThe Middle East is anarea that includes thecountries of SouthwestAsia and northeastAfrica.

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Vocabularymorale: state ofmind.

Winston Churchill

1874–1965

Probably the greatest weapon theBritish had as they stood aloneagainst Hitler’s Germany was thenation’s prime minister—WinstonChurchill. “Big Winnie,” Londonersboasted, “was the lad for us. . . .”

Although as a youngsterChurchill had a speech defect, hegrew to become one of the greatestorators of all time. He used all hisgifts as a speaker to rally the peoplebehind the effort to crush Germany.He declared that Britain would

. . . wage war, by sea, land, andair, with all our might and withall the strength that God cangive us . . . against monstroustyranny.

BackgroundLuftwaffe in Germanmeans “air weapon.”

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■HISTORY MAKERS

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Hitler had to step in to save his Axis partner. In February 1941, he sent GeneralErwin Rommel, later known as the “Desert Fox,” to Libya. His mission was to com-mand a newly formed tank corps, the Afrika Korps. Determined to take control ofEgypt and the Suez Canal, Rommel attacked the British at Agheila (uh•GAY•luh) onMarch 24. Caught by surprise, British forces retreated 500 miles east to Tobruk.

However, by mid-January 1942, after fierce fighting for Tobruk, the British droveRommel back to where he had started. By June, the tide of battle turned again.Rommel regrouped, pushed the British back across the desert, and seized Tobruk. Thiswas a shattering loss for the Allies. Rommel later wrote, “To every man of us, Tobrukwas a symbol of British resistance, and we were now going to finish with it for good.”

The War in the Balkans While Rommel campaigned in North Africa, Hitler wasactive in the Balkans. As early as the summer of 1940, Hitler had begun planning toattack his ally, the USSR, by the following spring. The Balkan countries of southeast-ern Europe were key to Hitler’s invasion plan. Hitler wanted to build bases in south-eastern Europe for the attack on the Soviet Union. He also wanted to make sure thatthe British did not interfere.

To prepare for his invasion, Hitler moved to expand his influence in the Balkans. Inthe face of overwhelming German strength, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary cooper-ated by joining the Axis powers in early 1941. Yugoslavia and Greece, which had pro-British governments, resisted. On Sunday, April 6, 1941, Hitler invaded bothcountries. Yugoslavia fell in 11 days. Greece surrendered in 17. In Athens, the Naziscelebrated their victory by raising swastikas on the Acropolis.

Hitler Invades the Soviet Union With the Balkans firmly in control, Hitler couldmove ahead with his plan to invade the Soviet Union. He called that plan OperationBarbarossa. Early on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, the roar of German tanks andaircraft announced the beginning of the blitzkrieg invasion. The Soviet Union was notprepared for this attack. With its 5 million men, the Red Army was the largest in theworld. But it was neither well equipped nor well trained.

The invasion rolled on week after week until the Germans had pushed 500 milesinside the Soviet Union. As the Russians retreated, they burned and destroyed every-thing in the enemy’s path. Russians had used this same strategy against Napoleon.

By September 8, Germans had surrounded Leningrad and isolated the city fromthe rest of the world. If necessary, Hitler would starve the city’s 2.5 million inhabi-tants. German bombs destroyed warehouses where food was stored. Desperately hun-gry, people began eating cattle and horse feed, as well as cats and dogs and, finally,crows and rats. More than 1 million people died in Leningrad that terrible winter. Yetthe city refused to fall.

Seeing that Leningrad would not surrender, Hitler looked to Moscow, the capitaland heart of the Soviet Union. A Nazi drive on the capital began on October 2, 1941.

A Soviet phototaken in 1942shows the horrorsof the war in theSoviet Union.Civilians in theCrimea search overa barren field fortheir dead lovedones.

825

BackgroundThe Balkan countriesinclude Albania,Bulgaria, Greece,parts of Romania andTurkey, and most ofthe former Yugoslavia.

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BackgroundNewfoundland is aprovince of Canada.

By December, the Germans had advanced to the outskirts of Moscow. Soviet GeneralGeorgi Zhukov (ZHOO•kuhf) counterattacked. He had 100 fresh Siberian divisionsand the harsh Soviet winter on his side.

As temperatures fell, the Germans, in summer uniforms, retreated. Their fuel andoil froze. Tanks, trucks, and weapons became useless. Ignoring Napoleon’s winterdefeat 130 years before, the Führer sent his generals a stunning order: “No retreat!”German troops dug in about 125 miles west of the capital. They held the line againstthe Soviets until March 1943. Nonetheless, Moscow had been saved and had cost theGermans 500,000 lives.

The United States Aids Its Allies As disturbing as these events were to Americans, bitter memories of World War I con-vinced most people in the United States that their country should not get involved.Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts. The laws madeit illegal to sell arms or lend money to nations at war. But President Roosevelt knewthat if the Allies fell, the United States would be drawn into the war. In September1939, he persuaded Congress to allow the Allies to buy American arms. According tohis plan, they would pay cash and then carry the goods on their own ships.

Under the Lend-Lease Act, passed in March1941, the president could lend or lease arms andother supplies to any country vital to the UnitedStates. By the summer of 1941, the U.S. Navywas escorting British ships carrying U.S. arms.In response, Hitler ordered his submarines tosink any cargo ships they met.

Although the United States had not yet enteredthe war, Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly on abattleship off Newfoundland on August 9. Thetwo leaders issued a joint declaration called theAtlantic Charter. It upheld free trade amongnations and the right of people to choose theirown government. The charter later served as theAllies’ peace plan at the end of World War II.

On September 4, a German U-boat suddenlyfired on a U.S. destroyer in the Atlantic.

Roosevelt ordered navy commanders to respond. They were to shoot German sub-marines on sight. The United States was now involved in an undeclared naval warwith Hitler. To almost everyone’s surprise, however, the attack that actually drew theUnited States into the war did not come from Germany. It came from Japan.

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THINK THROUGH HISTORYC. MakingInferences Whatdoes the fact thatGerman armies werenot prepared for theRussian winter indi-cate about Hitler’sexpectations for thecampaign in theSoviet Union?C. Possible AnswerHitler expected aquick victory in theSoviet Union and didnot think that hisfighting men wouldstill be in combat bywinter.

2. TAKING NOTES

Create a chart like the one beIow.Identify the effects of each ofthese early events of World War II.

3. MAKING INFERENCES

Great Britain and the Soviet city ofLeningrad each fought off aGerman invasion. Other countriesgave in to the Germans withoutmuch resistance. What factors doyou think a country’s leadersconsider when deciding whetherto surrender or to fight?

THINK ABOUT• the country’s ability to fight• the costs of resisting• the costs of surrendering

4. THEME ACTIVITY

Economics In groups of 3 or 4,prepare a dramatic scene for aplay or film that focuses on aneconomic problem that might havebeen suffered by Europeansduring World War II.

1. TERMS & NAMES

Identify• nonaggression pact• blitzkrieg• Charles de Gaulle• Winston Churchill• Battle of Britain• Atlantic Charter

Section Assessment1

Cause

First blitzkriegAllies stranded atDunkirkBritish radardetects GermanaircraftLend-Lease Act

Effect

U.S. industryachieved amazingrates of speedwhen it began toproduce for the wareffort. This ship, forexample, wasproduced in a U.S.shipyard in only 10days.

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SETTING THE STAGE Like Hitler, Japan’s military leaders also had dreams of empire.Japan was overcrowded and faced shortages of raw materials. To solve these problems—and to encourage nationalism—the Japanese began a program of empire building thatwould lead to war.

Japan Seeks a Pacific EmpireJapan’s expansion began in 1931. In that year, Japanese troops took over Manchuria innortheastern China. Six years later, Japanese armies swept into the heartland ofChina. They expected quick victory. Chinese resistance, however, caused the war todrag on. This caused a strain on Japan’s economy. To increase their resources,Japanese leaders looked toward the rich European colonies of Southeast Asia.

The Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor By August 1940, Americans had cracked aJapanese secret code. They were well aware of Japanese plans for Southeast Asia. IfJapan conquered European colonies there, it could also threaten the American-controlled Philippine Islands and Guam. Tostop the Japanese advance, the U.S. govern-ment sent aid to strengthen Chinese resis-tance. And when the Japanese overranFrench Indochina in July 1941, Rooseveltcut off oil shipments to Japan.

Despite an oil shortage, the Japanese con-tinued their conquests. They hoped to catchthe United States by surprise. So theyplanned massive attacks in Southeast Asiaand in the Pacific—both at the same time.Japan’s greatest naval strategist, AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto (ih•soh•ROO•kooyah•muh•MOH•toh), also argued that theU.S. fleet in Hawaii was “a dagger pointed atour throat” and must be destroyed.

Early in the morning of December 7,1941, American sailors at Pearl Harbor inHawaii awoke to the roar of explosives. AJapanese attack was underway! The United States had known from a coded Japanesemessage that an attack might come. But they did not know when or where it wouldoccur. Within two hours, the Japanese had sunk or damaged 18 ships, including 8 bat-tleships—nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. Some 2,400 Americans were killed—with more than 1,000 wounded. News of the attack stunned the American people.The next day, Congress declared war on Japan. In his speech to Congress, PresidentRoosevelt described December 7 as “a date which will live in infamy.”

BackgroundFrench Indochina wasan area now made upby Vietnam, Cambodia,and Laos.

The U.S.S. WestVirginia in flamesafter taking a directhit during theJapanese attack onPearl Harbor.

