Transcript World War II, 1939 * 1945 The Home Front and the Aftermath of the

Objective: Analyze the causes and course of World
War II and evaluate it as the end of one era and the
beginning of another.
Mobilization (assembling & preparing
for war) had been most extensive

Soviet Union – Stalin called mobilization
a “battle of machines”
 Shipped factories to the Urals & Siberia
 Citizens experienced severe shortages of
food & housing
 Women served in combat as snipers & in
aircrews
Soviet Women Troops

U.S. – became the arsenal of the Allied
Powers
 Some social turmoil due to movement; racial
tension
 Japanese Americans were placed in internment
camps

Germany – Hitler’s economic policies may
have cost him the war
 Waited too late for total mobilization; did not fully utilize
women
 Albert Speer – minister for armaments, tripled production

Japan – highly mobilized but GEN Tojo
opposed female employment
Japanese Internment Camp
Japanese Internment Camp
Women in WW2
Women Roles in WW2
Bombing of cities – civilian population
centers became targets
Britain – the blitz (German air raids)
failed to break British morale
 Germany – firebombing of Dresden, Feb
1945; fought on stubbornly
 Japan – firebombing of Tokyo; atomic
bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Peace and a new conflict – the
Cold War
Tehran Conference – Nov 1943; Big Three – U.S., Britain,
& Soviets
 FDR, Churchill, & Stalin discussed final attack on
Germany

 Partition of postwar Germany along north-south line into East &
West

Yalta Conference – February 1945, Soviet resort on Black
Sea
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Insisted that Germany surrender unconditionally
Agreed to divide Germany & Berlin into four zones
Agreed to form United Nations; April 1945 in San Francisco
USSR to enter war against Japan in exchange for Sakhalin &
Kuriles
 Stalin agreed to free elections but wanted satellites as a buffer

Potsdam Conference – July 1945, in Germany
 Truman – demanded freely elected governments in
Eastern Europe
 Disagreements began to pull apart the wartime
alliance

Effects of the War – most destructive in history
 Casualties – 55 million people perished
 Nuremberg Trials tried Nazi leaders for “crimes
against humanity”
 U.S. & Soviet Union emerged as the two
“superpowers”
 Churchill – an “iron curtain” had “descended” across
Europe
 Start of Cold War – period of political tensions &
ideological conflict
Nuremberg Trials