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World War 2

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People of WW2

Allies vs. Axis Allies

Britain (Churchill) France (Charles de

Gaulle) USSR (Stalin) China (Kai-shek,

nationalists) US (FDR)

Axis Germany

(Hitler) Italy (Mussolini) Japan

(Yamamoto)

Charles de Gaulle =French general

After France fell, he committed to re-conquer France

Organized the Free French military forces that battled the Nazis until France was liberated in 1944

Often arrogant, declared, “I am France”

Upset many Allied leader

Winston Churchill =prime minister

of Great Britain Declared “We shall never

surrender!” Strong opposed of Nazi

Germany His speeches & radio

broadcasts gave confidence to the British people

Battle of Britain

Isoroku Yamamoto =Japanese Admiral Greatest Japanese naval

strategist Called for the attack on Pearl

Harbor after FDR cut off oil supplies to Japan

Douglas MacArthur =US commander of

the Allied forces in the Pacific Devised the plan of “island hopping”

to regain Japanese strongholds Following the surrender of Japan after

the dropping of the atomic bombs, MacArthur helped occupy Japan to restore order

Erwin Rommel =German General

When Britain took a strong hold in Italy’s North African colonies, Rommel was sent it as help from Germany (Axis ally)

British were surprised and were kicked back to Libya- the battle winners went back & forth until Rommel finally won in 1942

His success gave him the nick name “Desert Fox”

Bernard Montgomery =British General

Sent to take control of British forces in North Africa

Battle of El Alamein= British frontal assault to the Germans in Africa; British won

Dwight D. Eisenhower = US General

Led Allied forces (mostly Americans) to regain North Africa- “Operation Torch”

Later will become President

Joseph Stalin & Soviet Union

Russia Soviet Union, 1922, communist state

Lenin dies in 1924 Stalin takes power

Stalin Stalin means “man of steel”

Goal: Create a model communist state

Goal: Move Russia from a rural industrial state

All economic activity was placed under the government’s control

By 1937, the Soviet Union became the world’s second-largest industrial power

Stalin Stalin eliminated anyone

that stood in his way

Stalin is estimated to be responsible for 8 to 13 million deaths (total is not known)

AND millions more died from a result of famine when reconstructing the Soviet Union

Stalin

Totalitarian Government= government that

exerts complete control over its citizens.

Individuals have no rights

Government suppresses all opposition

Fascism in Italy Benito Mussolini and

totalitarian government in Italy

Mussolini appealed to Italy’s wounded national pride and strikes by workers

“Italy wants peace, work, and calm. I will give these things with love I possible,

with force if necessary.” Benito Mussolini

Fascism

Fascism= stressed nationalism

and places the interests of the state above those of individuals

Power must rest with the strong single leader and a small group of his devoted followers

Mussolini

Mussolini marches on Rome with his followers (“Black Shirts”) and eventually the Italian King appointed Mussolini head of the government

IL Duce- “the leader”

The Nazis Take Over Germany

Born: April 20, 1889 in Austria-Hungary

Poor student who never completed high school

He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, but was rejected

He was convinced that it was a Jewish professor that had rejected his art work; he became convinced that a Jewish doctor had been responsible for his mother’s death; he cleared the snow-bound paths of beautiful town houses in Vienna where rich people lived and he became convinced that only Jews lived in these homes. By 1910, his mind had become warped and his hatred of the Jews - known as anti-Semitism - had become set.

Hitler served in WWI

In 1919 he joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) Didn’t believe in Democracy or failed Capitalism of the West

Want to distribute wealth more equally

Adolf Hitler

After WW1, Hitler was a jobless soldier

1919, he joined the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party aka Nazi Party (had no ties to Socialism)

He was a powerful speaker and organizer that he became the party’s leader

In 1923, Hitler led in uprising in Munich against the Weimar Republic

Imprisoned for 8 months (sentenced to 5 years)

Mein Kampf

Hitler’s book, “My Stuggle,” set forth his basic beliefs of Nazism that became his plan of action

1933, The legislature anointed Hitler dictator, der Fuhrer

Soon he declared all labor unions and political parties illegal except his own

Established the Gestapo= powerful police force

Nazism

Nazism= German brand of fascism Extreme nationalism United all German-speaking people in a great