Japan Strikes in the Pacific

2TERMS & NAMES

• IsorokuYamamoto

• Pearl Harbor• Battle of Midway• Douglas

MacArthur• Battle of

GuadalcanalMAIN IDEA

Carving out an empire, Japan attackedPearl Harbor in Hawaii and brought theUnited States into World War II.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

World War II established the role of theUnited States as a leading player ininternational affairs.

World War II 827

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The Tide of Japanese Victories The Japanese had planned a series of strikes at theUnited States in the Pacific. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese seizedGuam and Wake Island in the western Pacific. They then launched an attack on thePhilippines. In January 1942, the Japanese marched into the Philippine capital ofManila. They overwhelmed American and Filipino defenders on the Bataan Peninsula(buh•TAN) in April—and in May, on the island of Corregidor.

The Japanese also hit the British, seizing Hong Kong and invading Malaya. ByFebruary 1942, the Japanese had reached Singapore. After a fierce pounding, thecolony surrendered. By March, the Japanese had conquered the resource-rich DutchEast Indies (now Indonesia), including the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, andCelebes (SEHL•uh•beez). After Malaya, the Japanese took Burma, between Chinaand India. China received supplies by way of the Burma Road. The Japanese couldnow close off the road. Now they might force the Chinese to surrender.

By the time Burma fell, Japan had conquered more than 1 million square miles ofland with about 150 million people. Before these conquests, the Japanese had tried towin the support of Asians with the anticolonialist idea of “Asia for the Asians.” Aftervictory, however, the Japanese quickly made it clear that they had come as conquerors.

Native peoples often received the same brutal treatment as the 150,000 prisonersof war. On what is called the Bataan Death March, the Japanese subjected prisonersto terrible cruelties. One American soldier reported:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S T I was questioned by a Japanese officer who found out that I had been in a PhilippineScout Battalion. The [Japanese] hated the Scouts. . . . Anyway, they took me outside andI was forced to watch as they buried six of my Scouts alive. They made the men dig theirown graves, and then had them kneel down in a pit. The guards hit them over the headwith shovels to stun them and piled earth on top.LIEUTENANT JOHN SPAINHOWER, quoted in War Diary 1939–1945

BackgroundAccording to the cen-turies-old warriorcode called Bushido, aJapanese soldiermust commit suicide,or hari-kari, ratherthan surrender. SoJapanese soldiers hadcontempt for Alliedprisoners of war.

GuamJuly–Aug. 1944

160°

E

120°

E

80° E

160°

W

120°

W

40° N

0° Equator

Tropic of Cancer

CoralSea

I N D I A N O C E A N

P A C I F I C O C E A N

MALAYA

MarianaIslands

CarolineIslands

MarshallIslands

GilbertIslands

FRENCHINDO-CHINA

THAILAND

BURMA

SolomonIslands

PHILIPPINES

NEW GUINEA

KOREA

Hokkaido

Kurile

Is.

TAIWAN(Formosa)

AUSTRALIA

INDIA(Br.)

CHINA

UNITED

STATES

CANADASOVIET UNION

MONGOLIA MANCHURIA

JA

PA

N

Hawaiian Islands (U.S.)

Aleutian Islands

DUTCHEAST INDIES

1943-1944

1944

19441944

1943

1943

1945

1945

1945

1945

1942

1943-1944

Tokyo

Nagasaki, Aug. 1945Nanking

Hong Kong(Br.)

Singapore

Shanghai

OkinawaApr.–July 1945

Leyte GulfOct. 1944

GuadalcanalAug. 1942–Feb. 1943

Coral SeaMay 1942

Iwo JimaFeb.–Mar. 1945

SaipanJune–July 1944

Midway I.June 1942

Wake I.Dec. 1941

TarawaNov. 1943

Pearl Harbor Dec. 1941

KiskaAug. 1943

Beijing(Peking)

HiroshimaAug. 1945

0 1,000 Miles

0 2,000 Kilometers

Japanese empire, 1931Japanese gains by 1942Extent of Japanese expansionAlliesNeutral nationsAllied advancesBattle

World War II in Asia and the Pacific, 1941–1945

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBU ILDER :Interpreting Maps 1. Location Which battle was fought

in the most northern region?2. Movement From what two general

directions did Allied forces move in onJapan?

828

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World War II 829

The Allies Strike BackAfter a string of victories, the Japanese seemed unbeatable. Nonetheless, the Allies—mainly Americans and Australians—were anxious to strike back in the Pacific. In April1942, the United States wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor. So the United States sent16 B-25 bombers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle tobomb Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. The bombs did little damage. The attack,however, made an important psychological point: the Japanese could be attacked.

The Allies Turn the Tide of War Doolittle’s raid on Japan raised American moraleand shook the confidence of some Japanese. As one Japanese citizen described it, “Westarted to doubt that we were invincible.” In addition, Japan had won a vast empirethat was becoming difficult to defend and control.

Slowly, the Allies began to turn the tide of war. Early in May 1942, an American fleetwith Australian support intercepted a Japanese strike force. The force had been aboutto attack Port Moresby. The city housed a critical Allied air base in southeastern NewGuinea (GIHN•ee). From this base, the Japanese could have easily invaded Australia.

In the battle that followed—the Battle of the Coral Sea—both fleets fought using anew kind of naval warfare. The opposing ships did not fire a single shot. In fact, theyoften could not see one other. Instead,airplanes taking off from huge aircraftcarriers did all the fighting. In the end,the battle was something of a draw.The Allies lost more ships than theJapanese, who claimed victory. But theAllies had stopped Japan’s southwardexpansion for the first time.

The Battle of Midway Japan nexttargeted Midway Island, west of Hawaii.The island was home to a key Americanairfield. However, by June 1942, yetanother Japanese code had been broken.As a result, the new commander in chiefof the U.S. Pacific Fleet, AdmiralChester Nimitz, knew that a force ofover 150 ships was heading towardMidway. The Japanese fleet was thelargest naval force ever assembled. Itcould also boast the world’s largest battleship, carrying Admiral Yamamoto himself.Yamamoto hoped not only to seize Midway but also to finish off the U.S. Pacific fleet.He hoped the American force would come from Pearl Harbor to defend the island.

Nimitz was outnumbered four to one in ships and planes. Even so, he was prepar-ing an ambush for the Japanese at Midway. On June 4, with American forces hiddenbeyond the horizon, Nimitz allowed the enemy to launch the first strike. As Japaneseplanes roared over Midway Island, American carrier planes swooped in to attackJapanese ships. Many Japanese planes were still on the decks of the ships. The strat-egy was a success. American pilots destroyed 332 Japanese planes, all four aircraft car-riers, and one support ship. Yamamoto ordered his crippled fleet to withdraw. By June6, 1942, the battle was over. One Japanese official commented, “The Americans hadavenged Pearl Harbor.” The Battle of Midway had also turned the tide of war in thePacific against the Japanese.

The Allies Go on the Offensive With morale high after their Midway victory, theAllies took the offensive. The Pacific war was one of vast distances. Japanese troopshad dug in on hundreds of islands across the ocean. General Douglas MacArthur was

As happened inother battles of thePacific war, U.S.Marines destroy acave connected toa Japanese fort onthe island of IwoJima.

Vocabularyinvincible:unconquerable.

A. PossibleAnswers MidwayIsland had an impor-tant U.S. air base, sodefending the islandwould be vital to theAmericans. Midwaywas located just westof Hawaii, so theAmericans wouldprobably do as muchas they could to keepthe Japanese awayfrom this importantAmerican territory.

THINK THROUGH HISTORYA. AnalyzingMotives What rea-sons might AdmiralYamamoto have hadfor thinking theAmericans wouldsend their entirePacific fleet to defendMidway Island?

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commander of the Allied land forces in the Pacific. He believed that storming eachisland would be a long, costly effort. Instead, he wanted to “island-hop” past Japanesestrongpoints. He would then seize islands that were not well defended but were closer

to Japan. After taking the islands, MacArthur would use air power tocut supply lines and starve enemy troops. “Hit ’em where they ain’t,let ’em die on the vine,” MacArthur declared.

MacArthur’s first target soon presented itself. The U.S. governmenthad learned that the Japanese were building a huge air base on theisland of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The Allies had to strikefast before the base was completed and became another Japanesestrongpoint. At dawn on August 7, 1942, about 19,000 U.S. Marines,with Australian support, landed on Guadalcanal and a few nearbyislands. Caught unprepared, the Japanese at Guadalcanal radioed,“Enemy forces overwhelming. We will defend our posts to the death.”

The marines had easily taken the Japanese airfield. But the battlefor control of the island turned into a savage struggle as both sidespoured in fresh troops. In February 1943, after six months of fight-ing on land and at sea, the Battle of Guadalcanal finally ended.After losing 23,000 men out of 36,000, the Japanese abandoned theisland they came to call “the Island of Death.”

To war correspondent Ralph Martin and the soldiers who foughtthere, Guadalcanal was simply “hell”:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S T Hell was furry red spiders as big as your fist, giant lizards as long asyour leg, leeches falling from trees to suck blood, armies of white antswith bites of fire, scurrying scorpions inflaming any flesh theytouched, enormous rats and bats everywhere, and rivers with waitingcrocodiles. Hell was the sour, foul smell of the squishy jungle, humid-ity that rotted a body within hours. . . . Hell was an enemy . . . sofanatic that it used its own dead as booby traps.RALPH G. MARTIN, quoted in The GI War

As Japan worked to establish a new order in Southeast Asia andthe Pacific, the Nazis moved ahead with Hitler’s plan for a new orderin Europe. Hitler’s goal was not only the conquest of Europe. He

also aimed at enslaving Europe’s people and forcing them to work for Germany’s pros-perity. In particular, the Führer had plans for dealing with those he considered unfitfor the Third Reich. You will learn about Hitler’s plans in Section 3.

