Transcript Chapter 37 WWII

Origins of WWII
 Although the official starting date for WWII is usually
given as September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded
Poland, or even December 7, 1941 when Japan bombed
Pearl Harbor, the origins of the war were already clear
when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
 Throughout the 1930s, the world was dividing into two
camps:
 The Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan
 The Allied Powers Great Britain, Russia, France, China,
the United States, and its Latin American allies
Origins of WWII
 Japan’s War in China
 Japanese began full scale invasion of China in 1937
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Extremely brutal
1937 “Rape of Nanjing”
 400,ooo Chinese killed in unimaginable ways
 Perhaps the most gruesome example of brutal tied to ideas of
racial superiority the world has ever seen.
750,000 Japanese occupied China until 1945
 Constantly harassed by Mao Zedong’s communist Guerilla
fighters.
 Communists won popularity with Chinese peasantry as a
result, leading to the communist takeover after WWII.
Origins of WWII
 Italian and German Aggression
 Italy
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1935-1936 – Mussolini took over Libya and Ethiopia
1939 – Took over Albania
 Germany
 Hitler came to power in 1933, and completely disregarded the terms
of the Treaty of Versailles
 Built up German Military
 1938 – Took over Austria
 1939 – Took over Czechoslovakia and Poland
 Signed Russian-German Treaty of Nonaggression the same year
 Appeasement
 Britain and France did nothing in response for fear of starting
another world war.
Total War: The World Under Fire
 Even more than the Great War, WWII would involve
nations on every continent.
 Only 11 out of nearly 200 countries in the world
avoided direct involvement in WWII.
Total War: The World Under Fire
 Blitzkrieg: Germany Conquers Europe
 Blitzkrieg – Lightning War
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Panzer tanks
Unterseebootes (U-Boats)
Luftwaffe
 1939 – Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France fell
rapidly to the Blitzkrieg
 Battle of Britain
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Luftwaffe vs. British Royal Air Force
 Air Battle that resulted in British victory and Germany’s first
defeat
 Germany then turned their attention to the Balkans and
beyond in Eastern Europe.
Total War: The World Under Fire
 The German Invasion of the Soviet Union
 Operation Barbarossa June 1941
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Germany broke the nonaggression pact and invaded the
Soviet Union
Initially the Russians were taken by surprise, but with the help
of Allied supplies and a harsh Russian winter the German
advances were halted in December 1941.
Total War: The World Under Fire
 Battles in Asia and the Pacific
 1940 – Japanese invaded French Indochina in brutal
fashion
 U.S. responded by placing an oil embargo on Japan
 Japan responded with an attack on the U.S. Naval Base at
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
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U.S. joined the war on the side of the Allies
Japan enjoyed a series of rapid victories throughout the
Pacific.
Total War: The World Under Fire
 Defeat of the Axis Powers
 The additional personnel reserves and industrial
capacity which accompanied Soviet and United States
entry into the war were the keys to Allied victory in Asia
and in Europe
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Battle of Stalingrad – 1943
D-Day Invasion – June 6, 1944
 Meant Germany had to fight a two front war
 Outmanned and out-resourced, German resistance collapsed
on all fronts.
 Germany unconditionally surrendered on May 8, 1945
Total War: The World Under Fire
 Victory in the Pacific
 Battle of Midway – June 1942 major turning point
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“MAGIC” – Breaking of the Japanese codes
 Island Hopping campaign ensued
 Capture islands moving gradually closer to Japan to launch airstrikes
on the Japanese main land.
 Iwo Jima and Okinawa – Islands close to the Japanese mainland on
which fighting was particularly intense
 Extreme resistance and refusal to surrender lead to massive
Japanese military and civilian casualties
 Atomic Bombs and Japanese Surrender
 Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945
 Japanese unconditionally surrendered on September 2, 1945
Life During Wartime
 The home front was not a safe place during WWII.
 Widespread bombing, brutal occupation, and the use of
concentration and relocation camps meant that in this
total war, civilian lives lost far outnumbered military
casualties.
Life During Wartime
 Occupation, Collaboration, and Resistance
 The goal of occupation was to exploit the resources of
the lands for Axis benefit, regardless of the impact on
the conquered peoples.
 Resistance movements took many forms in all occupied
areas
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Sabotage, espionage, assassinations, and armed assaults were
common.
Life During Wartime
 The Holocaust
 By the end of WWII, the Nazi regime and its accomplices had
annihilated more than twelve million people.
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Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, physically and mentally
handicapped, and anyone else deemed undesirable.
Final Solution
 1942 – All remaining European Jews under German control were
rounded up and sent to death / concentration camps where they
were either systematically executed or worked to death.
 Resistance did occur, but many Jews were eliminated until the
concentration camps were liberated after the Allied victory in
Europe.
Life During Wartime
 Women and the War
 Many women on the side of Allies played vital roles
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Filled vital jobs in the industrial workplace
 Rosie the Riveter
Nurses and clerical help
 Japanese Women
 Much less empowering and ennobling roles
 As many as 300,000 women from Taiwan, Manchuria, and
most frequently Korea were enslaved as “comfort women” for
Japanese soldiers.
 Many died but the ones who survived faced deep shame,
attempting to hide their past from their families.
Neither Peace Nor War
 The two strongest powers emerging after World War II
were the Soviet Union and the United States, each
seeking to create a sympathetic world, a system of
aligned nations, and world hegemony
 At least 60 million people perished in WWII and
millions more were displaced.
 Rebuilding Europe would be both a difficult and
expensive task
 United Nations formed in an attempt to assist in and
protect this process
Neither Peace Nor War
 Cold War
 Period of political, economic, and military tension
Soviet Union and U.S.A. that lasted nearly 50 years.
 Splitting of Europe
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East Europe – Communist control by the Soviet Union
West Europe – Democratic governments allied with U.S.
IRON CURTAIN FORMED
 Truman Doctrine
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Containment of Communism
Marshall Plan – Aid package to Western Europe