German empire

Nazi Ideology

Anti-Semitism

Nationalism

Militarism

Anti-communism

“Purification”

Enforce racial “purification”

In his view, Germans (especially blue-eyed, blond-haired “Aryans”)- formed a “master race”

“Inferior Races”= Jews, Slavs, and all nonwhites, were only fit to serve Aryans

Hitler believed that for Germany to thrive

Germans needed more “living space” even if that meant getting that land by force

Because of Germany’s economic depression after WW1, Hitler had an easy time getting men to join the army (Why?- needed jobs)

Hitler’s private army= Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts

By 1932, Nazis had become the strongest political party in Germany

In 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor (prime minister)

Hitler soon dismantled Germany’s democratic government and established the Third Reich (Third German Empire) and this Reich would last 1,000 years

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Battles & Attacks

The Battle of Britain

Germans attacked Britain by air (Germany knew they couldn’t compete with their navy)

For 2 months, Germans bombed Britain everyday

RAF (Britain’s Royal Air Force) fought back and with the help of the radar, Germany eventually called off their invasion

Churchill said in praise of the

RAF pilots, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Japan Hideki Tojo- chief of

Japan’s army, launched invasion of China

British were too busy with Hitler to block Japanese expansion

Only the US and its Pacific islands remained in the way

Japan took over bases in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

US protested by cutting off trade with Japan

Japan couldn’t survive without the oil from the US….this meant war

Peace Talks are Questioned

Tojo met with emperor Hirohito and promised that their government would attempt to preserve peace with Americans

But, Tojo ordered the navy to prepare for an attack on the US

Hints of an Attack

US military broke Japan’s secret communication codes and learned Japan was preparing for an attack.

US didn’t know where attack would be

FDR sent “war warnings” to Hawaii, Guam and Philippines

US didn’t want to attack and thus waited for an overt act

Japan denied any talks of peace treaties

Pearl Harbor

6 Japanese aircraft carriers, 180 air bombers

Radio operator flashed this message, “Air raid on Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill.”

For an hour and a half, the Japanese planes attacked without disturbance of US

Americans killed: 2,403

Wounded: 1,178

Ships Sunk/Damaged: 21, 8 Battleships

Pearl Harbor had more losses than in all of WW1

Pearl Harbor

Reaction to Pearl Harbor

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date with will live in infamy, the Japanese launched an unprovoked and dastardly attack.”-FDR

US declared war on Japan

Germany and Italy declared war on US

Battle of Midway Midway= island that lies

northwest of Hawaii

Americans broke the Japanese code and knew they were attacking Midway

Allied forces attacked Japanese before they could even get planes off their carriers

Seen as revenge of Pearl Harbor

This battle was a turning point

Allies then began “island hopping” and gaining back island after island of lost territory back from the Japanese and moving toward Japan

Guadalcanal Japanese troops arrived

on Guadalcanal (located in the Solomon Islands) to construct an air base Taken the the US marines Became a turning point in the

war Strategically it was important

was a communication point between the US & Australia

Battle of Stalingrad

Germans were attacking Soviet Union

Stalingrad= major industrial center, and a city that Hitler wanted to wipe out

Citizens wanted to abandon the city, but Stalin ordered that they defend his namesake city no matter what

By the next winter, Germans controlled 9/10 of the city

During winter Soviets brought in fresh tanks and trapped the Germans

Starving Germans surrendered

Soviets lost 1,100,000 soldiers (more than the Americans in the entire war) defending Stalingrad

From then on, Soviets took control and moved west

D-Day 3 million British, American and Canadian

troops

Attack at Normandy in northern France

Code Name: Operation Overlord

June 6, 1944

Shortly after midnight, thousands landed

Largest land-sea-air operation in army history

D-day German retaliation brutal,

especially on Omaha Beach

“People were yelling, screaming, dying, running on the beach, equipment was flying everywhere, men were bleeding to death, crawling, lying everywhere, firing coming from all directions…We dropped down behind anything that was the size of a golf ball.” –soldier Felix Branham