THINK THROUGH HISTORYC. AnalyzingCauses What rea-sons could have madethe Japanese fightuntil they lost 23,000out of 36,000 defend-ing the island ofGuadalcanal?C. PossibleAnswers The mili-tary importance of theairfield; bravery;honor; blind obedi-ence; a belief in coun-try over an individualhuman life.

830 Chapter 32

2. TAKING NOTES

Create a chart like the one below.List four major events of the warin the Pacific between 1941 and1943.

Event 1:

Event 2:

Event 3:

Event 4:

Which event was most importantin turning the tide of the war in thePacific against the Japanese?Why?

3. EVALUATING DECISIONS

Judging from the effects of theattack on Pearl Harbor, do youthink Yamamoto made a wisedecision in bombing Pearl Harbor?Why or why not?

THINK ABOUT• Yamamoto’s goals in the

bombing• U.S. involvement in World War II• the effects of the bombing

4. ANALYZING THEMES

Empire Building What do youthink Yamamoto’s biggestproblems were in building theJapanese empire in the Pacific?

THINK ABOUT• geographical problems• European/American interests in

the Pacific• psychological factors

1. TERMS & NAMES

Identify• Isoroku Yamamoto• Pearl Harbor• Battle of Midway• Douglas MacArthur• Battle of Guadalcanal

Section Assessment2

Douglas MacArthur

1880–1964

Son of a Civil War army officer,Douglas MacArthur said that his firstmemory was the “sound of bugles.”MacArthur yearned, even at an earlyage, for a life of action and adven-ture. With a strong will and hismother’s encouragement, he grew tobecome one of the most brilliantmilitary strategists of World War II.

MacArthur believed that destinyhad called him to perform greatdeeds. He once boasted, “AllGermany cannot fabricate the shellthat will kill me.” The general hadhis critics, but he also inspired deeployalty among his men. Oneremarked, “His first thought wasalways for the soldier.”

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■HISTORY MAKERS

THINK THROUGH HISTORYB. IdentifyingProblems If the vastdistances of thePacific caused prob-lems for the Allies,how might they havealso caused problemsfor the Japanese?B. Possible AnswerSupplying their out-posts over great dis-tances and keepingthe Allies out of thou-sands of square milesof ocean would proba-bly be problems forthe Japanese.

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World War II 831

SETTING THE STAGE As part of their new order for Europe, Nazis proclaimed thatAryans, or Germanic peoples, were a “master race.” They claimed that Jews andother non-Aryan peoples were inferior. This racist message would eventually lead tothe Holocaust—the mass slaughter of civilians, especially Jews.

The Holocaust BeginsNazi propaganda started as an ugly campaign of anti-Semitism. It eventually flaredinto persecution across Germany. Hitler knowingly tapped into a hatred for Jewsthat had deep roots in European history.For generations, many Germans, along withother Europeans, had targeted Jews as thecause of their failures. The Nazis evenblamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in WorldWar I and for its economic problems afterthat war.

In 1933, the Nazis made persecution agovernment policy. They first passed lawsforbidding Jews to hold public office. Then,in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jewsof their rights to German citizenship, jobs,and property. To make it easier for the Nazisto identify them, Jews had to wear a brightyellow star attached to their clothing.

Kristallnacht: “Night of Broken Glass”Worse was yet to come. Early in November1938, 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan(GRIHN•shpahn), a Jewish youth fromGermany, was visiting an uncle in Paris.While Grynszpan was there, he received apostcard. It said that after living in Germanyfor 27 years, his father had been deported tohis native Poland. On November 7, wishing to avenge his father’s deportation,Grynszpan shot an employee of the German Embassy in Paris.

When Nazi leaders heard the news, they launched a violent attack on the Jewishcommunity. On November 9, Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses,and synagogues across Germany and murdered around 100 Jews. An American inLeipzig wrote, “Jewish shop windows by the hundreds were systematically . . .smashed. . . . The main streets of the city were a positive litter of shattered plateglass.” It is for this reason that the night of November 9 became known asKristallnacht (krih•STAHL•NAHKT), or “Night of Broken Glass.”

BackgroundHitler misused theterm Aryan to mean“Germanic.” In fact,the term refers to theIndo-European peo-ples. (See Chapter 3.)

The Holocaust3TERMS & NAMES

• Aryans• Holocaust• Kristallnacht• ghettos• ”Final Solution“• genocide

MAIN IDEA

During the Holocaust, Hitler’s Naziskilled 6 million Jews and 5 millionother ”non-Aryans.“

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

The violence against Jews during theHolocaust led to the founding of Israelafter World War II.

THINK THROUGH HISTORYA. AnalyzingMotives Why mightthe people of a coun-try want to blame aminority group formost of its problems?A. PossibleAnswers A minoritygroup may be differ-ent culturally, andsome people areafraid of differences;targeting a minorityfor blame takesresponsibility awayfrom a country and itsleaders, so the major-ity can feel betterabout itself.

Hitler’s specialtroops helpedspread the messageof the government’santi-Semitic policy.The sign thesetroops are puttingup reads, “Germans!Protect yourselves!Don’t buy in Jewishstores!”

831-834-0732s3 10/11/02 4:57 PM Page 831

This pile of shoestaken from Nazivictims representsthe murder ofthousands of Jews.The inset showsthe living inmatesat Auschwitz tryingto salvage shoesleft by the dead.

Young M.I. Libau was only 14 years old when Nazis attacked his family’s home.Libau described what the Nazis did:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S TAll the things for which my parents had worked for eighteen long years were destroyedin less than ten minutes. Piles of valuable glasses, expensive furniture, linens—in short,everything was destroyed. . . . The Nazis left us, yelling, “Don’t try to leave this house!We’ll soon be back again and take you to a concentration camp to be shot.”M.I. LIBAU, quoted in Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust

Kristallnacht marked a major step-up in the Nazi policy of Jewish persecution. Thefuture for Jews in Germany looked grim.

The Flood of Refugees After Kristallnacht, some Jews realized that violence againstthem was bound to increase. By the end of 1939, a number of Jews in Germany hadfled for safety to other countries. Many of them, however, remained in Germany.Later, there would be millions more in territories conquered by Hitler. At first, Hitlerfavored emigration as a solution to what he called “the Jewish problem.” The Nazissped up the process. They forced Jews who did not want to leave into emigrating.

Getting other countries to continue admitting Germany’s Jews became a problem.France had admitted 25,000 Jewish refugees and wanted no more. The British, whohad accepted 80,000 Jews, worried about fueling anti-Semitism if that numberincreased. Some 40,000 Jews found homes in Latin America, but that region hadclosed its doors by the end of 1938. The United States took in around 100,000refugees (including German scientist Albert Einstein). Many Americans, however,wanted U.S. doors closed. Germany’s foreign minister observed: “We all want to getrid of our Jews. The difficulty is that no country wishes to receive them.”

Isolating the Jews Hitler found that he could not get rid of Jews through emigra-tion. So he put another part of his plan into effect. Hitler ordered Jews in all countriesunder his control to be moved into certain cities in Poland. In those cities, they wereherded into dismal, overcrowded ghettos, or segregated Jewish areas. The Nazis thensealed off the ghettos with barbed wire and stone walls. They wanted the Jews insideto starve or die from disease. One survivor wrote, “One sees people dying, lying witharms and legs outstretched in the middle of the road. Their legs are bloated, oftenfrostbitten, and their faces distorted with pain.”

Even under these horrible conditions, theJews hung on. Some formed resistance organi-zations within the ghettos. They smuggled infood and other needed items. In the midst ofchaos, Jews also struggled to keep their tradi-tions. Ghetto theaters produced plays and con-certs. Teachers taught lessons in secret schools.Scholars kept records so that one day peoplewould find out the truth.

B. PossibleAnswers Polandwas a weak, con-quered country, soHitler could do what-ever he wanted there;Hitler considered thePolish subhuman, sohe may have felt thathe could do whateverhe wanted in theircountry.THINK THROUGH HISTORYB. AnalyzingCauses Why mightHitler have chosenPoland to put hisghetto policy for “theJewish problem” intoeffect?

832

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833

Hitler’s “Final Solution”Hitler soon grew impatient waiting for Jews to die from starvation ordisease in the ghettos. He decided to take more direct action. Hisplan was called the “Final Solution.” It was actually a program ofgenocide, the systematic killing of an entire people.

Hitler believed that his plan of conquest depended on the purityof the Aryan race. To protect racial purity, the Nazis not only had toeliminate the Jews, but also other races, nationalities, or groups theyviewed as inferior—as “subhumans.” They included gypsies, Poles,Russians, homosexuals, the insane, the disabled, and the incurably ill.But the Nazis focused especially on the Jews.

The Mass Killings Begin After Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, itwas still not clear that the Führer meant to eliminate Jews totally. AsNazi armies swept across Eastern Europe, Hitler sent SS units fromtown to town to hunt Jews down. The SS (Hitler’s elite security force)and some thousands of collaborators rounded up Jews—men, women,young children, and even babies—and took them to isolated spots.They then shot their prisoners in pits that became the prisoners’ grave.

Jews in communities not reached by the killing squads wererounded up and taken to concentration camps, or slave-labor prisons. These campswere located mainly in Germany and Poland. Later, Nazis built camps in othercountries they occupied. (See the map on page 847.) Hitler hoped that the horribleconditions in the camps would speed the total elimination of the Jews.

The prisoners worked seven days a week as slaves for the SS or for German busi-nesses. Guards severely beat or killed their prisoners for not working fast enough.With meals of thin soup, a scrap of bread, and potato peelings, most prisoners lost 50pounds the first month. “Hunger was so intense,” recalled one survivor, “that if a bitof soup spilled over, prisoners would . . . dig their spoons into the mud and stuff themess into their mouths.”

