Transcript World War II - Reading High School

World War II
From Appeasement to Victory
Why did Japan see the United States as an enemy?
Why did the United States end its isolationist policy?
-The U.S. attempted to stop Japanese aggression
in Asia by banning the sale of war materials. This
hampered the Japanese expansion in Asia, which
angered Japan.
- The U.S. was directly attacked at Pearl Harbor
and declared war on Japan.
Q.O.D. #13 2/4/10
Yalta Conference
 Stalin wanted control of Eastern Europe, Churchill and
Roosevelt wanted self-determination
 Needed Stalin to help win the war
 Big Three agreed:
 USSR would enter the war against Japan after Germany
surrendered
 USSR would be given some territory in Asia
 Germany would be divided into four zones to be governed
by the USSR, Britain, U.S. and France
 Stalin agreed to hold free elections in Europe
War in Europe
 By early 1945 Nazi defeat was imminent
 Allies turned attention to Asia
 Nazis
 March 1945: Allies crossed the Rhine into western
Germany
 Soviets were closing in on Berlin
Elbe River
 In late April 1945, Americans advancing from the west
and Soviets coming from the east met at the Elbe River
in Germany
War in Europe
 Italy: Guerillas captured and killed Mussolini
 Germany: As the Soviets closed in on Berlin, Hitler
committed suicide in his bunker on April 30, 1945.
 May 7: Germany surrendered.
 May 8: V-E Day (Victory in Europe)
 Many factors contributed to Nazi defeat:
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Nazis had to fight on several fronts
Hitler made bad decisions
Underestimated the USSR
The productive capacity of the U.S.
War in Asia
 Japan controlled much of Southeast Asia by mid-1942.
 May 1942: Bataan Death March
 Japanese defeated the Allied troops at Bataan, and the
American Maj. King surrendered (against the orders of
Gen. MacArthur).
 72,000 prisoners were forced to march 61 miles and
endured random beatings and were denied food and
water.
 54,000 made it to Camp O’Donnell
War in Asia
 Coral Sea
 Midway
 Decisive victory for U.S.
 Superior communications
 Knew Japanese were coming and were ready
 Codebreakers
 Guadalcanal: beginning of “island-hopping” campaign
 Goal to recapture some Japanese held islands while
skipping others.
 Served as stepping stones to the next objective
Island Hopping in the Pacific
 U.S. forces in the
Pacific, led by General
Douglas MacArthur,
moved north toward
Japan
 U.S. Navy, led by
Admiral Chester
Nimitz, was blockading
Japan
 British were fighting
Japanese in Burma
and Malaya
Atomic Bomb
 Japanese would not surrender for any reason
 In 1944 Japanese introduced kamikazes
 Military planned invasion, but it would be costly
 Group of scientists had been working on the Manhattan
Project
 They could create the most powerful explosion ever
known by splitting atoms
 President Truman decided to use the bomb
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 August 6, 1945: American plane dropped an atomic
bomb on city of Hiroshima
 Instantly killed more than 70,000
 Japanese did not surrender
 August 8: USSR declared war on Japan
 August 9: Second bomb dropped on Nagasaki
 40,000 killed
 August 10: Japan surrendered
 September 2, 1945: formal peace treaty signed on USS
Missouri in Tokyo Bay