D-Day (FDR Prayer)

D-Day Footage

The Battle of the Bulge

=Hitler’s last ditch effort on the offensive

SS Germans soldiers pushed forward

Captured 120 GI’s and shot them down in a huge field

Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and 1,600 planes-soldiers and weapons they could not replace

From this point on, the Nazis could do little but retreat

Battle of the Bulge Footage

Band of Brothers: Battle of the Bulge, Hospitals

Japanese Defense

Kamikaze= suicide planes (word means “divine winds” and refers to a legendary typhoon that saved Japan in 1281 from a Mongol invasion)

The Manhattan Project =Led by scientist, J. Robert

Oppenheimner

=development of the atomic bomb

More than 600,000 people were working on it, but many did not know what it was for (“best kept secret of the war”)

Tested in New Mexico in July of 1945

IT WORKED!

The Manhattan Project Truman now faced the decision…to use the atomic bomb

or not

US warned Japanese that it faced “prompt and utter destruction” unless it surrendered…it did not.

President Truman choose the location of the bomb droppings

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Bomber, Enola Gay, released an

atomic bomb, coded Little Boy, over Hiroshima (Japanese military center) 45 seconds later, nearly every

building in Hiroshima ceased to exist

Japan did not surrender

3 days later, a second bomb, code-named, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki By the end of the year, 200,000

Japanese had died as a result of injuries and radiation

Yamaoka Michiko:

“They say temperature of 7,000 degrees centigrade hit me…Nobody there looked like human beings…Humans had lost the ability to speak. People couldn’t scream, ‘it hurts!’ even when they were on fire…People with their legs wrenched off. Without heads. Or with faces burned or swollen out of shape. The scene I saw was a living hell.”

Japanese Surrender

September 2, 1945

Surrender ceremonies took place on the US battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay

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Political Move & Techniques

Nonaggression Pact =signed 10 year

agreement between USSR (Stalin) and Nazi Germany (Hitler) Signed because Stalin was not

happy about not being invited to conferences with the west

In a secret agreement they decided to divide Poland between them.

Also agreed that the USSR could take over: Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia

Blitzkrieg in Poland Germany storms Poland

Germany’s newest military

strategy, blitzkrieg, or lightning war (fast tanks, powerful aircraft, take enemy by surprise and then quickly crush the opposition)

2 days after the attack on Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany

Atlantic Charter

Atlantic Charter= promises between Churchill & FDR (collective security, disarmament, economic cooperation and freedom of seas)

FDR said he couldn’t ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany, but that he would do everything to “force an incident”

The Holocaust Persecution Begins

Hitler’s first move: ordered all “non-Aryans” to be removed from government jobs

Holocaust= the systematic murder of 11 million people across Europe, more than ½ of whom were Jews

Jews Targeted

Anti-Semitism= hatred of Jews, had a long history in many European countries

For many decades, Germans blamed Jews for everything

Nuremberg Laws= stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs and property

Stars of David To make them easier to identify, Jews had to

wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothing

Kristallnacht

=“Night of Broken Glass”

Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany

Many were killed or arrested

Later, the Nazis blamed the Jews for the destruction

A Flood of Jewish Refugees

Many Jews fled and became refugees but they had no place to go

France would only accept 40,000, Britain, 80,000 refugees

Many countries feared what would happened if they let Jewish refugees in.

The US let in 100,000 refugees, but many Americans were fearful that the immigrants would hurt the economy more during the Great Depression (ie: Albert Einstein led it)

Plight of the St. Louis

Coast guard refused to let this German ocean liner (filled with Jewish refugees) stop in America and forced them to return to Europe.

