Transcript Global Struggles

Global Struggles
Unit 7
1941 - 1960
America and World War II
The War Ends
Chapter 21 Section 5
The Third Reich Collapses
• The Battle of the Bulge
– Hitler decided to use one last offensive
– Germans moved rapidly and caught the Americans
by surprise and pushed the American lines
outward causing a bulge
– Patton rushed in to rescue the lines and began
attacking the Germans
– Germans were pushed back to the Germany and
the Allies finally entered Germany
The War Ends in Europe
• While the Allies were attacking Germany the
Soviets began pushing the Germans out of Russia
• Both sides are closing in on Berlin
• Knowing the end was near Hitler committed
suicide
• Eisenhower insisted on an unconditional
surrender
• Germany agreed to surrender
• V-E Day – Victory in Europe
Japan is Defeated
• Franklin Roosevelt died of a heart attack
before he saw Germany surrender
• Harry S Truman became president
– Faced with fighting the war against Japan
Japan is Defeated
• The Battle of Iwo Jima
– Perfectly located halfway between the Marianas
and Japan
– Geography was bad
• Southern tip was a dormant volcano
• Rocky cliffs and dozens of caves
– More than 6,800 marines were killed
– Iwo Jima is now in America’s hands
Japan is Defeated
• Firebombing Japan
– Bombs filled with napalm
• Jellied gasoline
• Designed to start fires
– Controversial because of innocent civilians that
were being killed during the raids
Japan is Defeated
• The Invasion of Okinawa
– Japan was still not ready to surrender
– America needed a base to prepare for an invasion
of Japan
– The Japanese hid throughout the mountains and
attacked the marines as they climbed the
mountains
• 12,000 Americans died
• Okinawa is now in America’s hands
Japan is Defeated
• The Terms for Surrender
– After Okinawa fell to the Allies the Japanese
Emperor urged the government to end the war
– Many Japanese leaders were willing to surrender
if they were allowed to keep the emperor in
charge
– Many Americans blamed the emperor for the war
– Truman did not want to go against public opinion
Japan is Defeated
• The Manhattan Project
– Afraid that the Germans were working on their
own version of the atomic bomb Albert Einstein
wrote a letter to FDR telling of an extremely
powerful bomb
– Roosevelt set up a committee to study the bomb
– New Mexico was the first site of the world’s first
atomic bomb test
Japan is Defeated
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
– Truman believed in was his duty as president to
use every weapon available to save American
Lives
– Allies threatened Japan with “prompt and utter
destruction” if they did not surrender
Japan is Defeated
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
– Little Boy
• Hiroshima
• Destroyed 63% of the city
• 80,000 and 120,000 people died instantly
– Fat Man
• Nagasaki
• 35,000 and 74,000 people
– V-J Day
• The emperor ordered the surrender of his country
Building a New World
• Creating the United Nations
– Before Roosevelt died he and representatives
from 39 countries met
• United Nations
• Every nation in the world would have one vote
• Security council with 11 members
– Britain, France, China, Soviet Union, and the United States
– Responsible for interntional peace and security
Building a New World
• Putting the Enemy on Trial
– August 1945
• United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union
created the International Military Tribunal held in
Nuremberg Germany
– Nuremberg Trials
• 22 Nazi leaders were prosecuted
– 3 were acquitted
– 7 prison sentences
– 12 were sentenced to death
Building a New World
• Nuremberg Trials
– War Crime trials punished many of the people
responsible for the war and the Holocaust but it
was part of the American plan for building a
better world