The Final Stage: Mass Extermination The “Final Solution” officially reached itsfinal stage in early 1942. At that time, the Nazis built extermination camps equippedwith gas chambers for mass murder. The Nazis built the first six death camps inPoland. The first, Chelmno, actually began operating in late 1941. (See the map on

Slave workers inthe Buchenwaldconcentration campin Germany. Theywere among thelucky to have sur-vived to the end ofthe war. The pris-oner highlightedwith a circle isNobel Prize win-ning author ElieWiesel. (See “AVoice from thePast,” page 834.)

Nazi Medicine

Nazi doctors, such as the notoriousJosef Mengele, used manyconcentration camp prisoners asguinea pigs for their experiments.To promote “racial purity,” doctorstested sterilization methods onsome prisoners. Doctors infectedother prisoners with typhus andother deadly diseases to see howlong they could survive. To practicesurgery, student doctors wouldoperate on prisoners withoutanesthesia. In the hands of theNazis, even medicine became aninstrument of pain and destruction.

SPOTLIGHTON

Vocabularycollaborators:people who assist anoccupying enemyforce.

BackgroundNazis also slaugh-tered 5 million Poles,Soviets, and othersthey considered as“undesirables.”

831-834-0732s3 10/11/02 4:57 PM Page 833

page 847.) The huge gas chambers in the camps could kill as many as 6,000 humanbeings in a day.

When prisoners arrived at the largest of the death camps, Auschwitz (OUSH•vihts),they paraded before a committee of SS doctors. With a wave of the hand, these doc-tors separated the strong (mostly men) from the weak, who would die that day. Thosechosen to die (mostly women, young children, the elderly, and the sick) were told toundress for a shower. They were led into a chamber with fake showerheads, and thedoors closed. The prisoners were then poisoned with cyanide gas that poured from theshowerheads. Later, the Nazis installed crematoriums, or ovens, to burn the bodies.

The Survivors Six million Jews died in the death camps and inNazi massacres. Fewer than 4 million European Jews survived thehorrors of the Holocaust. Many had help from non-Jewish peoplewho were against the Nazis’ treatment of Jews. Swedish business-man Raoul Wallenberg and Protestant religious thinker DietrichBonhoeffer are just two examples of Christians who risked theirlives to oppose Hitler’s policies. These people risked their lives byhiding Jews or by helping them escape to neutral countries such asSwitzerland or Sweden.

Those who survived the camps were changed forever by what theyhad seen. For Elie Wiesel, 15 years old when he entered Auschwitz,the light had gone out:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S TNever shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I sawturned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall Iforget those flames which consumed my faith forever. . . . Never shallI forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul andturned my dreams to dust. . . . Never.ELIE WIESEL, quoted in Night

834 Chapter 32

Jewish Resistance

The 700 members of the JewishFighting Organization in the Warsawghetto were among the Jews whoresisted the horrors of Nazism. InApril 1943, most of these youngpeople lost their lives battling Nazitanks and troops who weredestroying the ghetto.

Even in the death camps, Jewsrose up against the Nazis. In August1943 at Treblinka, Poland, a smallgroup of Jews revolted. Breaking intothe armory, they stole guns andgrenades. They then attacked guardsand set fire to the gas chambers.Most of these brave fighters died.They had paid the highest pricepossible to combat Nazi atrocities.

SPOTLIGHTON

2. TAKING NOTES

Using a web diagram like the onebelow, give examples of Nazipersecutions.

3. MAKING INFERENCES

Why do you think German soldiersand the German people wentalong with the Nazi policy ofpersecution of the Jews?

THINK ABOUT• Nazi treatment of those who

disagreed• Nazi propaganda• the political and social

conditions in Germanyat the time

4. THEME ACTIVITY

Science and Technology Ingroups of three or four students,discuss the ethical dilemmas ofGerman scientists, engineers, anddoctors asked to organize andparticipate in the Holocaust.

How might they have opposedHitler’s policy? In public? In secret?What might have been the conse-quences of public opposition?

1. TERMS & NAMES

Identify• Aryans• Holocaust• Kristallnacht• ghettos• “Final Solution”• genocide

Section Assessment3

Jews Killed under Nazi Rule*

Percent Surviving

Jews Killed

Original JewishPopulation

3,300,000

2,850,000 1,252,000 56%

650,000 450,000 30%

10%3,000,000Poland

Soviet Union

Hungary

600,000 300,000 50%Romania

240,000 200,000 16 2/3%Germany/Austria

In 1941, Hitler’sgovernmentrequired all Jews inGerman-controlledterritories to wear ayellow Star of Davidwhen appearing inpublic places.

Nazi persecutions

THINK THROUGH HISTORYC. AnalyzingMotives How couldconcentration campdoctors and guardshave justified to them-selves the death andsuffering they causedother human beings?C. PossibleAnswers If theycould convince them-selves that their pris-oners were subhuman,the doctors andguards might tellthemselves that theywere not actuallykilling or torturing realhuman beings; theymight claim that theywere simply followingorders and had nochoice.

*Estimates

831-834-0732s3 10/11/02 4:57 PM Page 834

SETTING THE STAGE As 1941 came to an end, Hitler said, “Let’s hope 1942 bringsme as much good fortune as 1941.” Despite the Führer’s hopes, Germany’s victoriesslowed considerably during 1942. The United States had entered the war, boostingthe Allies’ morale and strength.

The Allies Plan for Victory On December 22, 1941, just after Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill and PresidentRoosevelt met at the White House to develop a joint war policy. Stalin had asked hisallies to relieve German pressure on his armies in the east. He wanted them to open asecond front in the west. The second front would split the Germans’strength by forcing them to fight major battles in two regions insteadof one. Churchill agreed with Stalin’s strategy: The Allies wouldweaken Germany on two fronts before dealing a deathblow. At first,Roosevelt was torn, but ultimately he agreed.

The Tide Turns on Two FrontsChurchill urged that Britain and the United States strike first atNorth Africa and southern Europe. The strategy angered Stalin. Hewanted the Allies to open the second front in France. In the mean-time, the Soviet Union would have to hold out on its own against theGermans—with the help of some supplies from its partners.Nevertheless, late in 1942, the Allies began to turn the tide of warboth in the Mediterranean and on the Eastern Front.

The North African Campaign German forces had been advancingand retreating across the North African desert since early 1941.Finally, General Erwin Rommel took the key port city of Tobruk inJune 1942. With Tobruk’s fall, London sent General BernardMontgomery—“Monty” to his men—to take control of Britishforces in North Africa. By this time, the Germans had advanced to anEgyptian village called El Alamein (al•uh•MAYN), west of Alexandria.They were dug in so well that British forces could not go aroundthem. So, Montgomery had to launch the Battle of El Alamein with amassive attack from the front. On the night of October 23, the roar ofmore than 1,700 British guns took the Axis soldiers totally by surprise.They fought back fiercely, but by November 3, Rommel’s army hadbeen beaten. He and his forces retreated westward.

As Rommel retreated west, the Allies launched Operation Torch. OnNovember 8, an Allied force of more than 107,000 troops—mostlyAmericans—landed in Morocco and Algeria. This force was led byAmerican General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Caught between the twoarmies, the Desert Fox’s Afrika Korps was finally smashed in May 1943.

The Allies Are Victorious

4TERMS & NAMES

• Erwin Rommel• Bernard Montgomery• Dwight D. Eisenhower• Battle of Stalingrad• D-Day• Battle of the Bulge• kamikaze

MAIN IDEA

Led by the United States, Great Britain,and the Soviet Union, the Allies scoredkey victories and won the war.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

The Allies’ victory in World War II setup conditions for both the Cold Warand today’s post-Cold War world.

BackgroundMontgomery, likeRommel himself, useddummy regimentsbuilt from timber andcanvas. They wereintended to fool theenemy into thinkingthat forces were sta-tioned where, in fact,they were not.

World War II 835

General Erwin Rommel

1891–1944

On July 20, 1944, a plot toassassinate Hitler by a group ofGerman officers failed. Undertorture, one conspirator accusedwar hero General Erwin Rommel ofinvolvement in the plot. The newsshook and enraged Hitler, sinceRommel had always been devotedto him.

Was Rommel actually involved?Evidence indicates that he wasready to bypass Hitler andpersonally negotiate for peace withthe Allies. However, many believethat he knew nothing of the plot.Hitler believed that he did. Heoffered Rommel a choice—a publictrial or suicide and a state funeral.On October 14, 1944, Rommel tookpoison and died.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■HISTORY MAKERS

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836 Chapter 32

BackgroundAs the Alliesadvanced, the Italianresistance aided themby blowing upbridges, roads, andrail lines; cutting tele-phone lines; andambushing Germantrucks.

Turning Point at Stalingrad AsRommel suffered defeats in NorthAfrica, German armies also mettheir match in the Soviet Union.They had stalled at Leningrad andMoscow. Germans suffered heavylosses in battle because of theRussian winter. When the summerof 1942 arrived, German tanks wereagain ready to roll. Hitler sent hisSixth Army south to seize the rich oilfields in the Caucasus Mountains.The army was also to captureStalingrad (now Volgograd) on theVolga River. With its 500,000 people,Stalingrad was a major industrialcenter.

The Battle of Stalingrad beganon August 23, 1942. The Luftwaffewent on nightly bombing raids thatset much of the city ablaze andreduced the rest to rubble. The situ-ation looked desperate. Nonetheless,Stalin had already told his comman-ders to defend the city named afterhim at all costs. “Not one step back-ward,” he ordered.