Later, ½ of these passengers were killed in the Holocaust

Significance: Indifference (not caring) about the plight of the Jews

Hitler’s “Final Solution” “Final Solution”= a

policy of genocide, the deliberate and systematic killing of an entire population

The Condemned

“Master Race”= Aryans

“Inferior Race”= Communists Socialists Liberals Homosexuals Gypsies Jews Anyone who spoke out against the Nazi government Mentally deficient and ill, physically disabled, incurably ill Freemasons (supporters of the “Jewish conspiracy” to rule

the world) Jehovah’s Witnesses (who refused to join the army or

salute Hitler)

SS

Rounded up Jewish men, woman and children and shot them on the spot

Nazi death squads “secret squadrons”

Forced Relocation

Forced in crowded

ghettos (segregated Jewish areas in certain Polish cities)

Nazis sealed off ghettos with barbed wire and stone walls

Conditions were hard inside Bodies of victims pilled in

the streets Forced to work in factories

Concentration Camps

=labor camps

Originally used for political opponents and protesters, but later turned over to the SS

Crowded in barracks, meager meals, rats and flees, worked from dawn to dusk

If you were too weak, you were killed

“The brute Schmidt was our guard; he beat and kicked us if he thought we were not working fast enough. He ordered his victims to lie down and gave them 25 lashes with a whip, ordering them to count outloud. If the victim made a mistake he was given 50 lashes…30 or 40 of us were shot every day. A doctor usually prepared a daily list o the weakest men. During the lunch break they were taken to a nearby grave and shot. They were replaced the following morning by new arrivals from the transport of the day…It was a miracle if anyone survived for 5 or 6 months in Belzec.” –Rudolf Reder

The Final Stage Mass murder:

slaughter, starvation and now murder by poison gas

Gas Chambers: could kill 12,000 a day

Overwork, starvation, beating and bullets did not kill fast enough

Arriving at the Camps

When prisoners arrived, doctors determined whether they were strong enough to work or not

Personal belongings were collected, promised that they would be returned later

Showers Weak were told to

undress and go to the “showers” (gas chambers)

Prisoners were even given a bar of soap as part of the deception

Poisoned with cyanide gas that came from the vents in the walls

Orchestras of fellow camp inmates were usually played during exterminations

Evidence of Mass Murder Graves were being filled too fast

Smell of murder

Huge crematoriums, or ovens, to hide the evidence

Holocaust

The Survivors 6 Million died

Some able to live through the concentration camps

Survivors were forever changed by what they witnessed

“Survival is both an exalted privilege an a painful burden.” Gerda Klein

Liberation of Death Camps

Internment of Japanese Americans

After Pearl Harbor, prejudice increased against Japanese Americans

War Department called for a mass evacuation of Japanese from Hawaii

Internment= confinement

Any of Japanese ancestry from California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona were sent to relocation camps

Internment of Japanese Americans Many had to sell their homes for less than

they were worth

Jobs lost

Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) pushed the government to compensate those sent to the camps (only 1/1o of $ lost was given)

JACL kept pushing and in 1978, Reagan signed a bill giving $20,000 to every Japanese American sent to relocation camp

With the check came a letter from President Bush (1990) that said, “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during WW2.”

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Effects/End of War/Treaty

Displaced People/Survivors = included survivors of the

concentration camps, prisoners of war, and refugees All of them found themselves

in wrong countries when postwar treaties changed national borders

Many wandered in hopes of finding their families and/or a safe place to live

Conditions in Europe Postwar

Destroyed land

Agriculture destroyed

Transportation systems destroyed

Famine & disease

The Nuremberg War Trials With the discovery of the

death camps, many Nazi leaders were put on trial (called Nuremberg Trials)

Following Crimes Crimes against the peace- planning and

waging an aggressive war War Crimes- acts against the customs of

warfare, such as killing of hostages and prisoners, plundering private property and the destruction of towns and cities

Crimes Against Humanity- the murder, extermination, deportation, or enslavement of civilians

RESULT: the excuse “I was just following orders” did not matter, and that people are responsible for their actions, even during war

German General Speaks to his men after WW2 ends:

Occupation of Japan

US forces occupied Japan under General Douglas MacArthur (for 7 years)

Many Japanese military leaders were tried, some, including Tojo, were sentenced to death

MacArthur instituted a free-market economy and transformed the Japanese government, including the Japanese Constitution (which is still known as the MacArthur Constitution)

Demilitarize & Democratize

Demilitarize= disbanding the Japanese armed forces, leaving them only a small police force

Democratize= creating a government by the people, new constitution

*MacArthur was not instructed to revive the economy