Transcript world war ii - Brookdale Community College

WORLD WAR II
WAR AIMS
GERMANY
– Lebensraum
“living space in
Eastern Europe”
– European and
world domination
– Genocide “Final
Solution”

ITALY
– Control Adriatic,
E. Mediterranean
– Restore glory that
was Rome
– Domination over
North Africa
WAR AIMS

BRITAIN
– Preserve empire
– Defeat Hitler
– Protect British
global dominance

FRANCE
– Regain
sovereignty
– Defeat Hitler
– Preserve empire
– Restore French
honor
WAR AIMS

USSR
– Defend homeland
– Defeat Hitler
– Expand Soviet
power
– Expand
communism
UNITED STATES
(Changed as war
progressed)

– Keep out of war
(till Pearl Harbor)
– Defeat Hitler
– Unconditional
surrender
– Help Eur. preserve
empire
– Leadership of “Free
World”
WWII IN EUROPE
 Compare
with WWI (see chart)
 Role of the Soviet Union – “spoiler”
“savior” – invaded by Hitler, 1941
 1942-43 – Stalingrad, turning point
in Europe
 1943 – unconditional surrender
 1944 – D-Day, June 6
 V-E Day, May 8, 2004
HOLOCAUST
The Final Solution

Who authorized? What plans?
– Jan. 20, 1942 – Wannsee Protocol
– Planned “to cleanse German living space of Jews
in a legal manner”
– Hitler to Himmler – “Exterminate Jews as
partisans.”


What did Germans know and when did they
know it?
What did Am, British know, when did they
know it, and what did they do about it?
We Will Never Speak About It in Public
“We do not want, in the end, because we destroyed
a bacillus, to be infected by this bacillus and to
die. I will never stand by and watch while even a
small rotten spot develops or takes hold.
Whatever it may form we will together burn it
away. All in all, however, we can say that we have
carried out this most difficult of task in a spirit of
love for our people. And we have suffered no
harm to our inner being, our soul, our
character...”
Heinrich Himmler
The area beneath this lamp was the
site of Hitler’s bunker and his final
days.
The Reichstag Today
The Russians Liberating Berlin,
1945
Memorials to Victims of the Holocaust
WAR AIMS – Japan
Pacific War (15 year war)
1931-1945

Older vision
– Cooperate with West
– US the strength,
can’t preemptively
strike
– US leading trade
partner
– After Depression,
less popular
– No fear from USSR
after German
invasion

Newer vision
– Future belongs to
Germany and Japan
– Anti-Western attitudes
– ABCDFR encirclement.
– “Asia for the Asians”
– Greater East Asia CoProsperity Sphere
– 1931 - Manchuria
Pearl Harbor – The USS Arizona Memorial and The Missouri
Battleship
August 15, 2003
USS
ARIZONA
The USS Arizona Memorial Today
Tomb for the USS Arizona victims
Arizona Memorial – Oil still
seeps out of the hulk.
WHY PEARL HARBOR?
“I heard it on the radio”
“My blood boiled at the news”
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
THE PACIFIC THEATER
MIDWAY
FATAL MISCALCULATIONS
Germany will win war in Europe.
 America won’t fight in Asia over
China.
 Belief in own hype—see RGH #72, p.
301

“I am a patriot”
 War
with China – 1937
“Quagmire
PACIFIC WAR
 Greater
East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere
 1942 – Battle of Midway
 Island-hopping – MacArthur
 Kami-kazes “The Imperial Way”
 Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Why?
– “ultimate terror weapon”
– “An End and a Beginning”
NAGASAKI
JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC WAR
TOTAL WAR
 COLONIAL WAR
 RACE WAR
 BRUTAL AND DEVASTATING WAR
 UNRESOLVED WAR

– 15 YEAR WAR – recognizes J. aggression,
liberal view
– Greater East Asian War – what J. called
war during war, conservative view
– Pacific War – encouraged by US b/c
includes allies.
A Hiroshima Maiden’s Tale
“My clothes were burnt and so were my skin. I was
in rags. I had braided my hair, but now it was like
a lion’s mane. There were people, barely
breathing, trying to push their intestines back in.
People with their legs wrenched off. Without
heads. Or with faces burned and swollen out of
shape. The scene I saw was a living hell.”
- Yamaoka Michiko