By early November 1942,Germans controlled 90 percent ofthe ruined city. Stalingrad was an“enormous cloud of burning, blind-ing smoke,” as one German officerwrote. Then, another Russian winter

set in. On November 19, Soviet troops outside the city launched a counterattack.Closing in around Stalingrad, they trapped the Germans inside and cut off their sup-plies. Hitler’s commander, General Friedrich von Paulus, begged him to order aretreat. But Hitler refused, saying the city was “to be held at all costs.”

On February 2, 1943, some 90,000 frostbitten, half-starved German troops surren-dered to the Soviets. These pitiful survivors were all that remained of an army of330,000. Stalingrad’s defense had cost the Soviets over 1 million soldiers. The city theydefended was 99 percent destroyed. After Stalingrad, however, the Germans were onthe defensive, with the Soviets pushing them steadily westward.

The Invasion of Italy As the Battle of Stalingrad raged, Stalin continued to urgethe British and the Americans to invade France. In January 1943, Roosevelt andChurchill met at Casablanca, Morocco, and decided to attack Italy first. On July 10,1943, Allied forces of 180,000 soldiers landed on Sicily and captured it from Italianand German troops by August.

The conquest of Sicily toppled Mussolini from power. On July 25, King VictorEmmanuel III fired the dictator and had him arrested. On September 3, Italy surren-dered. But the Germans seized control of northern Italy and put Mussolini back incharge. Finally, the Germans retreated northward, and the victorious Allies enteredRome on June 4, 1944. Fighting in Italy, however, continued until Germany fell inMay 1945. On April 28, 1945, as the Germans were retreating from northern Italy, theItalian resistance ambushed some trucks. Inside one of them, resistance fighters

A. PossibleAnswers The armyfighting on its ownsoil would know theterritory better thanthe invading army; itwould have the sup-port of the local popu-lation, which theinvaders would not; itwould have the addi-tional energy thatcomes with defendingone’s own home.THINK THROUGH HISTORYA. MakingInferences Whatadvantages might aweaker army fightingon its home soil haveover a stronger invad-ing army?

40° E

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CZECHOSLOVAKIA

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GREAT

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NETH.IRELAND

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TRANS-JORDAN

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IRAQ

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LEBANON

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LondonDunkirk

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Warsaw

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Crete

Moscow

Leningrad

Stalingrad

Tobruk

El Alamein

EASTPRUSSIA

0 500 Miles

0 1,000 Kilometers Axis nations, 1938Axis-controlled, 1942AlliesNeutral nationsAllied advances

World War II: Allied Advances,1942–1945

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBU ILDER : Interpreting Maps 1. Region Which European countries remained neutral during

World War II?2. Movement What seems to be the destination for most of the

Allied advances that took place in Europe during 1943–1944?

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found Mussolini disguised as a German soldier. The following day, he was shot, andhis body was hanged in the Milan town square.

Life on Allied Home Fronts Wherever Allied forces fought, people on the home fronts rallied to support them. Inwar-torn countries like the Soviet Union or Great Britain, civilians lost their lives andendured extreme hardships. Except for a few of its territories, such as Hawaii, theUnited States did not suffer invasion or bombing. Nonetheless, Americans at homemade a crucial contribution to the Allied war effort. Americans produced the weaponsand equipment that would help win the war.

Mobilizing for Total War Defeating the Axis powers required mobilizing for totalwar. In the United States, factories converted their peacetime operations to wartimeproduction and made everything from machine guns to boots. Automobile factoriesproduced tanks. A U.S. typewriter company made armor-piercing shells. By 1944,almost 18 million U.S. workers—many of them women—were working in war industries.

With factories turning out products for the war, a shortage of consumer goods hitthe United States. From meat and sugar to tires and gasoline, from nylon stockings tolaundry soap, the American government rationed scarce items. Setting the speed limitat 35 miles per hour also helped to save on gasoline and rubber. In European coun-tries directly affected by the war, rationing was even more drastic.

To inspire their people to greater efforts, Allied governments conducted highlyeffective propaganda campaigns. In the Soviet Union, a Moscow youngster collectedenough scrap metal to produce 14,000 artillery shells. Another Russian family, theShirmanovs, used their life savings to buy a tank for the Red Army. In the UnitedStates, youngsters saved their pennies and bought government war stamps and bondsto help finance the war.

Civil Rights Curtailed by the War Government propaganda also had a negativeeffect. After Pearl Harbor, a wave of prejudice arose in the United States against the127,000 Japanese Americans. Most lived in Hawaii and on the West Coast. The bomb-ing of Pearl Harbor frightened Americans. This fear, encouraged by government pro-paganda, was turned against Japanese Americans. They were suddenly seen as “theenemy.” On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt set up a program of internmentand loss of property, since Japanese Americans were considered a threat to the country.

In March, the military began rounding up “aliens” and shipping them to relocationcamps. Two-thirds of those interned were Nisei, or Japanese Americans who werenative-born American citizens. The camps were restricted military areas located away

Vocabularyrationed: distributedin limited amounts.

World War II 837

B. Possible AnswerIt would be easier toget Americans’ sup-port to fight theJapanese if theybelieved they wereopposing evil.THINK THROUGH HISTORYB. AnalyzingMotives Why didU.S. government pro-paganda try to portraythe Japanese assinister?

These dazed, freez-ing, and starvedGerman prisonerswere actually luckyto be alive. About240,000 Germansdied during the bat-tle for the city ofStalingrad.

Vocabularyinternment:detention.

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BackgroundThe name D-Daycame from the wordsdesignated + day.

from the coast. With such a location, it was thought that the Nisei could not partici-pate in an invasion. From 1941 until 1946, the United States imprisoned some 31,275people it wrongly considered “enemy aliens (foreigners).” Most of those prisonerswere American citizens of Japanese descent.

Allied Victory in EuropeWhile the Allies were dealing with issues on the home front, theywere preparing to push toward victory in Europe. By the end of1942, the war had begun to turn in favor of the Allies. By 1943, theAllies began secretly building a force in Great Britain. Their plan wasto attack the Germans across the English Channel.

The D-Day Invasion By May 1944, the invasion force was ready.Thousands of planes, ships, tanks, landing craft, and 3.5 million troopsawaited orders to attack. American General Dwight D. Eisenhower,the commander of this enormous force, planned to strike on the coastof Normandy, in northwestern France. The Germans knew that anattack was coming. But they did not know where it would belaunched. To keep Hitler guessing, the Allies set up a huge dummyarmy with its own headquarters and equipment. They ordered themake-believe army to attack at the French seaport of Calais (ka•LAY).

Code-named Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy wasthe greatest land and sea attack in history. The day chosen for theinvasion to begin—called D-Day—was June 6, 1944.

At dawn on June 6, British, American, French, and Canadiantroops fought their way onto a 60-mile stretch of beach inNormandy. The Germans had dug in with machine guns, rocketlaunchers, and cannons. They protected themselves behind concretewalls three feet thick. Among the Americans alone, 3,000 soldiersdied on the beach that day. Captain Joseph Dawson said, “The beachwas a total chaos, with men’s bodies everywhere, with wounded mencrying both in the water and on the shingle [coarse gravel].”

Despite heavy casualties, the Allies held the beachheads. A monthlater, more than 1 million additional troops had landed. On July 25,the Allies punched a hole in the German defenses near Saint-Lô(san•LOH), and General George Patton’s Third Army raced through.

Glider landing areas

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21st ARMY GROUP COMMANDER OF GROUND FORCES

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The D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBU ILDER : Interpreting Maps 1. Human–Environment Interaction What environmental problem might

have been encountered by 1st Army soldiers landing at Utah Beach?2. Movement Looking at the map, what might have been the Allied

strategy behind parachuting troops into France?

General Dwight Eisenhower

1890–1969

In his career, U.S. General DwightEisenhower had shown anuncommon ability to work with allkinds of people—even competitiveAllies. His Chief of Staff said ofEisenhower, “The sun rises and setson him for me.” He was also wildlypopular with the troops, whoaffectionately called him “Uncle Ike.”

So, it was not a surprise when inDecember 1943, U.S. Army Chief ofStaff George Marshall namedEisenhower as supremecommander of the Allied forces inEurope. The new commander’s“people skills” enabled him to joinAmerican and British forcestogether to put a permanent end toNazi aggression.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■HISTORY MAKERS

Vocabularybeachheads: enemyshoreline capturedjust before invadingforces move inland.

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World War II 839

Soon, the Germans were retreating. On August 25, the Allies marched triumphantlyinto Paris. By September, they had liberated France, Belgium, Luxembourg, andmuch of the Netherlands. They then set their sights on Germany.

The Battle of the Bulge As Allied forces moved toward Germany from the west, theSoviet army was advancing toward Germany from the east. Hitler now faced a war ontwo fronts. In a desperate gamble, the Führer decided to counterattack in the west. TheFührer hoped a victory would split American and British forces and break up Allied sup-ply lines. Explaining the reasoning behind his plan, Hitler said, “This battle is to decidewhether we shall live or die. . . . All resistance must be broken in a wave of terror.”

On December 16, German tanks broke through weak American defenses along an85-mile front in the Ardennes. The push into the Allied lines gave the campaign itsname—the Battle of the Bulge. Although caught off guard, the Allies eventuallypushed the Germans back and won. The Nazis could do little but retreat, since Hitlerhad lost men that he could no longer replace.

Germany’s Unconditional Surrender After the Battle of the Bulge, the war inEurope neared its end. In late March 1945, the Allies rolled across the Rhine Riverinto Germany. By the middle of April, a noose was closing around Berlin. Threemillion Allied soldiers approached Berlin from the southwest. Sixmillion Soviet troops approached from the east—some of them just40 miles from the capital. By April 25, 1945, the Soviets had sur-rounded the capital, as their artillery pounded the city.

While Soviet shells burst over Berlin, Hitler prepared for his end inan underground headquarters beneath the crumbling city. On April29, he married his long-time companion, Eva Braun. He also wrote hisfinal address to the German people. In it, he blamed Jews for startingthe war and his generals for losing it. “I myself and my wife choose todie in order to escape the disgrace of . . . capitulation,” he said. “I diewith a happy heart aware of the immeasurable deeds of our soldiers atthe front.” Two days later, Hitler shot himself after taking poison. Hisnew wife simply swallowed poison. The bodies were then carried out-side and burned.

On May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditionalsurrender of the Third Reich from the German military. PresidentRoosevelt, however, did not live to witness the long-awaited victory.He had died suddenly on April 12, as Allied armies were advancingtoward Berlin. Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, received thenews of the Nazi surrender. On May 8, the surrender was officiallysigned in Berlin. The United States and other Allied powers cele-brated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe hadended at last.

Victory in the Pacific Although the war in Europe was over, the Allies were still fighting the Japanese in thePacific. With the Allied victory at Guadalcanal, however, the Japanese advances in thePacific had been stopped. For the rest of the war, the Japanese retreated before thecounterattack of the Allied powers.

The Japanese Retreat By the fall of 1944, the Allies were moving in on Japan. InOctober, Allied forces landed on the island of Leyte (LAY•tee) in the Philippines.General MacArthur, who had been forced to surrender the islands in February 1942,waded ashore. He then declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned.”

Actually, the takeover would not be quite that easy. The Japanese had decided todestroy the American fleet. The Allies could not then resupply their ground troops. To

Dresden

On the night of February 13, 1945,800 British and American bomberslaunched a massive air attack onDresden, a German city southeastof Berlin. During the bombing,some 4,000 tons of explosives weredropped, creating ragingfirestorms. One author describedthe city as a “furnace fueled bypeople,” as its citizens—mostlywomen, children, and the elderly—burned to death. Estimates of thosekilled vary from 35,000 to 135,000.

The firestorm reduced Dresdento rubble, accomplishing noimportant military goals but killingmany civilians. Dresden has cometo symbolize the strategy of “totalwar”: massive attacks on bothmilitary and civilian targets tobreak a country’s fighting spirit.

SPOTLIGHTON

Vocabularycapitulation:surrender.

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The Atomic BombOn the eve of World War II, scientists in Germany succeeded insplitting the nucleus of a uranium atom, releasing a huge amount ofenergy. Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt andwarned him that Nazi Germany might be working to develop atomic

weapons. Roosevelt responded by giving hisapproval for an American program, later

code-named the Manhattan Project, todevelop an atomic bomb. Roosevelt’sdecision set off a race to assure thatthe United States would be the first todevelop the bomb.

840

Making Inferences Whatadvantages did the United Stateshave over Germany in the race todevelop the atomic bomb?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R16

Contrast If you had to design amemorial to the victims of theHiroshima and Nagasaki bomb-ings, what symbol would you use?Make a sketch of your memorial.

Connect to Today

Connect to HistoryPatterns of InteractionJust as in World War I, the conflicts of World War II spurred the development ofever more powerful weapons. Mightier tanks, more elusive submarines, fasterfighter planes—all emerged from this period. From ancient times to the presentday, the pattern remains the same: Every new weapon causes other countries todevelop others of similar or greater force. This pattern results in a deadly race foran ultimate weapon: for example, the atomic bomb.

Hiroshima: Day of Fire

Effects of the bombing

A boy carries his brother through the leveled city ofNagasaki. This is one of a series of photos taken byJapanese photographer Yosuke Yamahata soon afterthe atomic bomb devastated the city on August 9, 1945.

VIDEO Arming for War: Modern and Medieval Weapons

My body seemed all black,everything seemed dark, darkall over. . . . Then I thought,“The world is ending.”An Atomic Bomb Survivor

My body seemed all black,everything seemed dark, darkall over. . . . Then I thought,“The world is ending.”An Atomic Bomb Survivor

Nagasaki citizens trudge through the still smoldering ruins oftheir city in another photo by Yosuke Yamahata.

Ground temperatures 7,000°FHurricane force winds 980 miles per hourEnergy released 20,000 tons of TNTBuildings destroyed 62,000 buildingsKilled immediately 70,000 peopleDead by the end of 1945 140,000 peopleTotal deaths related to A-bomb 210,000 people

The overwhelming destructive power of the Hiroshimabomb, and of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki three dayslater, changed the nature of war forever. Nucleardestruction also led to questions about the ethics ofscientists and politicians who chose to use the bomb.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the B-29bomber Enola Gay, flown by commander ColonelPaul W. Tibbets, Jr., took off from Tinian Island inthe Mariana Islands. At precisely 8:16 A.M., theatomic bomb exploded above Hiroshima, a cityon the Japanese island of Honshu.

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carry out this strategy, the Japanese had to risk almost their entire fleet. They gambledeverything on October 23, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Within three days, theJapanese navy had lost disastrously—eliminating it as a fighting force in the war. Now,only the Japanese army and the feared kamikaze stood between the Allies and Japan.The kamikaze were Japanese suicide pilots. They would sink Allied ships by crash-diving into them in their bomb-filled planes.

In March 1945, after a month of bitter fighting and heavy losses, American Marinestook Iwo Jima (EE•wuh JEE•muh), an island 660 miles from Tokyo. On April 1, U.S.troops moved to the island of Okinawa, only about 350 miles from southern Japan.The Japanese put up a desperate fight. Nevertheless, on June 22, the bloodiest landbattle of the war ended. The Japanese lost 110,000 troops, and the Americans, 12,500.

The Atomic Bomb Brings Japanese Surrender After Okinawa, the next stop hadto be Japan. President Truman’s advisers had informed him that an invasion of theJapanese homeland might cost the Allies half a million lives. Truman had to make adecision whether to use a powerful new weapon called the atomic bomb, or A-bomb.The A-bomb would bring the war to the quickest possible end. It had been developedby the top-secret Manhattan Project, headed by General Leslie Groves and chief sci-entist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The Manhattan Project became a major spending itemin U.S. military budgets. Truman only learned of the new bomb’s existence when hebecame president.

The first atomic bomb was exploded in a desert in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.President Truman then warned the Japanese. He told them that unless they surrendered,they could expect a “rain of ruin from the air.” The Japanese did not reply. So, on August6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese city of365,000 people. Almost 73,000 people died in the attack. Three days later, on August 9, asecond bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a city of 200,000. It killed about 37,500 people.Radiation killed many more. A Japanese journalist described the horror in Hiroshima:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S TWithin a few seconds the thousands of people in the streets and the gardens in the cen-ter of the town were scorched by a wave of searing heat. Many were killed instantly,others lay writhing on the ground, screaming in agony from the intolerable pain of theirburns. Everything standing upright in the way of the blast, walls, houses, factories, andother buildings, was annihilated.JAPANESE JOURNALIST, quoted in The American Heritage Picture History of World War II

The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2. Thesurrender took place aboard the United States battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. WithJapan’s surrender, the war had ended. Now, countries faced the task of rebuilding awar-torn world.

2. TAKING NOTES

Create a chart like the one below,listing outcomes of the followingWorld War II battles.

Which battle do you think wasmost important in turning the warin favor of the Allies? Why?

3. SUMMARIZING

Based on what you have read inthis section, how do governmentsgather support for a war effort onthe home front?

THINK ABOUT• the economy• forms of propaganda• individual participation in the

war effort

4. ANALYZING THEMES

Science and Technology Doyou think President Truman madethe correct decision by orderingthe atomic bomb dropped onHiroshima and Nagasaki? Why orwhy not?

THINK ABOUT• the likely consequences if the

atomic bomb had not beendropped

• the destruction caused by theatomic bomb

• World War II after the droppingof the atomic bomb

1. TERMS & NAMES

Identify• Erwin Rommel• Bernard Montgomery• Dwight Eisenhower• Battle of Stalingrad• D-Day• Battle of the Bulge• kamikaze

Section Assessment4

C. PossibleAnswers Yes—TheJapanese did not sur-render until after thesecond bomb wasdropped. No—Thedeath and destructioncaused by the firstbomb was enough toprove to theJapanese what wasin store if they did notsurrender.

THINK THROUGH HISTORYC. Forming anOpinion Was itnecessary to drop thesecond atomic bombon Nagasaki?

Battle

Battle of El Alamein

Battle of Stalingrad

D-Day Invasion

Battle of the Bulge

Outcome

World War II 841

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SETTING THE STAGE Allied victory in the war had been achieved at a high price.World War II had caused more death and destruction than any other conflict in history.It left 60 million dead, 50 million uprooted from their homes, and property damagethat ran into billions of U.S. dollars.

Europe in RuinsBy the end of World War II, Europe lay in ruins. Close to 40 million Europeans haddied—two-thirds of them civilians. Constant bombing and shelling had reduced hun-dreds of cities to rubble. The ground war had destroyed much of the countryside.Displaced persons from many nations were struggling to get home.

A Harvest of Destruction A few of the great cities of Europe—Paris, Rome,Brussels—remained undamaged by war. Many, however, had suffered terrible destruc-tion. The Blitz left blackened ruins in London. Over five years, 60,595 London civilianshad died in the German bombings. Eastern Europe and Germany were far worse off.Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was almost wiped from the face of the earth. In 1939,Warsaw had a population of 1,289,000 people. When the Soviets entered the city inJanuary 1945, only 153,000 people remained. In Berlin, 25,000 tons of Allied bombshad demolished 95 percent of the central city. One U.S. officer stationed in Berlinreported, “Wherever we looked we saw desolation. It was like a city of the dead.”

After the bombings, many civiliansstayed where they were and tried to geton with their lives. Some lived in partiallydestroyed homes or apartments. Othershuddled in caves and cellars beneath therubble. They had no water, no electricity,and very little food. Hunger was a con-stant companion. With factories destroyedor damaged, most people had no earningsto buy the food that was available.

Although many remained in the cities,a large number of city dwellers fled. Theyjoined the army of displaced persons wan-dering Europe following the war. Thesedisplaced persons included the survivorsof concentration camps, prisoners of war,and refugees fleeing the Soviet army.Millions found themselves in the wrongcountry when the postwar treatieschanged national borders. They jammedthe roads trying to get home, hoping tofind their families or to find a safe place.

Winston Churchilllooks at Nazifirebomb damage tothe British House ofCommons.

BackgroundTwo-thirds of thedeaths in the waroccurred in Europe,making the war therefar bloodier than inAsia.

The Devastation ofEurope and Japan

5TERMS & NAMES

• NurembergTrials

• demilitarization

MAIN IDEA

World War II cost millions of humanlives and billions of dollars in damages.It left Europe and Japan in ruins.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

The United States survived World War IIundamaged, allowing it to become aworld leader.

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World War II 843

Simon Weisenthal described the search made by survivors of the Holocaust:

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S TAcross Europe a wild tide of frantic survivors was flowing. . . . Many of them didn’t reallyknow where to go. . . . And yet the survivors continued their pilgrimage of despair, sleep-ing on highways or in railroad stations, waiting for another train, another horse-drawncart to come along, always driven to hope. “Perhaps someone is still alive. . . .” Someonemight tell where to find a wife, a mother, children, a brother—or whether they weredead. . . . The desire to find one’s people was stronger than hunger, thirst, fatigue.SIMON WEISENTHAL, quoted in Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust

Misery Continues After the War Although the war had ended, misery in Europecontinued for years. Europe lay ravaged by the fighting. Agriculture was disrupted. Mostable-bodied men had served in the military and the women had worked in war produc-tion. Few remained to plant the fields. With the transportation system destroyed, themeager harvests often did not reach the cities. Thousands died as famine and diseasespread through the bombed-out cities. In August 1945, 4,000 citizens of Berlin diedevery day. To get a few potatoes, people would barter any valuable items they had left.The first post-war winter brought more suffering as people went without shoes and coats.

Postwar Governments and PoliticsDespairing Europeans often blamed their leaders for the war and its aftermath. Oncethe Germans had lost, some prewar governments—like those in Belgium, Holland,Denmark, and Norway—returned quickly. In countries like Germany, Italy, andFrance, however, a return to the old leadership was not so simple. Hitler’s Nazi gov-ernment had brought Germany to ruins. Mussolini had led Italy to defeat. The Vichygovernment had collaborated with the Nazis. Much of the old leadership was in dis-grace. Besides, in Italy and France, many resistance fighters were Communists.

After the war, the Communist Party promised change, and millions were ready tolisten. In both France and Italy, Communist Party membership skyrocketed. TheCommunists made huge gains in the first postwar elections. Anxiousto speed up a political takeover, the Communists staged a series ofviolent strikes. Alarmed French and Italians reacted by voting foranti-Communist parties. Communist membership and influence thenbegan to decline. And they declined even more so as the economiesof France and Italy began to recover.

An Attempt at Justice: The Nuremberg Trials While nationswere struggling to recover politically and economically, they alsowere trying to deal with Germany’s guilt in the Holocaust. To makesure that such crimes would never happen again, the Allies put Nazison trial. In 1946, an International Military Tribunal representing 23nations put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, Germany. Inthe first of the Nuremberg Trials, 22 Nazi leaders were chargedwith waging a war of aggression. They were also accused of violatingthe laws of war and of committing “crimes against humanity”—themurder of 11 million people.

Führer Adolf Hitler, SS chief Heinrich Himmler, and Minister ofPropaganda Joseph Goebbels had escaped trial by committing sui-cide. However, Marshal Hermann Göring, Deputy Führer RudolfHess, and other high ranking Nazi leaders had to face the charges.

Of the 22 defendants, 12 were sentenced to death. Göringcheated the executioner by killing himself. The rest were hanged onOctober 16, 1946. Hans Frank, the “Slayer of Poles,” was the only convicted Nazi toexpress remorse: “A thousand years will pass,” he said, “and still this guilt of Germany

Vocabularybarter: to trade goodsand services withoutmoney.

Genocide in Rwanda

Genocide is a crime that humanbeings have committed against oneanother throughout history. In April1994, the president of the EastAfrican nation of Rwanda died in asuspicious plane crash. Thepresident was a member of theHutu tribe. In Rwanda, the Hutu andTutsi tribes have long hated andfought each other.

After the president’s death,about 1 million Tutsis wereslaughtered by the majority Hutus.In the end, Tutsi rebels ended theworst of the genocide.

The United Nations has set upan international war crimestribunal to judge the worst acts ofgenocide. Yet, many criminals arestill at large, and ethnic conflict inRwanda continues.

CONNECT to TODAY

THINK THROUGH HISTORYA. IdentifyingProblems Whymight it have beendifficult to find demo-cratic governmentleaders in post-NaziGermany?A. Possible AnswerSince Germany’sentire leadership hadbeen Nazi for 12years, no democraticleaders had beenallowed to develop.

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will not have been erased.” The bodies of those executed were burned at the concen-tration camp of Dachau (DAHK•ow). They were cremated in the same ovens that hadburned so many of their victims.

The Effects of Defeat in JapanThe defeat suffered by Japan in World War II left the country in ruins. Two million liveshad been lost in the war. The country’s major cities had been largely destroyed by Alliedbombing raids, including the capital, Tokyo. The atomic bomb had left Hiroshima andNagasaki as blackened wastelands. The Allies had stripped Japan of its colonial empire.They even took away areas that had belonged to the Japanese for centuries.

The United States Occupies Japan Even after these disasters, some Japanese mili-tary leaders wanted to continue the fight. In a radio broadcast on August 15, 1945,Emperor Hirohito urged the Japanese people to lay down their arms and worktogether to rebuild Japan. “Should we continue to fight,” he declared, “it would only

result in an ultimate collapse . . . of the Japanesenation.” Two weeks after that broadcast, GeneralDouglas MacArthur, now supreme commander forthe Allied powers, accepted the Japanese surrender.He took charge of the U.S. occupation.

Demilitarization in Japan MacArthur was deter-mined to be fair and not to plant the seeds for a futurewar. Nevertheless, to ensure that fighting would end,he began a process of demilitarization—disbandingthe Japanese armed forces. He achieved this quickly,leaving the Japanese with only a small police force.MacArthur also began bringing war criminals to trial.Out of 25 surviving defendants, former PremierHideki Tojo and six others were condemned to hang.

The general then turned his attention to democ-ratization—the process of creating a governmentelected by the people. In February 1946, MacArthurand his American political advisers drew up a newconstitution. It changed the empire into a parlia-mentary democracy like that of Great Britain. TheJapanese accepted the constitution. It went intoeffect on May 3, 1947.

MacArthur was not told to revive the Japaneseeconomy. However, he was instructed to broaden

land ownership and increase the participation of workers and farmers in the newdemocracy. Absentee landlords with huge estates had to sell land to tenant farmers atreasonable prices. Workers could now create independent labor unions. Still bitterover Pearl Harbor, Americans did not provide much aid for rebuilding Japan. TheUnited States did send 2 billion dollars in emergency relief. This was a small amount,however, considering the task that lay ahead.

U.S. Occupation Brings Deep ChangesThe new constitution was the most important achievement of the occupation. Itbrought deep changes to Japanese society. In 1945, the Japanese had agreed to sur-render. They insisted, however, that “the supreme power of the emperor not be com-promised.” The Allies agreed, but now things had changed. A long Japanese traditionhad viewed the emperor as a god. He was also an absolute ruler whose divine will waslaw. The emperor now had to declare that he was not a god. That admission was as

B. Possible AnswerThe reduced militaryinfluence of militaryleaders and increasedeconomic poweramong the Japanesepeople might result ina wider sharing ofpower in Japan.THINK THROUGH HISTORYB. MakingInferences Howwould demilitarizationand a revived econ-omy help Japanachieve democracy?

844 Chapter 32

Emperor Hirohitoand U.S. GeneralDouglas MacArthurlook distant anduncomfortable asthey pose for aphoto. The photowas taken in theAmerican Embassyin Tokyo onSeptember 27, 1945.

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Direct War CostsMilitaryKilled/Missing Civilians Killed

shocking to the Japanese as defeat. His power was also dramatically reduced as hebecame a constitutional monarch. Like the ruler of Great Britain, the emperorbecame largely a figurehead—a symbol of Japan.

The new constitution guaranteed that real political power in Japan rested with thepeople. The people elected a two-house parliament, called the Diet. All citizens overthe age of 20, including women, had the right to vote. The government was led by aprime minister chosen by a majority of the Diet. A constitutional bill of rights pro-tected basic freedoms. One more key provision—Article 9—stated that the Japanesecould no longer make war. They could only fight if attacked.

In September 1951, the United States and 48 other nations signed a formal peacetreaty with Japan. The treaty officially ended the war. With no armed forces, theJapanese also agreed to continuing U.S. military protection for their country. Sixmonths later, the U.S. occupation of Japan was over. Relieved of the burden of payingfor the occupation, Japan’s economy recovered more quickly. With the official end ofthe war, the United States and Japan became allies.

In the postwar world, however, enemies not only became allies. Allies also becameenemies. World War II had changed the political landscape of Europe. It weakenedsome nations and strengthened others. The Soviet Union and the United States hadcome out of the war as allies. Nevertheless, once the fighting was over, the differencesin their postwar goals emerged. These differences stirred up conflicts that wouldshape the modern world for decades.

C. Possible AnswerThe Japanese were tohave a constitutionalmonarch, just like theBritish. The Americansystem had no placefor monarchs.THINK THROUGH HISTORYC. AnalyzingCauses Why did theAmericans choose theBritish system of gov-ernment for theJapanese, instead ofthe American system?

2. TAKING NOTES

Using a Venn diagram like the onebelow, compare and contrast theaftermath of World War II inEurope and Japan.

3. ANALYZING CAUSES

Why do you think that manyEuropeans favored communismdirectly following World War II?

THINK ABOUT• World War II destruction• pre-World War II governments• economic concerns

4. THEME ACTIVITY

Economics Draw a politicalcartoon from a Japaneseabsentee landlord’s orindustrialist’s point of view onMacArthur’s postwar economicreforms. Remember thatMacArthur is an American makingimportant changes in a countrythat is not his own.

1. TERMS & NAMES

Identify• Nuremberg Trials• demilitarization

Section Assessment5

SKILLBU ILDER : Interpreting Charts1. Which of the nations listed in the chart

suffered the greatest human costs?2. How does U.S. spending on the war compare

with the spending of Germany and Japan?

United States

Great Britain

France

USSR

Germany

Japan

*In 1994 dollars.**An additional 115,187 servicemen died from non-battle

causes.***Before surrender to Nazis.

†Includes 65,000 murdered Jews.††Includes about 170,000 murdered Jews and 56,000

foreign civilians in Germany.

Europeonly

Both Japanonly

World War II 845

$288.0 billion*

$117.0 billion

$111.3 billion

$93.0 billion

$212.3 billion

$41.3 billion

292,131**

271,311

205,707***

13,600,000

3,300,000

1,140,429

—

60,595

173,260†

7,720,000

2,893,000††

953,000

Costs of World War II: Allies and Axis

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32

1. blitzkrieg

2. Atlantic Charter

3. Isoroku Yamamoto

4. Battle of Midway

5. Holocaust

6. Final Solution

7. genocide

8. D-Day

9. Nuremberg Trials

10. demilitarization

REVIEW QUESTIONS

SECTION 1 (pages 821–826)

Hitler’s Lightning War11. What event finally unleashed World War II?

12. Why was capturing Egypt’s Suez Canal so important to the Axispowers?

SECTION 2 (pages 827–830)

Japan Strikes in the Pacific13. What was Yamamoto’s objective at Pearl Harbor?

14. How did Japan try to win support from other Asian countries?

SECTION 3 (pages 831–834)

The Holocaust15. Name two tactics that Hitler used to rid Germany of Jews before

creating his “Final Solution.”

16. What tactics did Hitler use during the “Final Solution”?

SECTION 4 (pages 835–841)

The Allies Are Victorious17. Why were items rationed during the war?

18. What was Operation Overlord?

SECTION 5 (pages 842–845)

The Devastation of Europe and Japan19. Why did Europeans leave their homes following the war?

20. What were two of the most important steps that MacArthur took inJapan following the war?

Chapter Assessment

TERMS & NAMESBriefly explain the importance of each of the following during and afterWorld War II.

Events of World War II

Visual Summary

846 Chapter 32

Interact with History

On page 820, you had to decidewhether to bomb the civilian popu-lation in an enemy city to shorten awar. Now that you have read thechapter, what bombing incidents inWorld War II seem to reflect adecision to bomb civilians to speedvictory? Remember to considerbombings carried out by both sidesin the war.

Dec. 1944 Battle ofthe Bulge begins

Aug. 1939Nonaggression pactbetween Germanyand the Soviet Union

Sept. 1939 Germanyinvades Poland;World War II beginsMay 1940Evacuation of Britishforces at DunkirkJun. 1940France surren-ders; the Battle ofBritain begins

Aug. 1942Hitler orders attackon Stalingrad

Jun. 1941Germany invades theSoviet Union

Nov. 1942Allies land in North Africa

Feb. 1943Germans surrender at Stalingrad

Jun. 1944Allies invadeEurope on D-Day

Dec. 1941Japanese attack PearlHarbor; U.S. declareswar on Japan

Apr. 1942Allies surrender inPhilippines; BataanDeath March beginsMay 1942 Allies turnback Japanese fleetin Battle of the Coral Sea

Jun. 1942Allies defeat Japan inBattle of Midway

Oct. 1944Allies defeat Japan inBattle of Leyte Gulf

Feb. 1943Japanese abandonthe island ofGuadalcanal

Mar. 1945 Alliescapture Iwo Jima

Jun. 1945 Alliescapture Okinawa

Aug. 1945Atomic bombsdropped on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

Sep. 1945 Japansurrenders

Europe

May 1945 Germanysurrenders

Pacific

846-847-0732ca 10/11/02 4:58 PM Page 846

CHAPTER ACTIVITIES1. LIVING HISTORY: Unit Portfolio Project

Your unit portfolio project focuses on howscience and technology influence history. For Chapter 32, you might use oneof the following ideas.

• Do research and create a set of science and technology cards forimportant inventions developed during World War II. Use the followingcategories: Name of Invention, Country, Year, Use in the War, Use Today.

• Write a list of five questions that you would ask Robert Oppenheimer ifyou were on a committee deciding whether to develop an atomic bomb.

• Do research and create a science and technology time line for 1935–1945.Include major war events and five scientific/technological developments.

2. CONNECT TO TODAY: Cooperative Learning

During World War II, many nations, including the UnitedStates, converted their consumer-goods factories to produce vital productsfor the war effort. Today many of those factories still exist but are back toproducing consumer goods.

Work with a team to prepare a short “company history.”

Using the Internet, library, magazines, or Chamber of Commerce, doresearch on a consumer-goods company. (A consumer-goods

company makes products for personal use or enjoyment—for example, cars,radios, clothing.) Look for a company that was around before 1945. (Severalof today’s important car and appliance manufacturers, as well asmanufacturers of steel, tires, detergents, etc., existed before 1945.)

As you come up with ideas, try to find answers to questions such as: Whatproducts did the company make before World War II? During the war?After? What were working conditions like during the war? After the war? Ina two- to three-page paper, write your company history. Include copies ofany articles, photographs, or pictures that you find about the company.

3. INTERPRETING A TIME LINE

Revisit the unit time line on pages 738–739. Which two leaders do you thinkhad the largest impact on events between 1939 and 1945? Why?

CRITICAL THINKING1. WAR LEADERS

Consider the personalities, tactics, and policies ofHitler, Rommel, MacArthur, and Churchill. Whatqualities do you think make a good war leader?

2. WORLD WAR II BATTLES

Below is a list of World War II battles/conflicts. Copythe chart on your paper and specify for each whetherthe Axis powers or the Allied powers gained anadvantage over their enemies.

3. WAR GOALS

Compare and contrastJapan’s and Germany’s goals in World War II.

4. ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES

The following quotation comes from the August 29,1945, edition of The Christian Century, a prominentProtestant journal. In this passage, the writer raisesquestions about the American use of the atomicbomb on the Japanese.

A V O I C E F R O M T H E P A S TPerhaps it was inevitable that the bomb wouldultimately be employed to bring Japan to thepoint of surrender. . . . But there was no militaryadvantage in hurling the bomb upon Japan with-out warning. The least we might have done wasto announce to our foe that we possessed theatomic bomb; that its destructive power wasbeyond anything known in warfare; and that itsterrible effectiveness had been experimentallydemonstrated in this country. . . . If she [Japan]doubted the good faith of our representations, itwould have been a simple matter to select ademonstration target in the enemy’s own countryat a place where the loss of human life would beat a minimum. If, despite such warning, Japanhad still held out, we would have been in a farless questionable position had we then droppedthe bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• Does The Christian Century oppose all use of theatomic bomb as a weapon of war? Explain.

• What advantages might the alternative proposedby the article have had in ending World War II?

FOCUS ON GEOGRAPHY

Notice the locationsin Europe of Germandeath camps andlabor camps.

• Which country hadthe most laborcamps?

• Which country hadthe most deathcamps?

Connect to HistoryIn what year didmost of the deathcamps begin tooperate? Why?

THEME SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

THEME ECONOMICS

Battle/Conflict

Battle of BritainWar in the BalkansPearl HarborBattle of the Coral SeaBattle of MidwayBattle of Stalingrad

Allied or Axis Powers?

THEME EMPIRE BUILDING

CLASSZONE .COMTEST PRACTICEAdditional Test Practice,

pp. S1–S33

0 200 Miles

0 400 Kilometers

16°E

8°E

50°N

42°N

Adriatic Sea

BalticSea

NETH.

BELG.

LUX.

FRANCE

SWITZ.

CZECH.

AUSTRIA

YUGOSLAVIA

EASTPRUSSIA

POLANDGERMANY

LATVIA

Sachsenhausen, 1936Ravensbrück, 1936

Mauthausen, 1941

Jasenovac, 1941

Jadovno, 1941Sajmiste, 1941

Stutthof, 1939Neuengamme, 1940

Natzweiler1941 Dachau

1933

Bergen-Belsen1943

Buchenwald1937 Gross-Rosen

1941

Plaszow1938

Belzec1942

Sobibor1942

Treblinka1942Vught, 1943

Dora-Mittelbau, 1943

Flossenbürg1938

Theresienstadt1941

Auschwitz1940

Chelmno1941

Majdanek1942

Jungfernhof1942

Labor campDeath campDate foundedBorder, 1933

1942

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